******Planning on moving to costa rica few questions ******HELP :)))

teachdejaD
Regarding your questions:
1. There are lots of jobs available. But there are two important questions regarding your ability to get a job. a) what are your skills and experience? b) what type of legal status you will have in Costa Rica? Although there tons of jobs around, it will be difficult to get a job if you are not legal in the country. Depending on your skills and experience you may be able to find a company that will sponsor your work visa. If you are only able to wait tables, it will not be difficult to find a job, but that employer will not sponsor your work visa and you will be working under the table with no social security.
2. Colones is the national currency. Therefore, you will not have a problem using colones. US dollars are widely accepted, but generally, stores do not accept $50 and $100 bills. Furthermore, you will get nickeled and dimed with the exchange rate if you don't do it at a bank.
3. As in any other country, generally, landlords are hesitant to allow dogs in the house, apartment, etc. However, you will always find someone who will be willing to rent to dog lovers. You just need to look around. You may need to pay extra deposit.
4.  Regarding the utilities, it goes on a case by case basis. There may be some apartments that will include utilities and some that don't. You just need to ask the landlord.
5. Depending whether to have a home near the beach or the mountains, depends on your personal preference. There are beaches that are remotely located, some others have big towns with lots of shops around them; similar situation with the mountains.
6. I have never heard of a dog travel agency, but I bet there must be one. Look for it in google. I suggest just to get your dog on  the plane. They will charge you $100 per pet.  Give them some Benadryl.

Wow amazing thanks so much for answering

Well my major is in psychology and education degree to teach children. Is there any jobs for a "teacher"
I speak English and Spanish.

Concerning the apartments on the beach I like a simple lifestyle I just need a space for my dogs to run.
would mountain homes or would a beach home be easier to find.
Thanks so much again )))

teachdejaD

Regarding your background on psychology and education, I suggest reaching some of the international schools. Look in google for Lincoln School, Country Day School, SEK, European School, Blue Valley, Humboldt, and Franco Costa Rica. Although, the last two are German and French, you may be able to find something. You may be able also to get a job teaching education in a local university, but the jobs are not as well paid, while schools like Lincoln pay a decent salary plus a living stipend. Plus, since you have a child, you will be able to get a scholarship for your child in that school.

It will be difficult to find a well paid Psycology/education job at the beach. Nevertheless, the Country day School has a school close to Flamingo in the northern pacific.

There is a very good offer for properties in both areas, whether the mountain or the beach. What  you should be asking is what sort of services would you like to have access to, such as banking, restaurants, clinics or hospitals, car repair, grocery stores, so on and so forth. Depending on the mountain or the beach that you will choose, you may have access to a lot of services, or you may be hours away from a good beer.

International Living  ranking Costa Rica the 5th best place to retire is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.  11 U.S. citizens have been murdered here in the last 2 years and there  have been almost no investigations.   The pólice routinely stop foreigners walking or in cars for shakedowns.  I have been stopped 5 times in the last year while walking and given complete body searches in the street.  There is tremendous racism against North Americans.
I have been here 22 years and tell everybody I can not to come either to visit or live.  International Living is doing a major disservice people like you and its readers even listing Costa Rica in the top 20 retirement destinations

teachdejaD wrote:

Hello everyone I am planning on moving to Costa Rica by next year. I have been searching and doing my own information but there are a few questions that I still have.
I was hoping anyone can help me answer them if not all some. It would be greatly appreciated ))

Here we go:

Is it easy to find a job if so what kinds?

Also concerning the currency is Costa Rican Colon the only currency used? What about(U.S dollar or Euro)? Is this the only currency they use? What if I only wanted to use Costa Rica Colon is it possible????


What about an apartment for rent for 3 people 2 dogs? Will dogs be a problem?

About apartments is light and water included in the bill?

Is it better to have a home near the beach or the mountains?

Does anyone know any dog travel agencies that will fly them to costa Rica?

Thank you to everyone who stops buy to answer a few of my question.
Greatly appreciated,
Deja

What he said.

bard wrote:

International Living  ranking Costa Rica the 5th best place to retire is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.  11 U.S. citizens have been murdered here in the last 2 years and there  have been almost no investigations.   The pólice routinely stop foreigners walking or in cars for shakedowns.  I have been stopped 5 times in the last year while walking and given complete body searches in the street.  There is tremendous racism against North Americans.
I have been here 22 years and tell everybody I can not to come either to visit or live.  International Living is doing a major disservice people like you and its readers even listing Costa Rica in the top 20 retirement destinations

Bard, now I see what you mean when you said you are "negative" in that other thread. LOL!

