Quick answer: Residency paperwork gets you the legal right to live in Costa Rica. Our concierge relocation service handles everything that turns that right into an actual settled life — school search and enrollment, healthcare navigation, property management setup, vehicle and licensing support, and community introductions. It is the difference between having a visa and having a life.
Ready to talk specifics? Book a strategy call and we will map your situation against the options below.
Why the paperwork is only half the job
Plenty of people obtain residency and then discover that the hard part was never the application — it was everything after. Finding the right school with places still open. Navigating Caja enrolment and private cover. Getting a bank account, a driving licence, a reliable property manager for the months you are away. Each of these is individually manageable and collectively exhausting in an unfamiliar system and, often, a second language. The concierge tier exists to absorb that.
School search and enrollment
The decision that most often drives where a family lives. We help shortlist international schools — concentrated in the Escazu and Santa Ana corridor — arrange visits, and support the enrollment and records process. Because places at the strongest schools are limited and cycles matter, we push this early rather than letting it become a scramble.
Healthcare navigation
We make introductions across both the public Caja system, which residents join at 7–11% of declared income and which covers pre-existing conditions, and private providers for speed and choice. For families with a specific ongoing medical need, mapping the named specialists before the move — not after — is part of the work.
Property, vehicles and daily infrastructure
Property management vendor setup so a home is looked after when you are not in it. Vehicle import and licensing support, which matters given Costa Rica steep vehicle import duties. And the unglamorous connective tissue — utilities, local banking, service providers — that makes daily life function.
Community and belonging
The least tangible and often most important. Introductions to the established expat community in Escazu and Santa Ana, and to social and country clubs, shorten the loneliness of the first year — the phase where relocations most often falter, and where the accompanying spouse who left a career and network behind needs a foothold most.
Who this is for, honestly
Not everyone needs white-glove relocation. A single retiree comfortable navigating systems may do fine with application support alone. The concierge tier earns its place for families relocating a whole life at once — children, healthcare needs, property, and the dozen simultaneous logistics that overwhelm people trying to do it solo in a new country. If your move is simpler, we will tell you a lighter engagement fits.
The accompanying-partner problem nobody plans for
The single most underestimated part of a family relocation is what happens to the partner who is not the one with the job. The relocating professional keeps their structure, purpose and calendar. The accompanying spouse frequently loses their career, their friendship network and their daily routine at the same moment, in a country where they may not yet speak the language well. It is a well-documented pattern in international relocation, and it is where otherwise sound moves quietly fail.
Concierge support treats this as a primary objective rather than an afterthought. The community introductions in Escazú and Santa Ana, the club memberships, the help building a local routine — these are not luxuries for the accompanying partner; they are the foothold that turns a difficult first year into a survivable one. Families who plan for it deliberately do far better than those who assume it will sort itself out.
What "single team" actually prevents
The deeper value of concierge relocation is not the individual services — it is that one team owns the handoffs between them. A relocation touches immigration, real estate, tax, banking, schools and healthcare simultaneously, and when each sits with a separate provider, the gaps between them are where things drop. The classic failure: property structured for succession by one advisor in a way that quietly disqualifies it for the residency another advisor is filing. Each did their job; nobody owned the interface.
A concierge engagement means someone is accountable for the whole sequence — that the title structure serves both succession and residency, that the school timeline aligns with the move, that the source-of-funds trail satisfies both the bank and DGME. That coordination is the actual product; the school search and healthcare introductions are how it shows up day to day.
Frequently asked
Is relocation support separate from residency filing?
Yes — residency filing is the legal process; concierge relocation is the on-the-ground settling-in support layered on top, for families who want a single team handling both.
Can you help with schools mid-year?
We try, but places at the strongest schools are limited and cycle-dependent, which is why we push the school conversation to the very start of the process.
Do you help after we arrive?
Yes — our fuller engagements include ongoing advisory for the settling-in period rather than ending at the DIMEX card.
What does it cost?
We publish our fees rather than quote privately. The relocation-inclusive tier is our flagship engagement; a strategy call is the right place to match a package to your actual needs.
Is concierge relocation worth it for a simple move?
Often not — a single retiree with a pension and no property can coordinate their own small team. It earns its cost when the complexity is real: children, healthcare needs, property and simultaneous logistics that overwhelm people doing it solo in a new country.
Do you support the non-working spouse specifically?
Yes, deliberately — community and club introductions and help building a local routine, because the accompanying partner reestablishment is where relocations most often succeed or fail.
Can I add relocation support to a lighter package later?
Generally yes — many clients start with application support and add on-the-ground relocation help as the move approaches and the practical needs become concrete. A strategy call is the place to match the engagement level to where you are.
Do you help with vehicle import and licensing?
Yes, in the fuller relocation tier — which matters given Costa Rica steep vehicle import duties, where buying locally is often the better answer. We help you model that decision rather than assume shipping your car makes sense.
Is the relocation tier only for large families?
No — it suits any move with real complexity, including a couple relocating with healthcare needs, property and simultaneous logistics. The test is how many things must happen at once, not household size.
Where to start
Decision-stage questions are best answered against your actual numbers, timeline and family situation rather than a general article. Book a strategy call and we will tell you plainly whether Costa Rica fits — and, if it does, which route and structure suit you. If a country other than Costa Rica is the better answer for you, we will say so.
This article is general information, not legal, immigration, tax or investment advice. Program terms and figures change and are applied to individual facts; those cited were accurate at the time of writing and should be confirmed. Engage qualified counsel and your own tax adviser before acting.