Visa requirements for Costa Rican citizens

Costa Rican citizens can enter all 29 Schengen states without a visa, for up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole area.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Costa Rica and 82 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

13 countries ask holders of the Costa Rican passport for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter Costa Rica without one: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Canada, Fiji, Nauru and 8 others.

The reverse holds for 46 countries: holders of the Costa Rican passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Costa Rica (Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Burundi and 41 others).

28 countries ask holders of the Costa Rican passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 3 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Costa Rica.

25 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Costa Rica, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Costa Rica, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Cuba (6).

The United States refused 16% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Costa Rica in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 55 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 141 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Costa Rican passport

By continent, the Costa Rican passport is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 28 countries in the Americas, 12 countries in Asia, 5 countries in Africa and 2 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Costa Rican citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Dominica (180 days), Mexico (180 days), El Salvador (180 days), Andorra (90 days) and the United Arab Emirates (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Costa Rican citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 25 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Costa Rican citizens enter Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Benin, Bhutan and 35 others. Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Saint Kitts and Nevis, South Korea, Suriname and the United Kingdom ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Costa Rica’s neighbours

Panama and Nicaragua admit Costa Rican citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Panamanian passport ranks 68th (127 destinations) and the Nicaraguan passport ranks 87th (111 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 95 can enter visa-free and 103 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Costa Rica.