Bard, what part of Costa Rica are you when you get stopped and frisked? In all my time visiting and stories I hear from my friends who live there, I've never heard of this happening to anyone! I know you are telling the truth, I just wonder where this his happening. Have you heard of it happening to others, in other parts of Costa Rica?

As to the murders, 11 in 2 years doesn't seem like that many to me. And were they all completely innocent or were some of those people in bad areas, associating with bad people? I do wonder.

As to crime I do know that break ins occur and that the police often don't do much if anything about it. But violent crime there - except maybe in San Jose - doesn't seem that bad.

I agree that Costa Rica's not as good and safe as it used to be, but I still think it deserves to be considered a good place to retire.

As I said in another thread, none of my friends who live there - some dozen or so in different parts of Costa Rica - regret having moved there. I have personally known only 1 person who moved down and then moved back because he didn't like it. His main stated reason was that he didn't like how hard it was to get things done (repairs, installations, etc.) but in my opinion his main problem was that he didn't learn to speak Spanish and make Tico friends.

kohlerias wrote:

As a new member of this forum, I have to add that I have lost count of the number of folk that I knew personally, who have returned to their home country but it is in the double digits.

Wow, that's a surprising number! Very interesting.

Is there any common theme as to why they didn't like Costa Rica?

Did they live in a common area? Anything you can point to that caused to their failure to adapt?

I did reply to this post, noting reasons why folk left. For some unknown reason, it and other responses have been deleted.
Maybe, they will reappear....

All great suggestions except please, NEVER give your dog any kind of sedative when flying.  A sedative can cause your animal to suffer respiratory failure!

[moderated : keep that kind of comment for you]

Arnold Ziffle, I have no idea on why you would write such nonsense, but when you have lived here over 15 years, many people you have met during this time, have left the country, for a variety of reasons.

I'm a hermit.

Have you visited there for any length of time? Why do you think you want to move there? Dogs traveling and adapting can be an issue. What area again are you looking? Most people move because they want it to be like home and its not and won't be.

nickalas wrote:

Have you visited there for any length of time? Why do you think you want to move there? Dogs traveling and adapting can be an issue. What area again are you looking? Most people move because they want it to be like home and its not and won't be.

Good point about how  Costa Rica is not going to be like home. "We're not in Kansas, any more!" comes to mind... That is, it's really quite a different culture and many people find it very difficult to adapt to life in Costa Rica.

That said, of course many people DO adapt and love it there. ;-D

If I had to give ONE bit of advice to any and EVERYone considering moving to Costa Rica, it would be this:

LIVE THERE FOR AWHILE FIRST before "moving" there, and especially before BUYING there!

"Awhile" is relative. I'd say that means to live there "as long as you can" before permanently moving or buying there.

A long "vacation" - living in hotels and traveling around seeing the sights is NOT the same as "living there". So if you are serious about living there some day, go and rent a home of some sort, one in which you can stay in one place for awhile, buy groceries, cook, get internet or tv or whatever you will need when you live there... Get to know the neighbors... Do some banking inside the bank... etc ...

And if you plan to drive after you live there, rent a car for at least a week or two and do some driving. Driving is no picnic in Costa Rica...

I don't say all this to discourage anyone but rather to prevent anyone from getting in over their heads, and do as some have done: buy property, move down and THEN realize they can't handle the cultural / lifestyle differences.

And one more thing:
Plan on LEARNING SPANISH.
Those whom I have seen fail and return home are often those who do not learn to speak Spanish. Look at it as an ongoing thing, it may take you 10 years to become completely fluent (depends on the person and how good one is at learning languages and how much one applies oneself - it could take much less time for some). But at least one has to learn the basics and make an attempt to talk to people in Spanish. When the people see you are making an effort, they appreciate it and are more likely to embrace you as someone who wants to be part of their country and culture.

kohlerias wrote:

Arnold Ziffle, I have no idea on why you would write such nonsense, but when you have lived here over 15 years, many people you have met during this time, have left the country, for a variety of reasons.

If you read all his comments, you'll find he NEVER has anything nice to say about anyone or anything in Costa Rica.

