Costa Rica Nomad Visa Income Rules

Costa Rica's remote-worker stay, the category people look up as the digital nomad visa, asks for at least $3,000 a month from outside the country. Add a spouse, a partner, or a child and the floor rises to $4,000 a month, and that higher figure can be a mix of the household's pay.

A strong invoice this month does not answer the question. Law 10008 looks at the prior year, and the application checklist wants bank statements showing you received at least that monthly amount from abroad. Say the statements show $2,900 in a quiet month and $6,000 after a large invoice. You are in an argument with the file, not past it. When two years is not long enough, Panama's Friendly Nations visa is a different residency test, and the other monthly-income stays are grouped in Nomad Visa Guides.

As of October 2026, those dollar floors come from Law 10008 and Executive Decree 43619, not from a blog roundup. They are measured at the official selling rate published by the Banco Central de Costa Rica.

What income clears Costa Rica's nomad stay?

You clear the solo bar by showing at least $3,000 a month that originated outside Costa Rica. You clear the family bar by showing at least $4,000 a month on the same basis. The client, employer, or tenant has to be outside Costa Rica, and the money has to be money you can keep receiving even when you are not in your home country.

Law 10008 names three shapes that count: stable monthly pay, fixed rents, or an average monthly income over the last year. A pile of savings is not on that list. Someone who sold a house, parked the cash, and stopped invoicing does not have the income the statute describes, even if the balance is large.

The test looks at the prior year

The statute lets you prove either a stable monthly amount or an average across the last year. The requirements text published for applicants is tighter in practice. It says the statements must show that, during the previous year, you received not less than $3,000 a month from outside Costa Rica, or $4,000 if the family is on the application. A year that averages $3,000 only because one huge month covers a $1,000 month is the file to support with an accountant's certification, not the file to leave to a clerk's mood.

Two kinds of proof work. The usual one is bank statements plus a sworn statement that you requested those statements from the bank. The other is a certification from a Costa Rican public accountant or notary, or from the equivalent professional in the country where the income is certified. Only that certification needs an apostille or consular legalization. The bank statements themselves are not the document the regulation singles out for an apostille. Anything not in Spanish still needs an official translation.

The sources describe money received. They do not publish a gross-versus-net worksheet. If the statements show the deposit, that is what the file shows. A salary figure that never reached the account is a different document, and it belongs in the accountant's certification if that is the route you use.

Data note: the $3,000 and $4,000 floors were checked against Law 10008 and Decree 43619 in October 2026. The central bank's selling rate moves, so a non-dollar salary has to be converted at the official rate for the period you are proving, not at a travel-card rate.

Whose pay can you combine?

The $4,000 figure is a household total, not a second $4,000 from each adult. Law 10008 says the applicant's income can be added to the spouse's, or to another family member's, until the combined amount reaches $4,000 a month. A solo applicant never has to show the higher number.

Family, in this law, means a spouse or a domestic partner, sons or daughters under 25, children of any age who have a disability, and older adults who live with the applicant. A sibling, a parent who does not live with you, or an adult child over 25 with no disability is outside that list.

What each relative actually files

Dependents do not each prove $3,000. Decree 43619 tells them to file the signed form, the $100 government payment, the passport, and a consular or restricted entry visa if their nationality is in a group that needs one. The income statements stay with the main applicant. They do have to prove the relationship: a marriage or domestic-partnership record issued no more than six months earlier, a birth certificate for a child, a medical opinion for a disability, or a sworn statement of the link and the shared household for an older adult.

The tax break does not travel with the extra names. The income-tax exemption belongs to the person who qualifies as the remote worker. A spouse who wants the same Costa Rican exemption has to apply as a direct beneficiary and meet the remote-work rules themselves. Parking a spouse on the family form gets them a stay. It does not exempt their own foreign pay.

What does the stay give you besides a year?

The stay is granted for up to one year, and it can be extended once, for one more year. Law 10208 reads that first year as a ceiling, so you can ask for a shorter period. To get the second year, Decree 43619 requires at least 180 days in Costa Rica during the year you were originally given. That count is presence in this country, not a vague "I was in the region."

The tourism board's renewal page, checked in October 2026, says 80 days and cites the same Article 15. The statute and the regulation both say 180. Use 180 when you plan the year. An 80-day reading that contradicts the law is not a safe way to protect the renewal.

Situation	Income to show	Costa Rica tax on foreign pay	How long
Solo remote worker	$3,000 a month over the prior year	Exempt from income tax on that foreign pay while the status lasts	Up to 1 year, plus one renewal if you were in the country 180 days
Applicant plus family	$4,000 a month, combinable with a spouse or another listed relative	Exemption stays with the qualifying remote worker, not with relatives on the family form	Same one-year clock, with the same 180-day renewal test
After DGME cancels the status	Ordinary category rules if you switch	The exemption ends immediately	Change category under the general migration law, or leave

While the status is valid, Law 10008 gives a full exemption from Costa Rica's tax on profits, the income tax in Title I of Law 7092. You are not treated as a habitual tax resident, and pay from outside the country is not treated as Costa Rican-source income. The regulation also says you are excused from the formal and the substantive tax duties at the tax directorate for as long as that benefit lasts. The moment Migración cancels the status, those benefits stop. What Costa Rica taxes after that point is the subject of the Costa Rica tax guide for foreign income.

Insurance, gear, driving, and a local account

The health policy has to cover the entire authorized stay and at least $50,000 of medical expenses for illness in Costa Rica. It can come from an insurer authorized and registered with the Superintendencia General de Seguros, or it can be an international policy with that coverage. Each family member needs a separate policy. A short travel plan that expires halfway through the year does not match the regulation.

