If you want to get a Costa Rican driver’s license, this guide will tell you how to do it STEP BY STEP with exact details and costs.
I recently did it by myself without a lawyer, right after I received my Costa Rican residency and it was a simple process.
I renewed my license in 2025 and will talk about how to renew too.
How to Get a Costa Rican Driver’s License: Who is Eligible?
Tourists can not get a Costa Rican driver’s license, only residents and citizens can get a Costa Rican driver’s license.
Once you have received your Costa Rican residency (temporary or permanent), you can homologate your foreign driver’s license.
This means you can use your driver’s license from your home country to obtain a Costa Rican driver’s license without taking the driving test as long as you receive approval from the Dirección General de Educación Vial and validate your driver’s license.
I had to go to Liberia twice due to the fact that you need an appointment at COSEVI for homologation approval and an appointment at BCR to validate and receive the actual license.
I was very lucky to be able to get in all done within 24 hours but just be aware that you may not be able to get your license right away due to the separate appointment requirements at Cosevi and at the BCR.
It can be difficult to find appointments, some people have had to wait weeks or even months to get an appointment.
Requirements to Homologate Your Foreign Driver’s License
Make an appointment and check requirements here: Direccion General de Educacion Vial
- Appointment at COSEVI to approve the homologation
- Proof of your legal permanence in Costa Rica: DIMEX, work permit. You will need your cedula in good condition.
- Must be at least 18 years of age
- Your original driver’s license you want to homologate. It must be valid and in good condition.
- Your passport that must be valid and in good condition. If not in Spanish, it will need to be officially translated
- You must have remained in Costa Rica for a period greater than 3 months and 1 day consecutively, starting from your last entry into the country. This must be demonstrated with your passport (entrance and exit stamps) or you must get a certification of your exits/entries from the Immigration Department
- If your driver’s license is from a different country that is not your nationality of origin or birth, you need to prove your legal stay in the country where you obtained the license (residency, work permit, refugee card, social security or passport)
- Medical certificate (dictamen medico) which is valid for 180 days
- If the driver’s license is not in Spanish, you must get it officially translated into Spanish.
- Validation and payment of the license fee at BCR after approval (6000 CRC)
- If your last name is different due to marriage, you must present an original marriage certificate (translated into Spanish)
- For those who wish to get a C-2 license by homologation, you must take the course of public transport
- In case there is doubt of legitimacy of the driver’s license or it does not meet the safety/security standards, the certification must be presented and issued by the Ministry of Transportation or the corresponding Embassy
Getting an Appointment at Cosevi
Important: You can only homologate your license after being in the country for more than 3 months and 1 day.
I received my Costa Rican residency in May and my last entry into Costa Rica was June 15th.
I made an appointment for September 14th, the 91st day since my last entry.
Technically, I think it’s supposed to be on your 92nd day since they say after 3 months plus one day, but I had no problem with my appointment being on my 91st day (Liberia office).
To make an appointment, you must go onto this website: https://servicios.educacionvial.go.cr/Formularios/SolicitarCitaTramite.
Sometimes it may say there are no appointments available but keep checking every day. They normally release appointments around 7-8 AM and show available appointments one to two weeks out.
I made my appointment for the 14th on September 1st.
This is what to enter to find appointments
Tipo de Identificacion: Documento Migratorio
Identificacion: Your ID number, should be 12 numbers. Once you enter it, then you’ll need to enter your name, phone number and email.
Tipo Tramite: Cita homologacion licencia extranjera
Tipo Licencia: B1 since I only need the license for lightweight vehicles.
Then accept the terms, click Continuar, then it’ll ask you to choose your location and then it’ll pop up the calendar of available appointments. You only have something like 5 minutes to confirm your appointment.
Once you confirm your appointment, make sure you download the PDF confirmation. You cannot change your appointment once you’ve made it.
