| If you have sufficient time and enjoy adventure, drive
your automobile to Costa Rica. The journey from the United
States to Costa Rica (depending on where you cross the Mexican
border), takes about three weeks if driving at a moderate
speed. The shortest land distance from the United States to
Costa Rica is 2,250 miles through Brownsville, Texas.
Take your time to stop and see some of the sights. We recommend
driving only during the day since most roads are poorly lit,
if at all. At night, large animals cows, donkeys and
horses can stray onto the road and cause serious accidents.
Your car must be in good mechanical condition before your
trip. Carry spare tires and necessary parts. Take a can of
gas and try to keep your gas tank as full as possible, because
service stations are few and far between.
Have your required visas, passports and other necessary papers
in order to avoid problems at border crossings. Remember,
passports are required for all U.S. citizens driving through
Central America. You also need complete car insurance, a valid
driver's license and vehicle registration.
You can purchase insurance from AAA in the United States.,
or contacting Sanborn's Insurance in the United States Tel:
800-222-0158, Fax: (956)-686-0732 or http://www.samborns.com.
They offer both Mexican and Central American policies.
Instant Auto Insurance offers a 24-hour 800 number and fax
service so you can have your policy ready. In the United States
and Canada, call 1-800-345-47-01 or Fax: (619)-690-6533.
The web site http://www.drivemeloco.com has information about
border crossings and people's experiences making the trip.
You can also buy insurance at the border before entering
Mexico. Having an accident in Mexico is a felony, not a misdemeanor.
So do not forget to be fully insured.
If you are missing a driver's license, a vehicle registration
or insurance, border guards can make your life miserable.
Also, remember some border crossings close at night, so plan
to arrive at all borders between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., just to
be safe.
When you finally arrive at the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border,
expect to be delayed clearing Customs. If you bring many personal
possessions to live in Costa Rica permanently, some or all
of them may be inventoried and taken to the Custom's warehouse
in San José. You may pick them up at a later date after
you have paid the necessary taxes. However, if you come in
as a tourist you usually will not be hassled by Customs at
the border.
As a foreigner in Costa Rica (a non-resident) you are allowed
to drive a car with a tourist permit for three months without
paying taxes. Your initial three-month permit to drive your
car in Costa Rica may be obtained at the Customs office at
the port of entry. The documents required are the title, registration
of the car and proof of having paid the local minimum insurance
(it is important to understand that this insurance does not
cover any vehicle damage. You cannot obtain additional insurance
locally while driving with this permit.) Mandatory liability
insurance from the Instituto Nacional de Seguros is
$10 for three months.
Another three-month extension is usually granted, but after
six months the vehicle must leave the country or the duties
must be paid. To get the one-time three-month extension, you
will have to leave the country prior to the three-month limit
for 48 hours. Upon re-entry, your passport will be restamped,
allowing you to drive the vehicle for three more months. Warning:
Do not drive the car if the permit has expired it will
be considered an abandoned vehicle and can be confiscated.
When your second three-month extension expires, you have
to either leave the country or store the vehicle in a Customs
storage facility until you pay the Customs duties and purchase
your Costa Rican license plates.
Any person who brings a car to Costa Rica and pays all of
the taxes, may keep the car in the country indefinitely once
all paperwork is completed. One advantage to bringing your
vehicle yourself by land is that you don't have to pay taxes
immediately, as you do when you have your vehicle shipped
by sea. Warning: If you have permanent residency status and
bring a car by sea, you will have to pay all of the taxes
almost immediately before you can get your car out of Customs.
If you keep your vehicle in Costa Rica, you will have to
apply the corresponding tax formula listed above.
For additional information about driving from the United
States to Costa Rica, you can purchase a useful guidebook,
Driving the Pan-American Highway to Mexico and Central
America, by Raymond and Audrey Pritchard, with help from
Christopher Howard. You can now order this one-of-a-kind book
through Amazon.com,
http://www. drivetocentralamerica.com or http://www.costaricabooks.com.
Be aware of the following rules if you want to take an automobile
out of the country. As one resident who did it pointed out,
Once you have your car in Costa Rica and you want to drive
a car across the border from Costa Rica and back, you need
to get a permiso para salida del país from the
Registro Nacional in Costa Rica (there is an office
in Liberia, I am told), which will require:
- A certified, written permission from the owner of the vehicle (you will need
to see your lawyer for this)
- A copy of the title
- The paid and current marchamo certificate
- The current Riteve inspection document. They will do a search of the Registro
files to ensure that there are no unsatisfied liens
on the vehicle and the corporation that owns it, if there
is one, it is on the up and up regarding liabilities and
unpaid taxes.
- If the vehicle is owned by a corporation, you will also have to supply a certified
copy of the corporate constitution.
- And a recent personería jurídica, for the corporation showing
that the person seeking authorization to drive the car out
is the officer of the corporation and is legally authorized
to make such a decision.
Personerías are normally good for only three
months, so make sure it is new enough that it will still be
valid when you try to come back. The permiso document
you will receive from the Registro is good for one
journey of no more than 30 days. The car must leave the country
within 30 days of the time the permiso is issued for
it to be valid. At the border, you will have to have some
or all of the above documents examined by Customs on both
sides of the border, going each direction.
Be prepared with at least two certified copies of each; you
may be asked for them, and if you are and don't have them,
you're sunk there's no copy center at Peñas Blancas.
You will be asked for copies of the personería jurídica
as well as the marchamo by the Costa Rican aduana
going out. Getting across takes about three hours.
Here is what one resident said about his experience at the
border. Going into Panama last year at Paso Canoas, all the
officials on both sides were happy with my paperwork, yet
I still had to wait in line behind a long line of truck drivers
in the Customs office on the Panama side. And when my turn
finally came, I had to wait while the Panamanian aduana
typed out a six-page form, in four copies, hunting and
pecking through it on her 40-year old Smith Corona that doesn't
advance the ribbon anymore. The document she produced was
a Derecho de Circulación of which every cop
I encountered in Panama wanted to see my copy, as did the
aduanas on both sides coming back into Costa Rica.
I was asked to surrender it to the aduanas on the Costa
Rican side coming back.
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