Costa Rica immigration expects to grant legal status to roughly 10,000 people whose refugee claims were rejected or left undecided, under a special category that opens to applications on September 1. Omer Badilla, director general of the Dirección General de Migración y ExtranjerÃa, said the 10,000 figure is an expectation rather than a ceiling, and that the agency will likely process a larger number of applications than that.
Meeting the requirements does not guarantee approval, he said, because Migración will review each file in full before deciding. Badilla put the rejection rate for refugee petitions at around 80%. Those rejections, along with claims still awaiting resolution, form the population the category is designed to reach.
The Complementary Special Temporary Category is open only to nationals of Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Colombia, which Badilla said account for roughly 90% of refugee applications filed in Costa Rica. Applicants must have filed a refugee claim between June 1, 2014 and May 7, 2026, and must have remained in the country since filing.
The category authorizes holders to work in any paid activity, as employees or self-employed. That provision addresses what has been the central practical problem for this population, which has struggled to reach formal employment while waiting on unresolved files. Migración will grant the status in two-year terms, renewable for successive periods of the same length with no stated cap, subject to a review of the applicant’s immigration history before each renewal.
The measure is a reactivation rather than a new creation. The same category operated between March 2023 and February 2024, then lapsed, and in 2025 the agency ruled out bringing it back. A resolution published in La Gaceta No. 98 on May 29, reversed that position and set the application window from September 1, 2026 to September 1, 2027.
Migración acknowledged in the resolution that applications from the four countries have risen considerably since 2014, that many applicants do not meet the legal definition of a refugee, and that the result is a population living in vulnerability and irregularity while awaiting a final decision. The agency cited Inter-American Court of Human Rights criteria on complementary protection for people who fall outside the traditional refugee definition but could face risks to their life, liberty or physical integrity if returned home.
The scale of the backlog is big. The United Nations refugee agency reported last year that Costa Rica was hosting more than 194,000 Nicaraguan asylum seekers and 9,216 people formally recognized as refugees from Nicaragua and said our country shelters more than half of all displaced Nicaraguans worldwide.
Badilla said his first action on taking up the file was to create an internal working group drawing on several units involved in the process, with coordination delegated to the head of the Refugee Unit, where most of the case files already sit. The category arrives while the wider legal framework is in flux. President Laura Fernández has told her ministers to draft a reform of the Migration Law and to review the Arms Law, meaning the statutory ground beneath this category may shift during the year the window stays open.
Who can apply
Applicants must hold one of four nationalities — Nicaraguan, Venezuelan, Cuban or Colombian — and must have filed a refugee claim between June 1, 2014 and May 7, 2026.
The refugee file must be in one of three states: pending resolution, declared manifestly unfounded, or denied with no further appeal. Applicants must also have remained in Costa Rica continuously from the date they filed.
Who is excluded
The category is closed to anyone who already holds an approved immigration status, and to anyone with a separate regularization process underway. It is also closed to those who qualify for one of the ordinary categories under Costa Rican immigration law, such as marriage to a Costa Rican or parentage of a Costa Rican child. Migración will direct those applicants to the ordinary route instead.
Migración will check criminal and police records through national and international databases before approving any application, and the resolution authorizes biometric verification where the agency considers it necessary. A conviction for an intentional offense within the past ten years, or a determination that the applicant poses a threat to public security, will result in denial.
The resolution also bars renewal for holders who enter or leave the country irregularly after receiving the category, unless they can justify those movements.
What it costs
Badilla said applicants pay $95 to the government in installments. The published resolution itemizes a different schedule — $25 for the immigration application, $20 covering the initial two-year term, $30 for issuance of the immigration document, and a further $30 under the immigration law — which reporting drawn from the text places at a minimum of $105 per person, before the cost of the migration identification document set out in the General Migration Law. The two figures have not been reconciled publicly.
Neither total covers certifications, apostilles, notarial authentications, translations, home-country criminal record checks, or travel. Each member of a family group must make the required deposits individually.
Required documents
Applicants must document identity, nationality and a continuous presence here. That includes birth certification, criminal record certification and identity documents. For evidence of established roots, Migración accepts school enrollment records, documentation showing children registered at Costa Rican schools, records of medical attention through the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, and other documents issued by public institutions.
Where an applicant can demonstrate that getting a specific document is materially impossible, the resolution permits a sworn declaration in its place. Applicants must also hold active CCSS enrollment, which is required both to complete the documentation and to retain the category afterward.
Where and when to apply
Applications are received by prior appointment only, at Migración’s offices in La Uruca, San José. The window runs from September 1, 2026 to September 1, 2027, and the resolution provides no regional office alternative and no online submission route. Holders do not require a special permit to leave and re-enter Costa Rica but must meet the same exit and entry requirements that apply to other special immigration categories.
Migración has published details on its website under the CategorÃa Especial Temporal Complementaria section.
