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Costa Rica for Russian passport holders: Visa-free

Your circumstances

Passport:
🇷🇺 Russian
Lives in:
Not specified (general rule)
Going to:
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Purpose:
Holiday

Route summary

Visa-free

Visa-free (up to 90 days)

Russian passport holders can visit Costa Rica without a visa for up to 90 days.

Conditions

  • Proof of funds USD 100 per month of stay and onward/return ticket.

About this route

Route type
Visa-free: no visa application needed.
Documents
Document list not published by the official source.
Fee
No visa fee (as published).
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

Official government fee
No visa fee
Visa-centre / service fee (not a government fee)
None stated by the official source
Notes from the source
No visa fee.

Visa-centre, service or other third-party charges are never official government fees.

Processing and validity

Processing time
Not published by the official source
Validity
Not published by the official source
Maximum stay
Up to 90 days

Quick answers

Do Russian passport holders need a visa for Costa Rica?

Visa-free (up to 90 days). Russian passport holders can visit Costa Rica without a visa for up to 90 days. 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 Russian 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 Russian 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 Russian 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

Russian passport: of the 152 destinations with a rule verified from an official source, 63 visa-free, 17 visa on arrival, 23 eVisa or travel authorisation, 49 embassy visa.

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

Where else can Russian 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.