Registering a Business in Costa Rica

Registering a business in Costa Rica can prove to be quite the process if you try to do everything on your own. As a foreigner, I am allowed to start a business, but having a Tico partner definitely helps the process along. Rather than doing everything yourself, and having to wait in long lines, I suggest paying a Costa Rican lawyer to do it from the very start.


When I first moved to Costa Rica I was charged $500 for this process. The lawyer was very professional, however, did not even fill out our books. He still had us run around to get stamps and have us hand write the legal text in our legal books. Later on, we met better lawyers, and found out that the cost for these services should be no more than $200 USD, and the lawyer should fill all of the books out, not the client.

When we got our book, six in total, 3 for accounting and 3 for office use, we got the necessary stamps. Our lawyer than proceeded to create our company shares. This is the normal practice in Costa Rica. Since we were three owners at the beginning, we create thirty shares and divided them evenly amongst ourselves.

If there is ever anything you should guard with your life in Costa Rica, it is your company shares. All someone would have to do to pass legal ownership of your company over to them is forge your signature on the back stating that you have sold your company to them. From that moment on he would be the legal owner of your very company.

The entire process of registering a company in Costa Rica takes about 2 months. You have to be there in person in order to do this as well. Costa Rica in general makes it very easy to start a business and they encourage this in order to grow the domestic economy. You can look into all of this the next time you travel to Costa Rica.