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Driving to CR
Shipping
Vehicles
Insurance in CR
Registration
Drivers License
CATIE Vehicles
Buying & Selling
For Sale |
Driving to CR:
Driving to Costa Rica is a great way to experience Central America, but you
need to be prepared before leaving.
-
What to bring
- walkie talkies if you are traveling with another
vehicle
- US driver's license
-
original car title
-
US registration
-
insurance for the country you are in
-
passport
-
Border crossing can be crazy! Most borders have
tramiteros which are almost a necessity because they know who to talk
to, where to go, and who to bribe. Some borders take a few minutes
and a couple of dollars, but some take half a day and a lot of money.
Make sure to be patient and keep a sense of humor!
-
Insurance - most countries have local insurance, but they
require you to also have US insurance.
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Mexico: Mexican insurance can be purchased at the
boarder or you can purchase it ahead of time. It costs around
$100-150 for a couple of weeks. There are many companies to choose
from. Here are a couple:
Mexican Auto Insurance
Lewis and Lewis Insurance
8929 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 220
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(800) 966-6830
(310) 657-1112
Mexico Insurance Professionals
1300 S. Milton, Suite 224
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(888) INS-4-MEX
(928) 214-9750
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Central America: Most companies do NOT include the
US or Mexico in their Central America plans, but all other countries are
included. It costs around $500 for two months for full coverage up
to $10,000. They need a copy of your registration, title, and
driver's license. There are a few companies to choose from.
Here is one:
AIU North America, Inc.
600 King Street
Mail Stop AIUX, 2nd floor
WIlmington, DE, 19801
800-343-5761 x2164
302-594-2164.
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Safety: Make sure to stay in hotels with a secure
parking area. Cover your windows with black trash bags so people
can't see inside if you are bringing items which someone might want to
steal.
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Shipping vehicles:
You can ship your vehicle to and from Costa Rica. For more information
about how to get your vehicle from the US to Costa Rica contact Chris or Yan,
or contact Dina to find out how to get your vehicle from Costa Rica to the
US.
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Drivers License:
(˘7000-˘9000, 2-3 hours)
To get a Costa Rican driver's license:
- Take your US driver's license and passport
- Go to the Ministerio de Transporte in
San José (it's next to MOP - Ministerio de Obras Publicas).
- There are copy shops across the street where you
need to have your passport and both sides of your driver's license copied.
Make sure they copy your personal information page, the date of your last
entry, your visa (if you have it already) and the name change amendment if you have changed your name.
- Get a medical certificate (Certifcado Mčdico
para Licencias para Conducir). There are several places across
the street that will do an "exam". It should cost between ˘3000 and
˘5000 and takes about 5 minutes.
- Go into the Minesterio de Transportes and
after checking in with the guard at the door, go to the back of the
building and turn left. Look for the Jefetura which will be
at the end of the hall on your right. You need to have Mariela
Fernandez look your papers over, register you in his book, then sign
your passport copy. This can take a
long time if she is on a coffee break, at lunch, or on vacation. He is
the only one that can give you authorization to get a license.
- Go to the blue chairs along the wall to wait for
someone at Pantallas 1 or 2 (for people getting a license for
the first time). They take your papers and enter you into the
computer system.
- Pay ˘4000 at the bank and get a receipt.
- follow the signs around the corner and get in the
line to have your picture taken. They need your receipt and your
medical certificate.
- You have to wait about 5 minutes for your license
to print.
- YOU'RE FINISHED!!
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Registration:
(~˘7000, 1 hour)
If you plan to have a
vehicle in Costa Rica, be sure to have your paperwork in order!!! The police
are very vigilant and you will be stopped often!
You can register you car two ways: as a tourist
or as a resident. The tourist registration is good for up to 3 months
or until you get a resident visa. The visa in your passport and the
registration for your vehicle should match, either tourist or resident.
The registration process is similar for both. You will need to renew
your registration and Costa Rican insurance every 3 to 6 months.
If you drove your car into the country you received a
tourist registration when crossing the border. If you are buying a car with
US plates, you must go to Aduanas before buying your car for
permission (go to Alejuela, not Calle Blancas).
See buying a car
- Take both originals and copies of:
- Title
- Costa Rica tourist vehicle registration -
Certificado de importacion temporal para vehiculos...
- US vehicle registration
- Proof of insurance from INS here in Costa Rica (see
insurance requirements)
- Passports - photo page, visa, date of last entry
(2 copies)
- Drivers licenses - American for tourist
registration, Costa Rican for resident registration
- Student Verification Letter from CATIE for
resident registration only (see Janette Solano)
- Drivers of the vehicle - If your car has US
plates, ONLY those people (3 max) listed on the registration have
permission to drive the car and they must be there in person the first
time to be on the registration.
- Go to
Aquanas central in Calles
Blancas. When you enter the building, look for the first door
on the left with the sign "tourists". The woman there is Ana Vargas.
