Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has today changed the outlook on the Government of Costa Rica's ratings to negative from stable. Concurrently, Moody's has affirmed Costa Rica's B2 long-term issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings. The negative outlook reflects Costa Rica's increased funding risks due to higher borrowing requirements resulting from pandemic-related economic and fiscal sh...

This past week’s escalating violence across the USA from “sea to shining sea” will be the last straw for thousands, perhaps millions of retirees and affluent singles and families sick and tired of the current multi-faceted problems facing America -- they will pull up stakes searching for somewhere else to live and enjoy a peaceful life. High on that list of possibilities is Costa Rica. Without ...

Monday, June 1st, Costa Rica enters phase three of its sanitary measures, these will be in place through June 19 and will apply for the entire country. More businesses will be allowed to operate, especially on the weekends For now, the daily and nightly vehicular transit restrictions remain the same for weekdays and weekends based upon license plate numbers. Hotels and lodging facilities in ...

The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica provided the daily update this Saturday, May 30 of Covid-19 cases, confirming 1,047 cases in the country, out of which 658 have already recovered, and 379 remain active. The country registers at this point 10 deaths, while 17,686 people have tested negative for the virus. 15 people remain hospitalized and 4 of them in the intensive care unit. Costa Rica’s...

Those Crazy Kids! New Yorkers Matt Robertson (31) and Khani Le (29) met on the dating app Hinge, hit it off, and decided to have their third date in Costa Rica. They anticipated their trip would last for five days – but are now into their 75th day – yet technically still only on their third date. The couple took advantage in early March of the airlines’ reduced ticket prices, not aware of th...

Costa Rica’s Immigration Police (Policia Profesional de Migracion, PPM) have arrested a Swiss citizen by the name of Heinz Augsburguer for swindle and other nonviolent crimes – all while using the stolen identity of Polish citizen Grzegorz Bugaj. Augsburguer has been living in San Jose since 2014, under the assumed name of Bugaj, and has opened bank accounts, credit cards, created sociedades anoni...

By Laura Gutierrez of Immigration Help Costa Rica The Pandemic situation has some of you intrepid types thinking about a more tranquil, warm, and safe country in which to live. As one who once immigrated abroad with a toddler in tow, I understand the burning need for realistic and meaningful information. Hopefully, this will help you move beyond dreams into action. Costa Rica boasts a very low...

(Photo: Archive) Back on May 16 the Costa Rican Government announced its decision to limit the entry of foreign cargo drivers to the country with the purpose of preventing borders from eventually becoming an area of transmission of Covid-19. Before this Presidential decree Costa Rica was testing all cargo drivers for Covid-19 before entering the country, situation that was causing delays with ...

This Tuesday, May 27 Costa Rica registered 28 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 for a total of 984 patients, 461 women and 523 men out of which 804 are Costa Rica and 180 are foreigners. Out of the 28 new cases reported today, 18 were already in preventive isolation due to a sanitary order. 21 are national citizens and 7 are foreigners. 639 people have successfully recovered and currently 12 pe...

Costa Rica had the very first confirmed COVID-19 case in Central America on March 6. Yet this tiny country has since managed to out distance other countries internationally in the fight to protect its population against this pandemic. Costa Rica has the lowest mortality rate from COVID in all Latin America. Just think how amazing that is. They have received praise for their success against the vir...

Two women will be the first same sex couple to get married in Costa Rica on May 26 when it will be finally legal in the country. The wedding will be broadcasted live by Trece Costa Rica Televisión (Channel 13) and also through social media. According to Gia Miranda, executive director of the campaign Sí Acepto Costa Rica (I Do Costa Rica), the original idea was to have a big celebration, how...

The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica reminded citizens that if you have a hotel reservation for hotels that are now authorized to operate, which are hotels with a maximum of 20 rooms, you will not get fined for circulating on the day if you have a vehicle restriction. Having proof of the valid reservation handy is enough for the transit police to make the exemption, as long as you are circulati...

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) informed that the owners of cars which plates end on 5 or 6 will have an additional month to comply with the technical inspection (RITEVE). This resolution was already signed by Minister Rodolfo Méndez Mata, who explained that it is part of the measures adopted by MOPT and the Costa Rican Road Safety Council (COSEVI) to normalize the assist...

