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Costa Rica for Basotho passport holders: Embassy visa

Your circumstances

Passport:
🇱🇸 Basotho
Lives in:
Not specified (general rule)
Going to:
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Purpose:
Holiday

Route summary

Embassy visa

Consular visa required

Basotho passport holders need a consular visa for Costa Rica, unless they hold a qualifying US, Canadian or Schengen visa or EU/UK residence.

Conditions

  • Exempt from the visa if holding a valid multiple-entry US or Canadian visa/residence, a multiple-entry Schengen C/D visa, or residence in the EU, UK, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland (see Directrices, section QUINTO).
  • Passport valid at least 180 days.

About this route

Route type
Embassy visa: you apply through an embassy, consulate or appointed visa centre.
Documents
Document list not published by the official source.
Fee
Fee not published by the official source.
Processing
Processing time not published by the official source.

Next step

Steps not published by the official source — use the official link to start.

Official sourceicoder.go.cr ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Last checked 10 Oct 2026 against icoder.go.cr · Costa Rica Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería – Directrices Generales de Visas (AJ-484-11-2025, Alcance 148 a La Gaceta 216, 2025-11-17), PDF copy hosted by ICODER (go.cr), read 2026-10-16

Documents

Document list not published by the official source.

Fees

Fee not published by the official source.

Processing and validity

Processing time
Not published by the official source
Validity
Not published by the official source
Maximum stay
Up to 30 days (extendable to 90)

Already hold another country's visa or residence permit?

Some Basotho passport holders can enter Costa Rica differently if they hold one of these documents. Add yours (optional – kept only in the page address):

Documents I hold (optional)

If you hold a valid US/Canadian/Schengen/EU/UK visa or residence permit: No visa needed – Up to 30 days

Qualifying documents: US visa, Canadian visa, Schengen visa, US green card, Canadian PR, EU-country residence permit, Schengen-country residence permit, UK residence permit.

  • A valid multiple-entry visa or residence of the US or Canada (not US transit visas C1–C3), a multiple-entry Schengen C or D visa, or residence (multiple-entry or valid at least 90 days; not refugee/asylum) in the UK, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland or an EU country.

Schengen-country residence permit: Residence in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland counts. Liechtenstein is not listed.

Source: Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería – Directrices generales de visas (icoder.go.cr). Checked 16 Oct 2026.

What the source says

"… cuenten con visas o residencias que permitan múltiples ingresos en cualquier categoría, … cuenten con una residencia en cualquier categoría que permita múltiples ingresos o con …"

Border officers decide on entry. Check the official source before you travel.

How to apply: Consular visa required

Where to apply

Where: Costa Rican consulate

Quick answers

Do Basotho passport holders need a visa for Costa Rica?

Consular visa required. Basotho passport holders need a consular visa for Costa Rica, unless they hold a qualifying US, Canadian or Schengen visa or EU/UK residence. Source: https://www.icoder.go.cr/fileadmin/documentos/tramites/visas/Directrices-Generales-de-Visas-Noviembre-2025-Alcance-148-Gaceta-N_-216-17-11-2025.pdf

Business, work or just passing through?

The rules above are for a holiday: tourism and visiting family and friends. Business visits, paid work and transit are covered separately below.

Business visits to Costa Rica

Not verified yet (not yet covered). We haven't verified the business rules for Basotho passport holders, and we don't publish rules we haven't checked against an official source. A rule that is awaiting verification or not yet covered is not a negative visa decision: it only means we haven't confirmed it on an official source yet. Until then, see icoder.go.cr.

Working in Costa Rica

⚠ Not from an official source: items marked below come from secondary sources (law firms, employer-of-record guides, IOM, Wikipedia), not the destination government. They are not verified and may be out of date; confirm with the embassy or immigration authority.

Main work visa routes for Costa Rica

These are the main routes and what they require. Whether you qualify depends on your circumstances; the official page decides.

Work permit (Special Category, Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería)

⚠ Not from an official source

For: Foreign employees in Costa Rica

  • Work permits fall under the “Special Category” framework of the immigration department

Source: G-P Globalpedia – Costa Rica visas & permits (employer-of-record guide) (Not official) (globalization-partners.com) · Not from an official source.

What the source says

"In Costa Rica, a work permit is generally an immigration authorization within the “Special Category” framework." … "Costa Rica’s work permits and employment-authorization immigration categories are handled by the General Immigration Department"

Checked 16 Oct 2026. Requirements, fees and thresholds change; confirm on the official page before applying.

Your work travel report

We only create the PDF report from rules checked against an official government source.

Transit through Costa Rica

Not verified yet (not yet covered). We haven't verified the transit rules for Basotho passport holders, and we don't publish rules we haven't checked against an official source. A rule that is awaiting verification or not yet covered is not a negative visa decision: it only means we haven't confirmed it on an official source yet. Until then, see icoder.go.cr.

Your transit travel report

We only create the PDF report from rules checked against an official government source.

Alert me if this route changes

Get an email when we update the guidance for Basotho passport holders going to Costa Rica, after we've checked the change against the official source. Nothing else.

Tell me about changes to

We send a confirmation email first. Unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after 7 days.

Before you go to Costa Rica

Customs cash limits and the scams official travel advice warns about in Costa Rica.

Common tourist traps

  1. Fake breakdowns and staged collisions

    How it works: Strangers flag down hire cars asking for help, and criminals sometimes cause deliberate collisions to rob drivers.

    How to avoid it: Don't stop for strangers. If a collision looks deliberate, drive on to a safe place such as a police station or garage.

Emergency numbers in Costa Rica

Paraphrased from official travel advice: gov.uk · FCDO page updated 19 May 2026 · Last checked 24 Oct 2026.

Explore Costa Rica

Planning more than the paperwork? Our Costa Rica guide picks out places to visit, with a source for every tip.

Places to visit:
Área de Conservación Guanacaste · Cocos Island National Park
Read the full Costa Rica guide

Basotho passport: of the 147 destinations with a rule verified from an official source, 36 visa-free, 10 visa on arrival, 24 eVisa or travel authorisation, 77 embassy visa.

Costa Rica: rules verified from an official source for 198 of 198 passports. Costa Rica guide and every passport →

Where else can Basotho passport holders travel? See every destination we cover →

Optional travel offers

Some links are affiliate links. Booking through them costs you nothing extra, and a small commission helps pay MyVisaPort’s ongoing hosting and maintenance costs and keeps the site free of banner ads. We only list services we think are useful, and they never affect the visa information we publish. These offers are not part of the visa guidance above and are never used to rank routes. How partner links work

Plan your trip to Costa Rica

Verify with the embassy before you book. Visa rules change without notice. We link every rule to its official source and last checked it on 10 Oct 2026, but the embassy, official e-visa portal and your airline have the final say. MyVisaPort is not a visa agent and is not affiliated with any government.