Obtaining a Costa Rican Driver's License

I recently had the opportunity to help a friend get a Costa Rican driver's license. With the recent move to La Uruca it is really easy and quick.

Remember if you are here for longer than 90 days, your foreign driver's license is not considered to be be valid. If you are a frequent visitor or someone who spends considerable amounts of time here, it may be to your advantage to obtain a local driver's license.

It really isn't that difficult to get and with everything in order proceeds quickly.

You will need photocopies of 2 pages from your passport. The first is the page with your photo and then the page with your entry stamp.

Next a document for a doctor. This can be obtained from any doctor in Costa Rica or if you don't know one, there are doctors set up to just do this examination near the La Uruca offices. It takes about 10 minutes and costs about 6,000 colones.

As you approach the entrance to the building you will see a branch of the Banco of Costa Rica. Here you will have to the 4,000 colone registration fee.

With these documents and receipt the guard will allow you to enter the building. Proceed to the second floor where your documents will be reviewed and stamped. Then back to the main floor for your information to be entered into the computer system and have your photo and a finger print (digital scan) entered. After about 3 minutes you will have your new license.

This may seem like a lengthy process but it only took about an hour.

I would recommend that anyone who travels here frequently or is planning a longer stay obtain a local driver's license. Besides having a piece of Costa Rican ID, imagine the expression on the face of someone back home when you present a Costa Rican driver's license as ID.


Rod