Costa Rica: consular, restricted and residual foreign ordinary passports require advance visa
Resolution AJ-484-11-2025 expressly puts named nationalities into consular or restricted groups and puts every country not named in a group into the restricted group. The normalized baseline is advance visa required; this is not eVisa or visa on arrival.
- Third-group consular visas and fourth-group Commission-authorized restricted visas are single-entry, passport-stamped advance visas; both normally allow up to 30 days subject to the directive.
- The directive’s special China, Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela provisions and all US/Canada/Japan/Schengen/EEA/UK multiple-entry visa or residence-document exceptions are conditional and are not normalized as passport-wide access.
- Passport validity, funds, onward ticket, no-entry-ban and border admissibility requirements apply. Residence, work, study, transit, crew, diplomatic, official/service and special-document routes are excluded.
Official sourcesDirección General de Migración y ExtranjerÃa / Sistema Costarricense de Información JurÃdica: DGME Resolution AJ-484-11-2025: general entry-visa directives for non-residentsProcuradurÃa General de la República / Sistema Costarricense de Información JurÃdica: Costa Rica General Migration and Immigration Law No. 8764 (current consolidated text)