ULACIT Costa Rica

Visitors to Costa Rica must have a valid passport as well as proof of their intent to exit the country before their visa or entry stamp expires. All non-resident travelers must possess a return ticket or a ticket as proof of when they intend to exit the country, commonly referred to as an outbound exit or onward ticket. Please carry a digital or physical copy of your admissions letter in case it is requested by a migration officer.

Incoming international students have different legally viable options to resolve their migratory status in Costa Rica for their short-term stay (one or two academic periods). Once in Costa Rica we will aide and advice you on different options to renew your migratory status in accordance with the applicable migratory policies at the moment.

Students are advised to enter and remain in Costa Rica with an up to 180-day provisional tourist visa. Your country of origin determines the number of days available to stay in Costa Rica as a tourist before the need of renewing the tourist visa. USA and European Union residents are commonly awarded a 180-day tourist visa.

For this migratory status no previous process is required, the tourist visa is automatically issued by Migration Authorities for any international traveler entering the country by land or air. So, either a dated or open-ended return ticket for an international flight or bus transfer service are needed when entering Costa Rica. The immigration officer will ask for it upon your arrival.

The departure plans from Costa Rica must be shown to Migration Authorities at the airport with a return ticket, but that the ticket can be open ended, so incoming exchange students need a return ticket but not necessarily with a set return date.

Once in Costa Rica to maintain their legal migratory status after 180 days or if the tourist visa is awarded for less time, students can either exit any land border (a quick weekend trip to Panama o Nicaragua) to renew their tourist visa or request a student visa through ULACITs migration lawyer with a cost of $200 which will automatically suspend the expiration of their 90-day tourist visa until Migratory Authorities process their student visa request which takes over 6 months in average. This is a common practice for short term exchange students and would be sufficient to maintain their legal migratory status while the short-term exchange student completes there 115-day academic period stay.

The process is carried out with the student already in Costa Rica, it is not required to go to a consulate. The requirements to process a student visa extension for a short-term stay are:

1. Two passport size photographs, 5cm x 5cm, on a white background;
2. Complete photocopy of your current passport. your passport and visa must be valid;
3. ULACIT acceptance letter as an Exchange student;
4. A payment of $250 to the migration lawyer who will take care of the initial request process and accompany the process. This payment already includes tax stamps and the fee charged by the General Directorate of Migration to process the visa extension request. These payments are to be made once the student is in Costa Rica.

Students who wish to stay for longer than 10 months should prepare the following documents and have them before arriving, this process is also carried out with the student in Costa Rica:

1. Birth certificate duly legalized or apostilled where the name of the parents is recorded. all documents must be in Spanish, if not, they must be officially translated in Costa Rica. If you cannot obtain your birth certificate with the apostille, you can present it without apostille momentarily;
2. Certification of criminal records from your country of origin or where you have resided for the last three years duly legalized or apostilled. All documents must be in Spanish, if not, they must be officially translated;
3. A bank statement from them or their parents from the last 12 months to prove their solvency and the existence of income to support their stay in Costa Rica. The bank statement should be notarized by a Certified Public Accountant.