What I Brought to My COSEVI Appointment
- Official translations of both my driver’s license and passport
- My original driver’s license (USA)
- My Costa Rican cedula
- My dictamen medico (health assessment certification)
I also made color copies of my dictamen medico and my translations to have back ups for my personal use.
For my translations, I found an official translator online. It cost 11,300 CRC per document plus a 3000 CRC shipping fee.
I scanned my driver’s license and passport, sent them to her via email, paid her via SINPE and I received the translated documents with the stamp and receipt 4 days later.
For my dictamen medico, I made an appointment at my local medical center in Villarreal where I live. It cost ~25,000 CRC and was very easy.
I Whatsapped them on September 3rd and made my appointment for September 12th. The medical assessment is valid for 180 days.
Appointment Day
You have to arrive at least 10 minutes early to your appointment. I arrived around 30 minutes early and they let me in.
If you are going to the Liberia office, then you need to go to the Cosevi Direccion General de Educacion Vial.
This office is across from Hotel Santa Ana, here is the map. It is about a 1.5 hour drive from Tamarindo.
Do not go to the Cosevi that’s close to downtown Liberia off the Interamericana highway1.
Once you arrive, check in with the security guard who will look for your name on the list and let you inside. Then you need to go to the waiting room until they call your name.
Once they call your name, you’ll be led inside the building and into the office of the person in charge of approving the homologation.
He’ll ask for your documents (translations, cedula and dictamen medico) and you just have to wait until he finishes entering your information in.
Then he’ll send you to the office next door where that man will then ask you for the translation documents to enter your driver’s license information.
Then I went back to the first office where he stamped my file and said I was done. He told me that now I had to go to the BCR to pay the fee, get my picture taken and receive the actual license.
He kept all of my official documents, you don’t get those back.
This appointment went by very quickly, it didn’t take me more than 40 minutes including the waiting time.
I checked in at 9 AM and was out by 940 AM. My appointment was for 930 AM.
Validating Your Driver’s License at the BCR
You can only validate your license (pay the fee and get the actual license) after you are approved and it’s by appointment only.
My recommendation is when you make your appointment at COSEVI, check the BCR website right after to see if you can get an appointment the same day or around the same day so you can get your license as soon as possible.
These appointments go super fast. I was really lucky to get an appointment in Liberia the next day.
When I checked Santa Cruz and Nicoya, there weren’t any available appointments until November. Cañas did have appointments in September still.
Here is the BCR website to make appointments: https://www.bancobcr.com/wps/portal/bcr/bancobcr/personas/servicios_personas/punto_pais/
- Click Ver detalle under Cita para Licencia
- Click Solicite Aqui su cita
- Seleccione el servicio: Citas Licencias/Pasaportes
- Seleccione el Topico: Licencias Residentes
- Identificacion (your DIMEX ID number)
- Seleccione el Tramite: Licencia por Homologacion
- Seleccione una provincia: (I chose Guanacaste as that’s where I live)
- Seleccione una sucursal: Select your location you want to go to (I chose Plaza Santa Rosa Liberia)
Once you select your appointment date and time slot, enter your information, hit confirm and they will send you an email confirmation.
My BCR Liberia Appointment
On the day of my appointment, the bank called me in the morning to push my appointment up from 340 PM to 1 PM which worked great for me.
The BCR in Liberia is the one in the Plaza Santa Rosa, location here.
I arrived around 1250 PM, waited until 1 PM and then the security guard called me inside. I gave my cedula to the lady in charge of doing the driver’s licenses and waited until they called my name.
Once they called my name, they asked for my cedula and I had to sign some papers. I also had to pay 6000 CRC in cash and then they took my picture.
I signed a couple other papers and then she handed me my license. Easy peasy!
I hope this guide on how to get a Costa Rican driver’s license was helpful for you and now you’ve learned how to homologate your driver’s license in Costa Rica by yourself – NO lawyer needed!
Renewal
I had to renew my driver’s license in 2025. It was super easy.