- Give her all of your papers and she will
have you fill out a form called "Regimen de Importacion Temporal de
Vehiculos". After she processes your paperwork, she'll give you
an insurance bill (Solicitud de
Polisa Turistica).
- Take the insurance bill to
INS (Instituto
Nacional de Seguros). There is an office in Mall El Dorado en
Guadelupe (just east of the Clinica Catolica) which is open from 8:00am to
3:30pm..
- Take the insurance bill and a copy of your
passports to the back left set of desks and wait in line at
Aseguramiento 2 where they will review your paperwork and enter you
into their computer system.
- Go to the bank in the back of the building
and pay ˘6300 for 3 months of insurance. They
will give you two receipt copies.
- Take the insurance receipts back to Aduana
Central and give the duplicate copy to Ana.
- She will then give you a new registration
certificate (Certificado de Importacion Temporal Para Vehiculos....).
- Keep this along with your Costa Rican
insurance receipt in your vehicle at all times.
- YOU CAN DRIVE!!
*Go to
Adunas in Alejuela (440-0275)
near the airport if you are buying a car here and need the registration
changed into your name because they are more familiar with the buying/selling
laws not listed on the back of the vehicle registration.
*If you have legal problems, talk to the aduana
lawers in the Direccion General de Aduanas near the Teatro
Nacional. Here are the names and telephone numbers of people who
might be able to help you out if your paperwork isn't quite "in order" and
you need to "pay a fine":
- Aduana in Limon: Gerardo Brown
798-2668
- Tramitero in San Jose: Alan Quezar
386-6517
It is easy to re-register your vehicle, and
this will need to be done every 3-6 months. You pretty much follow the
same procedure as the first time, but it is much faster.
- Take the original registration and aduanas
form which are about to expire, the student verification letter from CATIE
(Jeannette Solano),
copies of your passport with your student visa and photo pages, and copies
of your driver's license to the Aduana office.
- Pay for the insurance at INS.
- Go back to the Aduana office for your new
registration form.
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Insurance
in Costa Rica:
There are two types of insurance you need to consider
while driving in Costa Rica:
- You MUST have the
Costa Rican liability insurance which you can buy at any INS (Institution
Nacional de Seguros) office and you can update it every three months
when you register
your car. It is cheap (about ˘6300 for 3 months) but is not very
reliable. You may want to buy excess liability insurance from
another company to supplement the national insurance.
- Full coverage and excess liability
insurance can be purchased from
Clements.
This is the company that the US Embassy uses. The
Professionals
Abroad AutoElite and excess liability policies
are comparable both in price and coverage to what you would get in the US.
You can get an online quote from their website, then either fax or mail in
the binder if you decide to purchase insurance from them.
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CATIE Vehicles:
You must pass the CATIE driving test (very easy) in order to rent vehicles
from them. Go to Transportes (558-2310 behind the Wallace
building) to get the reservation form which will need to be signed by your
advisor. There are two rates for renting a 4-wheel drive vehicle:
- Without a CATIE account/Rent as an individual
Daily Rate: $35/day
Insurance: $10/day
Mileage: $0.25/kilometer
- With a CATIE account/Rent as part of a project
Daily Rate: $15/day
Insurance: $5/day
Mileage: $0.27/kilometer
To set up an account, you and/or your advisor would
need to talk to Rodrigo Coto 558-2530.
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Buying & Selling:
US Plates: Vehicles with US plates are
around 20% over Blue Book price. It is illegal to sell or transfer a
vehicle with US plates without proper authorization of the customs
authority.
- To get authorization, the buyer and seller need
to go to aduanas (preferable at the airport) together BEFORE the
buyer leaves the country! Take with you a letter from CATIE (Jeannette
Solano) stating that you are a student as well as copies of your
passport photo and visa pages.
**If you have problems, talk to the aduana
lawyers 255-0876. Ask for Roberto Piedra Cosarez or Orlindo Ramirez
Salazar. You must have the letter from CATIE and a good reason for
buying the car and not getting permission to buy/sell the vehicle. The
lawyers should then call the aduana agent at the airport to authorize
the title transfer.
- You can register your vehicle in Idaho by fax.
Costa Rican Plates: If you buy a vehicle
with Costa Rican places, expect to pay about 30-40% over the Blue Book value
because the import tax is very high here.
Buying a car with Tico license plates or no plates
(recently imported): If you’re buying a car with Tico plates the
process is significantly different from that when you buy a car with US
plates. My (Jessica's) story is a little bit less-than-normal, but I’ll
share what I know.
-
I bought a car that had been recently imported to
Costa Rica from the US. The car had no license plates on it and was
being sold, very conveniently, by a lawyer. Once I decided to buy the
car and had put a down payment on it, the lawyer drew up a contract that
said he had the legal authority to sell the car (power of attorney) and
that I would be buying it. The contract also included warranty
information, VIN, car specifications, the name of the car’s current
owner, my passport number, and my status (student, living at CATIE).
