Source: Jabad Lubavitch On a sunny and pleasant Sunday afternoon, the Jabad (Chabad) Lubavitch of Costa Rica celebrated the Januka Fiesta de las Luces (Hanukkah Festival of Light) with a very special activity for children in the loveable city of San Jose. The event took place at the elegant Avenida Escazu, and it was filled with fun, learning, and spirituality.   In addition to the ...

Source: Tigo CR Tigo Star, one of the largest providers of cable television, broadband Internet and virtual telephony services in Costa Rica, has tendered an application before the Superintendence of Telecommunications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL), to acquire the assets and subscribers of Telecable, a residential and business provider that has a significant presence in the provinces of Alajuela, S...

Source: JPS A cherished holiday tradition in Costa Rica consists of participating in the madness of the Gordo Navideño, which roughly translates into “Christmas Fat Cat Lottery.” For this holiday season, the jackpot prize of the lottery in Costa Rica paid a cool $10.5 million for whoever held an entero (whole lottery bill), which can be purchased on a fractional basis since each lotto bill hol...

A draconian situation in Costa Rica was recently reported by Jimena Soto of online news daily CRHoy.com, and it involves a denial of public health care to a foreign woman who is pregnant with the child of her husband of four years, who happens to be a Costa Rican citizen.   According to the news report, the husband of the Nicaraguan woman who was summarily denied benefits by La Caja,  C...

Church in Downtown Grecia The Grecia canton of the province of Alajuela is located in the northwestern edge of Costa Rica’s Central Valley. Although it is technically part of the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish initials: GAM), this canton is removed from the chaos that the lovable city of San Jose is often derided for. Over the past few years, a quiet expat community has been se...

Failure to report income from business operations or from professional services rendered through self-employment activities in Costa Rica could result in up to $80K in penalties. Not all business owners or self-employed professionals are potentially affected by this fine; only those who acquired goods up to $5K in value or who rendered a professional service worth more than $100 throughout the tax...

Link Bubble is a mobile Web browser that lets users escape the tyranny of ridiculously slow load times and dropped wireless signals that are very common in Costa Rica, particularly among subscribers of the former telecommunications monopoly Kolbi/ICE. Users of smartphones and tablets powered by the Android mobile operating system, which is very popular in Costa Rica, have a lot of choice in ter...

The Regulatory Authority on Public Services (Spanish acronym: ARESEP) has summarily rejected a fee increase request tendered by the Spanish firm in charge of the mandatory technical revision of motor vehicles in Costa Rica. The firm Riteve SyC had requested a 200 percent increase that would have rocketed the fee to 30,000 colones (about $60) for the mandatory inspection of a passenger car in Costa...

President Luis Guillermo Solis and members of his Cabinet will be present at the march to observe the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. To this end, the Presidential Council meeting that usually takes place each Tuesday morning has been rescheduled to take place after lunch. President Solis has gone on record to state that the people of Costa Rica shou...

University of Costa Rica Campus The United States Department of State, in conjunction with the Institute of International Education, recently issued a report on the number of international students who either travel abroad to enroll in higher education programs, or who arrive from other countries to study in the U.S. Both figures have increased, and it is interesting to note that Costa Rica is...

With the holiday season around the corner, real estate analysts in Costa Rica are busy preparing their forecasts for 2015. The housing market in Costa Rica has changed considerably in the last two years, and one of the most noticeable factors is the reduced participation of foreign buyers during the green (rainy) season of 2014. This does not mean that real estate agents in Costa Rica have not bee...

A physician evaluating the condition of Evgeny Otto, an imprisoned Russian man in Costa Rica who started a hunger strike in mid-October, explained that the inmate was at a point of no return with regard to his health. As reported by online news daily CRHoy.com a few days ago, Mr. Otto was resolute on consuming nothing but water as he pushed for a resolution to his Kafkaesque status in Costa Rica. ...

On November 14th, the Big 3 wireless service providers in Costa Rica officially began offering the long-awaited Apple iPhone 6 and the oversized iPhone 6 Plus to eager shoppers. As reported by The Costa Rica Star, the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL) recently issued technical approval of the new Apple smartphones and their operating systems, even though they were alre...

The United States today celebrates Veterans Day, and in Costa Rica the American expat community often gathers to celebrate those who served their country’s Armed Forces.   Author’s Note: The use of the noun and adjective “American” in this article conforms to the definition in Princeton’s WordNet: (A native or inhabitant of the United States), and the recommendation by the Associated Pres...

