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At the present time, the “buy” rate is $1.00US = c492. That is, you’ll get c492 if you buy them with $1.00US. The rate fluctuates somewhat, but for the last couple of years it’s been hovering right around $1.00US = c500.
The “sell” rate, the rate that you’ll pay in colones to buy one U.S. dollar is generally a few colones higher. Right now, it’s about c503 = $1.00US.
In general, one cannot work legally, even in a business they own, until becoming a [b]permanent[/b] legal resident. That requires actually being a legal temporary resident for three years and then applying. Processing applications for both temporary and permanent residency can take a year each, so the entire process to obtain permanent legal residency can take up to five years.
Non-residents can obtain work permits (which can take a year or longer to be granted, and success is not assured) [b]IF[/b] they have unique skills that are not available in the local labor force. They cannot compete with Costa Ricans for employment.
There is no shortage of Costa Ricans who are qualified and available to teach English in the public schools, in the universities, and in the numerous language schools, so even with a certification as a teacher of English as a Second Language you are unlikely to find a position which you could legally fill. And if you did, it would probably be only part-time.
What’s more, it’s important to understand that, as compared to wages in North America, wages in Costa Rica are ridiculously low. Especially working part-time, it is unlikely that you could support yourself in a manner that you would find acceptable.
Should you work while in a tourist or temporary residency status (while you are not a legal permanent resident, that is), and should you be caught, you would be subject to immediate deportation without the opportunity to go home to pick up your toothbrush.
I’ve pursued the matter of using PayPal to send money to my Costa Rican bank account several times. Short answer: It can’t be done.
I’ve also tried sending money from one of my PayPal accounts to another PayPal account and then withdrawing it to a Costa Rican account. Short answer: No Go.
When I’ve pursued it with a PayPal customer service supervisor, I still get a flat “No” answer.
You can send money from your Costa Rican bank account (at least from Banco Nacional) to a PayPal account and then withdraw it to your U.S. bank account, but you cannot withdraw money from a PayPal account to a Costa Rican bank account.
This has something to do with matters of money laundering, terrorist funding, and the fact that Costa Rica is not in full compliance with international banking regulations. Were it that it were otherwise.
Insured or not, you’ll be exposing yourself to some risk of loss. If you do your own packing, then proving what was in a box and what its value was will be a difficult task.
Were it mine to do, I’d plan to carry anything of high value with me on the plane. Even if you have to pay for a couple of extra suitcases, that would be less expensive than losing that volume of high-value things. And for such stuff as jewelry, I’d plan to pack that in my carry-on.
What you say makes good sense. In the total cost of building a home, a few wire transfers directly to the builder and for expenses already incurred seems like a good way to go. The cost per transfer is pretty steep, but you wouldn’t be doing it often, so in the total scheme of things it wouldn’t add much to the cost.
The couple or three times we’ve negotiated traveler’s checks in Costa Rica, we’ve cashed them via the bank teller and then deposited the cash. It takes a while for the teller to get clearance from American Express, but the money’s available immediately. There’s been no delay as there would be with any U.S. bank check.
The answer to your question depends on several variables. U.S. financial institutions have a cutoff each day at which time all pending outgoing wire transfers are processed. So you must first beat that deadline.
My understanding is that wire transfers are transmitted overnight, so assuming you meet the first deadline, the transfer should appear at BCR the following day. Then it’s a matter of how long their central office takes to process it and credit it to your account. I don’t think the fact that your account is based in Jaco has anything to do with it.
When we bought our property in 2005, my wife, then in the U.S., had Wachovia Bank initiate a wire transfer to our Banco Nacional account around noon on a Thursday. It arrived and was credited to our BN account by 10AM the following morning.
How your U.S. bank and BCR will perform is anybody’s guess. New bureaucracy, imposed since our transfer, could make the process much more cumbersome.
The withdrawal from our U.S. credit union shows up via online banking in three days, too, but Banco HSBC still holds the credit for ten business days. That’s certainly better than Banco Nacional’s performance.
My question remains: Does depositing a U.S. bank’s cashier’s check shorten the delay time?
You’re marrying a Costa Rican woman, right? And you’re talking about an account in a Costa Rican bank, right?
If yes to the latter, you can at least be given access to your wife-to-be’s account, but U.S. Social Security won’t permit direct deposit there. For the purpose of having our SS payments deposited in Costa Rica, Marcia and I have to have separate accounts at Banco Nacional, but each of us can access the other’s.
[quote=”watchdog”]No, fifteen business days is not a fixed waiting time for U.S. checks to clear for all CR banks, that is why I used the word “approximately”. For instance, Scotiabank also clears U.S. checks in ten business days; other banks require longer periods to clear U.S. checks, which periods seems to vary from time to time.[/quote]
Okay, but my question is whether the banks credit [u]cashier’s[/u] checks more quickly than ordinary personal checks. Does depositing a cashier’s check make the money available sooner?
If the Customs officer stamped your passport, then you have used your duty exemption for the next six months. Recall that the Customs form the flight attendant gave you before you landed asked if you’d used your exemption in the previous six months, so if you re-enter in (say) five months, you’ll have to mark the “Yes” box for that question.
I can’t say what is or isn’t permitted, Tom, but the incoming electrical service to our guest house, built in 2005, and our main house, built a year later (both outside Grecia, Alajuela) and full permitted, cross private property thanks to a legal easement. The water lines run through that same easement.
watchdog, do you know for a fact that that fifteen-day delay for a deposited [u]cashier’s[/u] checks applies to all Costa Rican banks? I ask because my regular bank check, if deposited at Banco HSBC, clears in ten business days, and others have written that Banco Nacional, for example, holds regular checks drawn on U.S. banks for up to six weeks. I don’t know how they handle cashier’s checks.