After we had both signed the contract we went to the bank and I
transferred all the money for the car from my account directly into the
seller’s bank account (both accounts need to be at the same bank). This
is the safest way to transfer money in this kind of situation. You must
bring your passport with you to do a transfer between bank accounts.
After the money had been transferred, I went to lunch and the seller
spent 3 hours in a government office in Zapote getting the temporary
license plates for the car and submitting the paperwork for the title
transfer.
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To get permanent license plates on a car that has
been recently imported you have two options: the one day
wait-in-line-forever option and the 10 business day option. I am doing
the 10 business day option. The temporary license plate is a paper
taped into the front window of my car. It is good for one month from
the date of issue. The permanent plates should arrive 2-3 weeks after
the date of vehicle purchase. It’s necessary to return to San Jose to
pick up the plates, the title for the car (transferred to your name),
and then get your revision technica sticker from whomever did the
initial inspection and issued the paperwork.
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Registration: It is not necessary to
“register” your car with Tico plates at Aduanas because the car has been
legally imported into the country and all taxes have been paid (this is
why cars with Tico plates cost so much). The registration required of
folks with US plates is in lieu of paying import taxes on the car. If
you have Tico plates you only have to pay a fee once a year for your
Derecho de Circulacion (called a marchamo) to keep your car on the
road. You make this payment at the end of the year (December) and
apparently signs will go up all over the country saying that you can pay
your marchamo at any of the banks with signs. This costs approximately
50,000 colones. It is necessary to keep the marchamo paperwork in the
car at all times in case you get stopped by the police.
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Insurance: Cars with Tico plates are not
required to be insured with Costa Rican or any other type of insurance.
It is possible to buy 6-month liability and collision insurance from
INS, but not required. If you choose to do this, your car must be
photographed by someone at INS and it takes about 8 days for INS to
process your insurance papers. You can also buy US-style coverage from
Clements. One of the dangers of operating a vehicle in Costa Rica is
other drivers who are uninsured—this makes it a good idea for you to buy
full coverage through a company like Clements. Additionally, paying for
Costa Rican license plates automatically entitles you to 1 million
colones worth of personal insurance.
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Driving: I’ve been advised by everyone I’ve
spoken to (lawyers, INS agents) that if you get into an accident with
another car (even if it is extremely minor) it is necessary to call the
police to the scene of the accident before anyone leaves (dial 911 to
report an accident and get someone to the scene).
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Other good things: The lawyer from whom I
bought my car told me that he would be more than willing to work with
any other students from CATIE in the buying and selling of cars (For a
fee, of course. He said he would be willing to come to Turrialba if
needed, and he speaks excellent English which helps with the legalese
and any car/mechanical issues.). A lawyer is required to transfer the
title and they can make the process of buying or selling a car ten-fold
easier. I bought a car without even going near a government office and
it was great. Also, the lawyer and the dealership from which I bought
my car are willing to work with CATIE students who want to sell cars if
they are unable to find buyers. Contact me and I can pass on all of the
necessary contact information.
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How to get your Revision Tecnica sticker (also
called Riteve) for cars with Tico plates
Contact info for Riteve
Tel: 506-209-2000
Fax: 506-209-2001
Email: ritevesyc@rtv.co.cr The car I bought had already passed its revision
technica (required for driving a car here), but right now I only have a
piece of paper that says the car has passed (which must be kept in the
glove box at all times). I will get the real revision technica sticker
once I receive permanent license plates. The revision technica must be
performed annually for you to legally drive your car. The month of the
inspection for any given car is the last number (or two numbers) on the
license plate. FYI: Tico license plates belong permanently to the cars
upon which they are originally placed. They do not change when a
vehicle changes owners.
There are several places in and around San Jose to get your sticker—you
may see blue rectangular signs around pointing to the locations. These
locations are big blue and white buildings with lots of large bays (6-7)
for cars. There are generally long lines, so it makes sense to arrive
early and plan to spend several hours getting your car inspected.
Location in Alajuelita (Estacion de RTV San Jose
Sur): Follow Route 39 (the ring road around San Jose) to the rotunda
that intersects Route 110 and exit south on 110 toward Alajuelita.
Drive down a hill, over a bridge, and back up a hill. Watch for a blue
rectangular sign on the right-hand side of the road near the top of the
hill. Follow the signs and arrows for 2.5 km to reach the Revision
Tecnica location. The signs will peter out after the first few turns,
but follow the main road and you will eventually reach the building on
the right-hand side of the road.
Stickers are good for one year and the month of
your annual inspection is dictated by the last one or two digits on your
license plates.
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for sale: Vehicles usually sell for
over blue book price here
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