Nadine Hays Pisani is a charming native of New Jersey who knows how to make her dreams come true. She quit her job and moved to Costa Rica a few years ago, and wrote a best-seller plus a sequel about her experience. Her latest book deals with the same topic, albeit with more of a “how-to” style of prose. Ms. Hays has kindly provided The Costa Rica Star with an excerpt of her new book, Happier Than...

The exclusive and stylish Redken brand of hair care has a new location in Costa Rica, specifically at the Paseo de las Flores shopping plaza in Heredia. Redken Laboratories is a global leader in the hair salon industry, and the company’s certified salons are subject to rigorous standards of quality. The first Loft Redken salon opened in Escazu at the Plaza Golden shopping center a few years ago; i...

Although Costa Rica is considered by many cash-strapped expats to be the most expensive country in Latin America, data compiled by popular online travel site TripAdvisor indicates that the lovable city of San Jose is a bargain for tourists. Even when compared to Managua, the populous capital city of Nicaragua, San Jose still comes up cheaper. How did TripAdvisor arrive to this peculiar conclusion?...

On Day Three of her Costa Rica real estate adventure, Boston accountant Kristine Gorman gets even closer to fulfilling her dream of retiring in our country. On Days One and Two of her trip to Guanacaste, Kris and her family stayed in Playa Flamingo and were very close to making a formal offer on a home on a condo in Tamarindo Beach. To learn more about Kris and her expat mission, read our previous...

  Source: Flickr Commons One of the most derided provisions of taxation in the United States is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which is a topic that The Costa Rica Star has previously discussed more than once. This overreaching law, which has not yet entered a period of strict enforcement, has already led to the renunciation of U.S. citizenship by expats around the wor...

  Source: Wikimedia Commons Specialized housekeeping and nanny services, on-call chefs who cook on demand at the residences of their clients, limousine transport, and personalized security are some of the luxury services that are going through a burgeoning phase and could see a brighter future in Costa Rica. To a certain extent, these services could be offered by expats who have not on...

Personal banking at the large state-sponsored institutions in Costa Rica is not for the squeamish. There are many horror stories among expatriates about frozen funds, incorrect account information, blocked debit cards, lost term deposits, excessive red tape, etc. Most of the time, these problems can be avoided in the first place with the assistance of a bilingual account executive who really cares...

Canadian Expat, Corey Coates My path crossed with Corey’s when he contacted me about an author interview for my recent release, Becoming an Expat: Costa Rica. The more I found out about Corey Coates the more I wanted to hear his story, and so it goes… “I like the interaction between the brain and the machine, I’m an audio learner”~ Corey Coates Corey is from a small town outside of Toronto wit...

Free Spanish Lesson! Skype has been an incredible asset of mine while living abroad. Everyone knows about Skype’s video conference call capabilities, but not everyone knows all of it’s great services and purposes. I purchase my own phone number through Skype so that my loved ones in the US can call me as if I’m just a few states away! I also have unlimited calling to the states for a couple of b...

Source: Flickr CC Is it more expensive to live in Costa Rica than in Mexico, Peru or Venezuela? A recent report by national TV network Teletica interviewed three well-traveled expats who are certainly not feeling the Pura Vida when it comes to their personal finances, and their stories confirm the ongoing trend of skyrocketing prices in consumer goods and services. A cursory look into the situ...

Many tourists and expatriate residents in Costa Rica have come to the conclusion that the “Switzerland of the Americas” is called that way not only because of her politically neutral stance or the quiet pastoral scenes in mountain landscapes. Switzerland is known as one of the most expensive places in the world, and Costa Rica can now boast to have that in common with the Swiss Confederation. Than...

Many foreigners visit Costa Rica specifically for the purpose of getting quality medical attention and medications at very affordable prices, and a few of these medical tourists become interested in returning for an extended visit. Now that the two major medical centers CIMA and Clinica Biblica have expanded to Guanacaste, some medical tourists are intrigued by the expat lifestyle. As foreign resi...

Lloret de Mar beach, Costa Brava, Spain Until recently, Costa Rica was considered the best option for North Americans considering retirement or a permanent change of scenery. To this effect, regions such as Guanacaste now boast the highest concentration of expats in Costa Rica. Rampant inflation and a relentless increase in the cost of living is making some expats explore their potential optio...