You may bring, as baggage and without an advance customs filing, one personal computer, one mobile phone, one tablet, one camera, and one sound recorder or player, plus accessories, if you need them for the work. Anything else goes through the Exonet exemption process. Selling or giving those goods away during the stay means paying the tax that was waived. A still-valid license from your country of origin is valid for driving while you are a beneficiary. The law also lets you open a savings account if you meet the anti-money-laundering rules in Law 8204. That is permission for the category, not a promise that a given branch will say yes.

Do you still owe US tax if Costa Rica exempts the pay?

Yes, if you are a US citizen or a resident alien. Costa Rica's exemption does not switch off the US return. For tax year 2026, the foreign earned income exclusion tops out at $132,900 per qualifying person, and only after you meet the tax-home test and either the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test. That exclusion is section 911 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Physical presence means 330 full days in a foreign country, or in more than one, during any 12 months in a row. A full day is the 24 hours that start at midnight. Days in Costa Rica count toward that US test. They are not the same 180 days Migración wants inside Costa Rica for the renewal. A month back in the United States can wreck the 330-day count even while your Costa Rica days still look fine.

A hypothetical $4,800 month

Say you are self-employed, you invoice only US clients, and every month of the year you are proving shows $4,800 deposited, with no business expenses in this hypothetical. Costa Rica's $3,000 solo test and $4,000 family test both clear. The year's receipts are $57,600.

That $57,600 sits under the $132,900 exclusion cap. If you qualify, the IRS foreign earned income exclusion can take the income tax off that earned income. The same IRS page says the excluded amount reduces regular income tax and does not reduce self-employment tax. On Schedule SE, the amount subject to self-employment tax is generally 92.35% of net earnings, and the rate is 15.3%, made of 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. You file the schedule when net earnings are $400 or more.

You can deduct half of that self-employment tax when you figure adjusted gross income. The deduction does not erase the $8,138.62. Wages from an employer are a different case, because wage withholding is not self-employment tax. The freelancer version is in the self-employment tax guide for freelancers abroad. Two qualifying spouses each have their own $132,900 cap. A spouse who is only a dependent on the Costa Rican form is still a US person if they are a US citizen, and their pay is not invisible.

How do you file before a deadline slips?

File on Trámite Ya, or in person at the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería. The office has 15 calendar days to decide. The statute gives the staff five business days to tell you something is missing. The regulation says five calendar days for that same warning. Answer on the shorter clock. You then have eight business days to fix the file. Miss those eight days and the application is denied and closed.

As of October 2026, budget these payments from the regulation and the tourism board's instructions. They are easy to under-wire.

1. Gather twelve months of statements that show outside pay of at least $3,000 a month, or $4,000 with family, plus the sworn statement that the bank issued them. If a month is thin, get the accountant or notary certification and apostille that certification only.
2. Order official Spanish translations of anything that is not already in Spanish, including civil records for the family.
3. Buy a health policy of at least $50,000 for illness in Costa Rica, covering the full stay, for every person on the application.
4. Pay $100 to the government for each person, applicant and dependents included. If you wire it from abroad, Banco de Costa Rica's $15 incoming charge means the $100 has to arrive in full, so the amount you send has to cover that fee.
5. If your nationality needs a consular or restricted visa to enter, get that visa. This stay does not replace it.
6. After approval, book the in-person documentation appointment within three months. Bring the passport, the health policy, the payment named in the approval resolution, the $90 stay-document fee, and the $100 guarantee deposit for the estancia subcategory. Skipping this appointment is how an approval turns into a cancellation file.
7. Count days in the country toward 180 if you want the second year. Count foreign days separately toward 330 if you want the US exclusion. Do not treat them as one calendar.

False papers are priced in the statute. If Migración or the finance ministry proves the documents were false, you pay the taxes that were waived, plus 25% on top, and you can still face a criminal case. A polished spreadsheet that the bank statements do not support is not a clever shortcut. It is the fact pattern that penalty describes.

Prove the year of deposits before you move

The stay is a fit when twelve months of outside pay already clear $3,000 a month, or $4,000 with the people you are actually bringing, and when you can live with a one-year card that renews only once. It is a poor fit when the income is a savings balance, a Costa Rican job, or a contract that starts after you land.

Run the statements first. Then buy the $50,000 policy, wire the $100 so it arrives net of the $15 bank charge, and keep the 180-day and 330-day counts on two different tallies. The Costa Rican exemption is real while the status is real. The US self-employment tax on a freelance practice does not leave with it.

This is not tax, legal, or immigration advice. Thresholds, fees, and the 80-day line on the tourism page can change. Confirm the live text of Law 10008 and Decree 43619, and talk with a qualified professional before you file or before you exclude income on a US return.

Data note: fee lines and the 180-day renewal rule were checked in October 2026 against Decree 43619 and Law 10008.

Data notes / Sources checked

• Law 10008, the remote-worker statute, for the $3,000 and $4,000 floors, the 180-day renewal, the income-tax exemption, and the 25% false-document penalty.
• Executive Decree 43619, for proof, translations, the $50,000 policy, the $100 and $90 fees, the three-month documentation window, and the baggage list.
• Executive Decree 36539-G, article 14, for the $100 estancia guarantee deposit.
• ICT requirements page and the renewal page, including the $15 incoming wire charge and the conflicting 80-day sentence.
• IRS foreign earned income exclusion, the 2026 exclusion amount, Revenue Procedure 2025-32, Topic 554, and the self-employment tax page.

Data note: Costa Rican statutes were read in October 2026. A later decree can move a fee without rewriting Law 10008.