As of Saturday May 24th Costa Rica registered 918 confirmed cases of Covid-19. This number includes 425 women and 493 men, out of which 757 are Costa Rican and 161 are foreigners. 607 people are already recovered, and 15,093 have been tested and discarded. 15 patients remain hospitalized out of them, 4 are in intensive care including a 27-year-old. The Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, expla...

Costa Rican Nadia Reiman has won the first ever Pulitzer Prize given for audio journalism for her ground-breaking ‘’The Out Crowd” episode of the radio show "This American Life". Her work was described by the New York Times as “revelatory, intimate journalism that illuminates the personal impact of the Trump administration's Remain in Mexico policy”, with heart-breaking details of life in refugee ...

President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, signed the Law that now declares December 1st as a National Holiday in commemoration of the Abolition of the Army in the country. This modifies Article 148 of the Labor Code, making December 1st an unpaid legal holiday, replacing October 12th (Columbus Day or Cultures’ Day). October 12 would only remain as an unpaid holiday for the central county of...

AERIS Holdings, administrator of the Juan Santamaria International Airport in Costa Rica released the following updated information regarding the operation of the different airlines in the country under the current pandemic Covid-19: AEROMEXICO: operations suspended until further notice. AIR CANADA: will resume operations in July. AIR FRANCE: operations suspended until further notice. AIR PA...

Through May 20, Costa Rica registers 15 new cases of Covid-19 for a total 897 confirmed cases, involving 414 women and 483 men. However, 582 of these patients are already recovered. On Monday the number of new cases informed by the Ministry of Health was of 16. “We had an important curve that began mid-March, we applied the sanitary measures and people began to understand the importance of soci...

Back on 2018 the Constitution Court in Costa Rica had pronounced itself on same sex marriage in the country and domestic partnership between same sex couples declaring unconstitutional the articles that forbidden same sex marriage, the Court also adhered to the advisory opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights which stated that same sex couples should be recognized and guaranteed. Th...

In Costa Rica, the main asset for most people is still real estate (Property). Productive farms, raw land suitable for development, lots, houses, buildings, tourist buildings and similar are negotiated, developed, transferred, mortgaged, and given in trust on a daily basis. This in turn generates legal conflicts of all kinds: claims for breach of contracts, boundaries, access, unmatching cadaster ...

Carolina Vargas, a Costa Rican who has worked as an Uber driver in Tennessee for a pair of years, barely survived an assault from an Uber client. Vargas (26) drives a black 2011 Ford Explorer, yet was found by a Good Samaritan on the side of the road, injured, dazed, bleeding profusely, and missing three teeth – but alive after having saved herself by jumping out of her moving car. The car was gon...

Costa Rica will become the 38th member state of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); the formal accession agreement will be signed in the upcoming days. “We are delighted to welcome Costa Rica to the OECD family at a time when multilateralism is more important than ever,” the group’s secretary-general, Angel Gurria, said in a statement. Costa Rica will be the firs...

Costa Rica has now registered 10 deaths due to Covid-19 Coronavirus, the tenth victim was a 73-year-old male who in addition to his age had high blood pressure and an aortic valve cardiopathy. The patient was diagnosed back on April 25 and had remained hospitalized since that date. In total 9 men and 1 woman that have been diagnosed with Covid-19 have passed away with ages ranging from 45 to 87...

By Laura Gutierrez of Immigration Help Costa Rica Well, no big surprise here, but never the less frustrating and stressful. The line in the sand just got moved again. The Department of Immigration has long been scheduled to open this coming Monday, May 18. But the news today is that the "Open to the public and legal representatives" date has now been moved way out to July 18. Obviously, anyo...

Through Friday, May 15, Costa Rica registered 13 new cases of Covid-19 for a total 843 confirmed cases, this number made up of by 384 women and 459 men, 712 Costa Rican and 131 foreigners. 542 people are already recovered and 12,260 have tested negative. On Friday May 15th the country registered the ninth death of a Covid-19 positive patient. This time the deceased is 58-year-old women who was...

In August 2018, Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court voted to legalize gay marriage, making Costa Rica the first country in Central America to recognize the right of same sex couples to marry. The ruling is supposed to take effect in ten days on May 26th, a deadline which brought members of the National Liberation Party (PLN) into a brief fist fight on Tuesday. Enrique Sanchez, Costa Rica’s first ...

A 75-year-old man that had tested positive for Covid-19 back on April 8th is the eighth registered death in the country due to Covid-19. The man was hospitalized on April 8th and was transferred to intensive care on April 14th, he had tested negative for the virus on May 7th but unfortunately died on May 13th. The Ministry of Health confirmed that in addition to his advanced age, had high blood...