You can forget about working, but you could open a business and hire Ticos.  75% of all new businesses started by Gringos fail, so good luck with that.  Why would you want to work for $3. per hour and live in a country that is just as expensive as North America?  Costa Rica is a country for people who have money, or a guaranteed pension income.

Dangerous?

When I started going to Costa Rica..they didn't even have 911..postal service..street lights or stop signs.
It was the 5th greenest, cleanest country in the world.  Very religious country and small...you had to be good people to survive there.  It was awesome and I will always cherish my memories of my Tico/Tica friends...surfers, hookers and all. Then..BAM..Jurassic Park...everything changed. Good ol'spoiled Americans trashed that country.  I left.  Costa Rica was a magical place....breaks my heart.
My angels fly high there..I will never forget.  Pura Vida!

Zgeran......There was feces in the rivers before the wave of Americans came.Let us not blame everything on North Americans.The Costarricense,favorite thing to say is that "gringos stole their land",that was the mantra before the tourist-turned investor boom,of the late 1980's.The truth is they gave it away for what they sold it for and didn't realize what they had,till they moved to San Jose and drank themselves to death.The whole world has changed two times over since then.Now,Costa Rica is mainly a destination for the global capitalist.What is good from this,is that this group knows,that no one is going to do them any favors here,unless they throw some big money to stay.The expat colony has never been a conventional bunch anyways.Very private,closed off and for a good reason,most have been blindsided by the realities of living Costa Rica and more so today,by leaving one failed democracy for another failed government.......

Easy to blame Americans but first look at the corruption in the Costa Rican government. I personally have employed and fed many workers in my 8 years here. Im moving to Nicaragua. Road side and highways being blocked for check points. Reminds me of China. Im not the only one leaving.

As I am coming as a retiree I have no plans to look for a job but I am going to volunteer with the local animal rescue group, I am also a baker and my plan is to sell my goods to local restaurants, cafes, to serve to their patrons. ( you try and find a decent flourless chocolate cake in the area ) It helps to spend time in the area, look for a need ...something the area could use and does not have yet, and try to fill that gap by opening your own business. You will not be allowed to work, other than maybe as a teacher as you are biingual and have teaching experience. There are tons of opportunities if you come with money to spend and if you don't have money-get creative.

Hello.  I hope the person who posted that is not thinking that every country's problem is due to Americans as Americans for the most part make countries better and move them up from 3rd world mindset at times, not always into 1st world.

Roadblocks from CR to Nicaragua?  Why you think?

I'm not sure Nicaragua would be my first choice, at least I wouldn't attempt to own or build there. What area of Nicaragua are you thinking of moving to? It's not as cheap as you may think depending on where you end up.....

With all the turmoil and horrific issues Nicaragua has been through I wouldn't consider it either.

I was told by a friend who has a friend who lives in Nicaragua that the president and the government there didn't tell anybody about the pandemic and they did nothing about it. The country is very poor and it's really nothing like Costa Rica at all. Like most countries, I have heard there are some nice beaches and nice areas. But overall I have no interest in even going back there. I went twice and that was two times too many.

There are some great places in Nicaragua, The Corn Islands, Omotepe Island, Granada, Laguna de Apoyo and San Juan Del Sur but the rest of the country is not worth seeing in my opinion.....I almost bought a place on little corn island but they have hurricanes that have wiped away most everything on the island at times and I'm not willing to take that risk. it is also not cheap in any of those areas and there's really no other good beach towns.....definitely Costa Rica is a better country for many reasons, although  Nicaragua offers incentives for retirees, its not worth the risks. Plus its hard to get used to armed guards with rifles at every stop and go....

For most that haven't traveled to other countries that have armed guards in every gas station,bank. Stop and go ect. Personal  it doesn't worry me at all.im not the bad guy

Nicaraugua to me used to be a great place to visit. Was going to do a road trip up there since I havent been there in a few years. Then the revolution type issue came up in 2018,
Then Covid and early on at least the Nica government did not publish stats on cases or deaths and so who knew how bad it was (or still is) and then pretty risky to go and visit and the borders were closed.
So David how do you find it now? Looking at the expat.com Nica forum there is hardly any posting going on and some stories of a lot of people having left. (some staying though also)
Can you find some good property  deals from expats trying to get out and stuck with properties? I saw awhile ago the nice hotel in Granada was up for sale cheap.
Where did you buy David? Best of luck to you. Hope you find it freer than here.