Every Expat traveler in Costa Rica has their own travel survivor kit style and items Moving abroad is in and of itself a huge feat, loaded with adventures and trials around every bend. It takes a unique, flexible individual to make it work. Oftentimes, those individuals are avid travelers, but once settled down into a new culture they stop exploring. Over the last two years living in Costa ...

Roadways of Rural Costa RicaThe roads in Costa Rica are one of the most important public services that the government provides us. We all use them, daily. They connect us to the municipality, to the commercial central, to the beaches, to the schools and the hospitals, and to each other. So what kind of public service is the local and national government entities providing us in this regard? I...

A combination of less rainfall, coupled with the increased cost of generating electricity using bunker and diesel fuels, threaten a sharp rise in electricity rates this year. The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) – regulating authority for public services – has already approved two hikes for the first and second quarter of 2014 (the first already in force), followed by two...

InterNations connects global minds and expats togetherInterNations, an online social network for expatriates around the world, is pleased to announce the first offline get-together of 2014 for members and guests in San Jose, Costa Rica. The community gathering is scheduled for Tuesday, January 28th from 6:30 pm onwards at the Hard Rock Café Costa Rica (Wyndham Herradura Hotel). According to In...

In the province of Guanacaste, the expatriate and seasonal population is growing faster than anywhere else in Costa Rica. Thousands of foreigners from the United States, Canada, Europe, and other regions of the world have chosen Guanacaste as their home away from home, and they are increasingly turning to social media to share their experiences and stay up-to-date on matters pertaining to their ne...

Costa Rica Colones currencyIn the past the Costa Rica Star published about Paypal in Costa Rica, and how it is a good solution for sending money from a bank account anywhere in the world, to Banco Nacional in Costa Rica. One of the numerous things to consider when moving abroad is currency. I’m not trained in finance in any way, nor can I advise you in investments. What I can tell you is, I ha...

Founder and Senior Partner Marcela Gurdian If you would like to apply for legal permanent residency in Costa Rica and have all of your immigration questions answered, contact Marcela Gurdian of Immigration Experts at her email: [email protected] or at her office phone: (506) 2290-8050. According to the recent Census statistics in Costa Rica, there are about 150,000 foreigners fr...

El Pejibaye Home Page A new online news media site in Costa Rica recently reported on a lawsuit that compensated a truck driver who suffered a road traffic accident after staring at the ample cleavage of an attractive Tica while driving in Heredia. Another news item explained the commercial warehouse shopping district in Golfito is planning a “Blacker Friday” in response to a successful Black ...

Emily Shea gets ready for Christmas in Costa Rica An expat mother of two from Maryland became a blogging sensation in 2013 thanks to her honest ad incisive observations of life in Costa Rica. Emily Shea is the author behind the popular Travel Mother blog, which features sharp writing about her travels to Nicaragua, Norway and Costa Rica. Her post “The Dark Side of Paradise: Nine Reasons Why You...

Receipt for $7 to cross into Nicaragua from Costa RicaThe Costa Rica Star has recently published information about receiving your permanent residency in Costa Rica to avoid border runs, wasting time, and money. I read every article I could get my hands on regarding the new tax required to leave Costa Rica at the Nicaragua pedestrian border. According to news sources, I could pay the fee at any...

When considering an international move thousands of “to dos” come to mind: selling belongings, packing, selecting an international moving company, setting up a mail service, creating an international banking system, reassessing credit cards, international business, and downloading apps that will assist his/her new life abroad. Well, maybe the latter doesn’t initially enter the mind of a new ex...

Costa Rican Expat, Shannon EneteCuddled in a warm blanket sipping cocoa next to a wood burning fire is amazing, for about 20 minutes. After that, it’s cold, freezing, miserable, and inhumane! Living in a place where the ambient temperature could kill you can be a real drag. Having been raised in sunny Southern California, each winter in Kansas City I asked myself why am I here again? Why did I ch...

US Embassy in Costa RicaThe warden program is a worldwide initiative of the U.S. State Department. It is administered by the American Citizens Services (ACS) team made up of foreign service officers and local staff who work in that section. If you are a citizen of the United States you will want to learn about this warden program and how it helps you to live a safer life in Costa Rica through sup...