I made an appointment on the BCR website at the Nicoya location. They were only showing appointments two months out. Since I wasn’t going to be in Costa Rica in September, I made an appointment for July to get it done before I left in August.
Two days before my appointment, I went to get my dictamen medico at the local clinic in my town.
The doctor can even make an appointment for you – he asked me if I needed help with an appointment but I already made it.
At the BCR appointment, I brought the license, my passport, my dictamen medico confirmation and cash. When my turn was up, I paid around 7000 CRC and gave him my papers.
They took my picture and gave me my license right away. Took about 30 minutes including wait time at the Nicoya branch.
Don’t forget to check out our following guides about driving in Costa Rica which you can find below.
Donna Conneely says
Here is what I needed for homologación process.
May 2025 in Puntarenas
1. Printout of your appointment confirmation. I didn’t need this, but it’s safer to have it in hand.
2. Physical US (or foreign) license in good condition.
3. Copy of license, front and back.
4. Official translation of the license if it’s in any other language than Spanish.
5. Physical cédula in good condition.
6. Copy of cédula, front and back
7. Passport in good condition
8. Copy of passport face page and last entry stamp.
9. Medical exam paperwork. The ‘dictamen médico” is normally submitted automatically and electronically by the examiner. But it’s better to have it in hand.
Daniel says
I got my wife’s and mine done this week Feb 2025 and this is how I did it (there are new rules)
1.) I had to officially translate our Swiss drivers licenses (each was CRC 12’000 per page) – DIGITAL was accepted, but do print out both the original and translation of it and bring the original. Note our Swiss drivers licenses didn’t have an expiry date and this was not an issue. The categories listed on the drivers license do not match those of CR entirely so use ChatGPT to get the appropriate category which is basically the B1 or if you drive a large motorbike A3
2.) Since our passports were issued from another country than the drivers license we also had to show proof of residency in Switzerland and officially translate our permits (each was CRC 12’000 per page) – DIGITAL was accepted, but do print out both the original and translation. We did not have the actual residence permits, only a picture and for whatever reason the guy at COSEVI only wanted it for my wife (Brazilian) not mine (Netherlands) which made no sense to me, but I think he thought either my passport or my driver license was from the same country.
3.) Passports do NOT need to be translated, but do bring a copy.
4.) The 90 day rule is NO MORE so that whole problem is gone.
5.) Bring your DIMEX and I even saw someone get the license based on the TRAMITE for the DIMEX or better said that he was in process of getting his DIMEX and he had to show the paperwork to prove it.
6.) Our appointment was for 10:10am in Nicoya and it took about 2 hours, there was no real follow the schedule in effect, it was who ever they decided to call 1st.
7.) Setting the appointment was cumbersome, you have to check in the morning of the last and first 5 days of the Month and get lucky. I was able to reserve for both my wife and me at the same time.
8.) We had a BCR appointment in Santa Cruz for 2 months later in April, I checked every day all of Guanacaste and by chance it suddenly showed appointment options one day but this was 2 months later than my appointment at COSEVI and they guy told me that even though I was now in the system, that without the BCR printed license I was not allowed to drive. So I did the impossible and went to the bank anyways almost immediately after COSEVI and we begged the security guy to let us in explaining that there were no appointments available. He asked the teller if she had the time and we simply got lucky (only one couple was ahead of us) and so she took us in. It was about 45min in total and for every category on your drivers license you get a separate physical drivers license. So I have one for motorbikes and one for cars. It cost us about CRC 6000 per license and was paid in cash, USD also accepted or you can pay with a BCR card only.
rd says
when you present your us drivers license that shows valid
do they run a check on it through the us dmv?
Sammi says
I don’t know what or how they check, but when they take your US drivers license, they run it through something on the computer that checks if the US drivers license (or your home country drivers license) is valid
Juan says
Question do they keep your foreign DL or do they hand it over and you get to keep both costa rica and a US licence?
Sammi says
Nope they don’t take your foreign DL, you keep it