All You Need to Know About Driving Legally in Costa Rica
When you’re traveling outside your native country, you normally take into account aspects such as lodging, food, and transportation. This last one is as important as the other two mentioned, so having information about it is essential and useful for those who want to travel across Costa Rica with their own vehicle, rented or even borrowed.
Driving legally in Costa Rica
For foreigners who want to drive in Costa Rica, the Traffic Law (“Ley de Tránsito por Vías Públicas Terrestres y Seguridad Vial, 9078”) will apply in the same way as it does for locals. That is to say that the same regulations apply to them, and also the same sanctions as to Costa Ricans or other residents.
The time permitted for a person to drive with a foreign license in Costa Rica is 90 days. If after that time the person wants to drive legally without leaving the country, they must be residents and obtain a national driver’s license or make a homologation of their foreign driver’s license. Any type of foreign license that meets the international legal requirements can be homologated in Costa Rica. After those 90 days, you can also leave the country and re-enter to get a new valid stamp.
For the process of obtaining a national license or homologating a foreign one, the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT, its acronym in Spanish) requires foreign drivers to present their identity card of residence, which is called DIMEX. That means that, for a foreigner to legally drive in Costa Rica after the first three months, their residency should have been approved by the Immigration Department.
Why is it important to drive legally?
Many people think that the repercussions of driving illegally as a foreign in Costa Rica are strictly migratory in open processes, but that’s not entirely true. The MOPT is a government institution and is separated from the Immigration Department, so its regulations are to ensure road control. However, both departments have communication between them.
So, if at anytime a person is stopped on the road and is driving with a foreign license after three months, the traffic police will confiscate the license plates of the vehicle. Therefore, this would imply that the person has to go through the process of recovering the license plates and pay the corresponding fines. In the case when the vehicle is rented, the car rental company will have to pay the additional charges.
One of the migratory effects that someone driving illegally in Costa Rica could face is a “border closure order”, meaning that in order to be able to leave the country they must have paid all the traffic fines that apply to their license or vehicle. When a foreign driver or vehicle is ticketed, the National Road Council (COSEVI, its acronym in Spanish) will notify the Immigration Department to issue an order not to allow the vehicle or driver to leave the country.
This order is not lifted until the fines are paid. If you try to leave the country with outstanding fines, you will probably be stopped at the airport or border control.
Grace period for using a foreign driver’s license
Previously, the MOPT had extended the periods to be able to drive with a foreign license due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a series of temporary measures taken by the Immigration Department.
For example, foreign drivers that were in Costa Rica as tourists from December 17, 2019, to November 30, 2020, were given a waiver to legally drive after their first three months in the country. This was done with the purpose that these people, due to border closures and other reasons, could use their foreign license on Costa Rican roads until June 1, 2021.
Thus, within this category of tourists were all those people who had an appointment scheduled with the Immigration Department but had not yet presented their documents on the premises of this institution. In other words, these foreigners were waiting for the date of the appointment to arrive and, in that case, after that date, they would have to leave the country and enter again in order to be able to use their driver’s license.
The other grace period, which is the one that many foreigners have had doubts about, is the one for people who already had an open process with the Immigration Department. In this case, the MOPT established that the waiver was extended for foreigners whose immigration status can be classified as “regular” — that is, those whose final residency resolution is pending or those who are in the process of requesting a change of immigration category or extension (“prórroga”, in Spanish).
Because of this grace period, those foreigners could drive in the country until September 30, 2021, if their driver’s license was valid or expired as late as March 20, 2020. This applied to everyone who had a docket number provided to them at the time of filing the application for residency and who were waiting for the Immigration Department to issue a ruling on the application.
Why was this grace period not extended?
A fundamental point is that the Traffic Law only allows a person to drive with a foreign license for a period of three months and no more than that. Nevertheless, there are circumstances that can change this fact, as it happened in those months when borders had to be closed due to Covid-19, and that’s the reason the MOPT gave this exception for a certain period of time.
As a result of the above, the law must always be complied with. So, now that the situation has improved, the original rule that was already established is once again in force. After September 30, 2021, the borders were already open and working normally, so the MOPT made the decision not to extend the grace period that was given before.
An important detail to take into account is that both institutions are part of the government. They have communication between them, and they analyze aspects that involve both. However, neither has a hierarchy over the other since they are different institutions with different functions. Thus, if the MOPT took this decision, it was merely for road control and to comply with the provisions of the Traffic Law.
Based on the above, if you want to drive in the country, the most important thing is to do it in compliance with all the regulations that Costa Rica establishes since they will apply to everyone equally, whether they are nationals or foreigners.
As mentioned, not complying with the regulations will bring consequences to both the person and the vehicle, so it is important to follow the guidelines and avoid negative repercussions, which will make your time in Costa Rica more enjoyable.