Working as a Foreigner in Costa Rica

Occasionally, you see the travelers thoughts when they’re waiting at the Juan Santamaria Airport for their flight home after their vacations are over. They wistfully glance at the evening sunlit Santa Ana mountains as their thoughts slowly wander back home: to the cool weather that will soon displace the fall and to the work that one could imagine to be nicer in an ambience like here. And so they rush to a newsstand before boarding. On the plane, the just-now-learned Spanish is strained in order to curiously study the job offers in the “Empleos” column.

Apart from this, that an occupation in Costa Rica mostly don’t have much to do with a holiday stay, there are a few things to consider before one decides to look for a job here. The wages are generally considerably lower than in Europe. The government presents a list of minimum wages that start at about 700 USD for people with a university degree. According to qualification and work experience, wages will also be paid higher than the minimum. A secretary with several years experience gets about 600 USD plus a thirteenth salary in December.

To get a work permit, the future employer must be known.

Then the applicant must apply to the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería, Departemento de Permisos Temporales y Prórrogas. In his letter, he must inform about the following items:

1) personal qualification;

2) name of the company or employer for which he intends to work;

3) position that he wants to take;

4) salary;

5) accessibility during the application process.

In addition, a letter from the company’s legal representative is necessary, containing further information about the job and the company.

Basically, the chances for a work permit are better, if there are no local applicants to get the target job. That is the case, for example, for jobs with specialized training (e.g. technicians) or when foreign language skills (e.g. German) are required. Normally the processing time takes 2-3 months.