If you are a born Costa Rican citizen and your child(ren) were born outside of Costa Rica, you can register them to have Costa Rican citizenship. The process varies according to the age of your children at the moment of registration. If is under 18 years old, the declaration must be done by the Costa Rica(n) parent(s). If you wish to make the registration, review the following to options to do it: 1. The Costa Rican parent, who is planning to travel to Costa Rica, could do the process personally at the Civil Registry. In order to do that, the Birth Certificate has to be legalized by the Costa Rican Consulate, then it has to be authenticated at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, and officially translated into Spanish (refer to section Legalization of Documents for full details on legalization process). Finally, the documents have to be submitted at the Civil Registry personally by the parents, in order to continue the process of inscription as Costa Rican citizen.
2.The second option is to request to start the process of inscription at the Consulate. In this case the parents have to be present at the Consulate to make a birth declaration, submitting the Foreign Birth Certificate (that has been legalized according to the procedure stated in the legalization section), valid Identity Card of both Costa Rican parents; or valid passport in case that one of the parents is foreigner. This process of inscription is free of charge.
3. If the interested person to be registered as Costa Rican citizen is between 18 and 24 years old, the declaration must be done by him/her personally. As in the previous case, the interested person has two options to request the registration, either to do it directly in Costa Rica (for which the Birth Certificate must be legalized, see legalization section), or request an appointment at the Consulate to make de birth declaration.
4.If the birth declaration is made by the interested person after their 25th birthday, the birth may be registered, but the Costa Rican citizenship is not granted. For that, the interested person must request a naturalization procedure, at the Civil Registry in Costa Rica.
Requirements:
Consular registration form of both parents updated with contact numbers and emails.
Birth registration form, is completed during the appointment at the consulate.
Faithful copy of the birth certificate duly legalized according to the page of legalizations, this must have been issued with no more than two months.
Original identity card of the parents, or passport in cases of foreigners.
Payment receipt for the document sent to Costa Rica, SGD $ 12 Account No. 392-301-776-1 United Overseas Bank (UOB), Singapore Swift Address: UOVBSGSG Bank Code (Clearing Code): 7375
Process: Once the documents are complete, the Costa Rican father must present himself to the consulate to complete the original application. The Costa Rican father who presents must present the valid identity card and in good condition.
Duration: Sent by regular mail (SGD $ 12): 2 months If you want to speed up the process, you can pay for the courier delivery. It takes 4 business days SGD $ 58.83
Cost of Registration: Free
Legal bases: - Political Constitution, Article 13. - Organic Law 3504 of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the Civil Registry, Articulé 48.
Processing must be done in person and by appointment *
