C.R. Streamlines Process For Getting License Plates

Anyone who drives a vehicle in Costa Rica can look forward to a faster, more convenient system for registering their vehicles and, according to Justice Minister Viviana Martín, a safer experience on the roads.

No more temporary license plates will be issued. Temporary plates were previously able to be used for up to 60 days. According to Martín, this allowed drivers to remove the paper license plates from their windows and commit infractions, then get away unidentified because witnesses couldn’t record a license plate number.

“It will only be up to 72 hours – three days – between when the person arrives to register their vehicle and when they obtain their registration,” said Martín.

New security measures are being applied to the license plates themselves, having been remodeled so they are more difficult to reproduce illegally.

“They now have security mechanisms that make them pretty much impossible to duplicate,” said Martín.

Martín also said that exchanging your old license plates for new ones should now take just 30 minutes.