Moving to Costa Rica from New Zealand

Our residency index: 80/100, comparatively open. It is our own rating of how realistic long-term residency in Costa Rica is for New Zealand citizens, based on the routes Costa Rica publishes. Costa Rica offers well-established temporary-residency routes for retirees with a lifetime pension (Pensionado), people of independent means (Rentista), and investors (Inversionista), all leading to permanent residency after three years.

The cheapest self-funded routes we track:

• Income: about $1,000 a month (Pensionado route, lifetime pension of USD 1,000/mo; the Rentista sufficient-means alternative requires USD 2,500/mo guaranteed for two years (or a USD 60,000 bank deposit); as of June 2026)
• Investment: about $150k (Inversionista route, USD 150,000 minimum qualifying investment (USD 100,000 for approved forestry projects); as of June 2026)

Check the official requirements before you apply: amounts, conditions and exchange rates change, and what a couple needs can differ from a single applicant's threshold.

For short visits, New Zealand passport holders can visit visa-free for up to 180 days, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit.

Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold New Zealand passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.

1. 1

   1. San José

   81% match

   Est. cost

   €2,801/mo

   Avg temp

   20°C

   Safety index

   65/100

Our estimate for a couple living centrally in San José is €2,801 a month. For comparison, we estimate €3,812 a month in Auckland. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.

Costa Rica is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax); New Zealand is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in New Zealand after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.

• Safest cities in Latin America
• Best places to live in Latin America
• Best places to retire in Latin America
• Easiest countries to move to
• Cheapest cities to live in Latin America
• Best places to retire abroad on a budget

• Moving to Costa Rica from the US
• Moving to Costa Rica from the UK
• Moving to Costa Rica from Canada
• Moving to Costa Rica from Australia
• Moving to Costa Rica from Ireland

Every country and origin we cover

Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:

• Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
• Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
• City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding New Zealand passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
• Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
• Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.