Many families want to travel and live in exciting new places. By having a baby in Costa Rica, growing families can gain permanent residency in this peaceful, tropical nation. Whether you plan to live and work here all year round, or whether you plan on using Costa Rica as an eventual retirement destination, this path to residency means permanent security for your whole family.
Cost of recent dental work
Mon, 2010-05-03 12:58 | 
Arp 
We recently spent some time in Alajuela and took care of some much-needed dental work. Many people come to Costa Rica for medical tourism and dentistry is no exception. The out of pocket cost is amazingly low compared to the fees charged for work in the USA - even lower than our co-pays used to be! Here is a list of all the work we did, along with costs in colones and dollars (at today's exchange rate of $1 = C505): Read more
Our New Ebook & Forum is Here
Wed, 2010-04-28 13:56 | Trish We are excited to announce that we now have two new services at Costa Rica Birth and Residency: Our new Forum and our ebook: Costa Rica Birth & Residency – The Guide. Read more
Semana Santa is here!
Sat, 2010-04-03 18:26 | Trish As we left our tropical beach home in Puerto Viejo 2 days ago, we were remarking on our way out of town how busy it was! Easter Week, or Semana Santa, sure makes the beach towns busy. In fact the week was as busy as I have ever seen it in Puerto Viejo. It even topped Christmas week! We actually had trouble driving out of town due to all the people and traffic. Read more
A Day in Limon for Passport Photos
Wed, 2010-03-17 20:15 | Trish 
10 months after the birth of our baby in Costa Rica, we are finally getting around to making her a US citizen and getting her a US passport. We hadn't been in a rush to do this earlier since we hadn't planned to leave the country for awhile. We were also just plain busy working, living, having fun, and taking care of a newborn. So we put it off for quite some time! Read more
Perpetual tourists affected by more new laws
Mon, 2010-02-22 10:44 | Arp Proposed changes that would make being a perpetual tourist (living here on a tourist visa) more of a chore were reported by AMCostaRica last week. The Costa Rican government seems to want people to shift to other legal forms of residency, like permanent residency, rentista or pensionado. Here are the proposed changes related to perpetual tourists: Read more
High speed internet is not limited to the Central Valley
Tue, 2010-02-16 02:00 | Arp 
The common advice when it comes to high speed internet in Costa Rica is that availability is wide in the Central Valley but limited on the coasts. This has changed over the past few years due to the advent of small companies offering wireless internet and ICE continuing to expand its services.
If you're more interested in tropical beach living, ADSL is definitely an option in Cahuita & Puerto Viejo. Read more
Education in Costa Rica
Sat, 2010-02-13 10:37 | Trish 
A new question from a site visitor just came in a few days ago, dealing with how we school our kids in Costa Rica. I thought I'd share part of my response:
How are you educating your children in Costa Rica?
There are many options for education here. It's going to vary by the town you choose to live in, your budget, and your preferences. Read more
Caribbean Beaches that are Great for Kids
Tue, 2010-01-26 19:59 | Trish 
As I mentioned in a previous post, our family recently moved from Costa Rica's Central Valley town of Atenas to Puerto Viejo, a lively town on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. We fell in love with this area when we first did our Great Costa Rican Scouting Trip here, almost 4 years ago. During that trip, we spent a lot of time in another nearby Caribbean town, Cahuita, which also has Cahuita National Park. We loved the Caribbean vibe, all the multicultural foods and people, and the beautiful warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. Read more
Happy New Year - Our Costa Rica Residency is Done!
Fri, 2010-01-01 14:12 | Trish I've actually been meaning to write this blog since Thanksgiving, but we've been really busy for the last month or two. With finishing the residency process, moving to a different part of Costa Rica with our three kids, and then celebrating the December holidays, we've been a little overwhelmed. But I wanted to report on our exciting completion of the residency process. Read more
Costa Rica Travel Basics - Part II
Wed, 2009-11-18 08:00 | Trish (See Part I of my Costa Rican Travel Basics Series if you have not already read it.)
Continuing on with my Costa Rica Travel Basics series, I am answering some common questions that people who are coming here as tourists have asked me. If you have another question that needs to be answered, please send me a comment and I'll try to answer you! Read more