James Allen Honer and his fiancée Bianca Mena Sibaja were well on their way to planning their dream wedding, when suddenly their family and friends stopped hearing from them. On May 3rd, their charred bodies were found by firemen putting out a fire on a nearby mango farm in Atenas, Alajuela. Honer (77), was an American retired lawyer, and Bianca (30), was a Tica student – a fantasy romance that...

As of May 11 Costa Rica has a total of 801 confirmed cases of Coronavirus, 277 of them are still active, 517 recovered, and 7 deceased. As the government continues to implement sanitary measures to prevent an uncontrolled global outbreak, it also announced changes for the sanitary restrictions that are in place. The Government of Costa Rica has announced the plan to gradually re-engage  economi...

The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica confirmed the death of another patient that had tested positive for Covid-19. This is the seventh death registered in the country. In this case the deceased is an 80 year old man who was hospitalized at the Enrique Baltodano Hospital in Liberia, Guanacaste on May 9th. The man was a foreigner who lived in Alajuela, he had underlying health conditions such as ...

Authorities had predicted a lower murder rate in Costa Rica for the year 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Costa Rica is honoring stay-at-home orders by the government, vehicular restrictions, many businesses closed or with limited shop hours, diminished public transportation, fewer people in the streets, compliance with social distancing, and a robust police presence in public areas. Yet betwee...

The Government of Costa Rica will announce on Monday, May 11, the plan to gradually re-engage  economic activities and begin the road back to “normalcy”. “We will reopen economic activities subject to a strict surveillance of sanitary protocols. We will extend the vehicular restriction first. We will open for national tourism, hotels, national parks, commerce, restaurants, theaters and movie th...

The Ministry of Public Security announced that current border restrictions prohibiting foreigners from entering Costa Rica have been extended through June 15, only Costa Ricans will be able to enter the country. As we have informed in previous articles, tourists who entered the country after December 17 have been granted an extension of stay until July 17, driving privileges have also been exte...

By Laura Gutierrez of Immigration Help Costa Rica Based on many recent communications from clients stuck outside or inside Costa Rica, it seems that the most common ailment out there is Cabin Fever. The #1 request is about the lifting of travel restrictions in or out of Costa Rica. It is interesting and very telling that those “stuck” in Costa Rica seem more comfortable with that situation than...

Two months have passed since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Costa Rica. As of May 6th the country reports 761 confirmed cases out of which 428 have already recovered. 9,412 people have tested negative. Six patients have died and as of today 18 people are hospitalized out of which five are in the intensive care unit. Daniel Salas, Minister of Health, referred today to the strategy t...

Through May 4th the number of patients positive with Covid-19 in Costa Rica was of 742 according to the update provided by the Ministry of Health. 339 people are now recovered, however, 17 remain hospitalized and 5 of them in the intensive care unit. The Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, insisted that the population cannot let the guard down, even though the curve of transmissions has been s...

In this challenging time of people having to hunker down in their homes due to the novel coronavirus, Netflix has served up a delightfully weird true story of Joe Exotic a outrageously flaboyant big cat animal park owner and Carole Baskin an American woman who allegedly killed her husband before he could leave her to move to Costa Rica. Carole's late husband Don Lewis has never been found and no b...

This Saturday May 2nd The Costa Rican firefighters needed to battle the largest fire in the past ten years, a storage facility belonging the company Empaques Santa Ana located in El Coyol, Alajuela that started burning this afternoon. The 22,400 square meter (241,111 square ft.) facility was entirely entirely and required the presence of over 100 firefighters and 17 units that continued to batt...

Costa Rican authorities seized a shipment of cocaine that was thrown into the ocean. The operation was carried out Friday May 1st as part of a joint patrolling between the Costa Rican and the USA coast guard services 72 nautical miles south of Quepos in the province of Puntarenas. In total the authorities confiscated 433 packages of cocaine with an approximate weight of 1 kilogram with a street...

The Ministry of Health confirmed during the daily press conference this Saturday, May 2, a total of 735 cases of Covi-19 positive patients. This number includes 351 women and 382 men, 657 are Costa Rican while 76 are foreigners. There are positive cases in 62 out of the 82 counties in the 7 provinces. By age there are 655 adults, 38 senior citizens and 40 minors A total 8,932 people have tes...