What documents you need, how much it costs, how long it takes.
Let’s start with the good news: it’s completely doable, pretty inexpensive and not difficult. It’s just frustrating because you’ll be sent back and forward, bounce from office to office, officials to “unofficials” and be overall amazed by the total chaos that seems to dominate the process.
We crossed at Penas Blancas which, I think, is the most used one, but the process should be the same (you would think so right?) pretty much at every other border.
But let’s go in order and provide you with a step by step guide and documents list that will hopefully save you some frustration.
Documents you need to prepare before hand:
- Costa Rica car permit, original and one copy
- Passport, original (of course) and two copies
- Receipt of exit fee for Costa Rica ($8 per person)
- Approved pre-chequo from Nicaragua. This can be done here: https://solicitudes.migob.gob.ni, and should be submitted within 72 hours of entering the country. Ours was approved (approval sent via email) in less than a day.
- Proof of vaccination or PCR results (not older than 72 hours)
- Title of the car, original and one copy
- Driving license, original and one copy
- $1 per person to enter the immigration office in Nicaragua (I know…puzzling)
- $13 per person (exact change!) for the Nicaraguan visa
- $5 for the car sticker to enter Nicaragua
And now the steps.
EXITING COSTA RICA BY CAR
- Drive to the Aduana building, this is a white building to your left. You can park the car just in front of it and then go in with your docs. They only let the person who owns the vehicle in, so my partner had to wait outside.
- They will ask you for original and copy of the Costa Rica permit (I didn’t have the copy but I could get one from the building next door for a few colones), they will stamp both with the date and time you’re exiting the country and give you the stamped copy to show to the immigration police a bit further down the road
- Now you can drive to the immigration office to get your passport stamped. Before doing so though, stop at the green house on the right hand side to pay your exit fee. We didn’t know this so we ended up queuing twice!
- Now you can leave the country, we got stopped twice on the way out. Once by the drug police, who asked us a few questions and let us go (they were extremely kind!). The second time by immigration who wanted to see a copy of the car permit showing that it had been stamped out.
ENTERING NICARAGUA BY CAR
- Drive towards the immigration office, whilst going through by car we were given a form to fill in (you will need this later for the car permit) asked for our vaccination (vacuna in Spanish) documents and passports, the guy took them away (I think to show them to a colleague perhaps more familiar with UK COVID passes?) and then gave them back to us and let us through.
- Go through fumigation, quick and easy: you just drive through and they give you a small, blue piece of paper to prove you’ve done this.
- Park the car in the big parking lot outside immigration.
- Go to the little hut to the right before the immigration building. Show them your vaccination documents or PCR and they will give you another tiny piece of paper, pink this time.
- Now to immigration…There will be a woman standing outside asking for $1 per person to go in, unless you’re Nicaraguan, in that case you can enter for free, yay! Better to have the exact amount as change seems like an impossible concept here. She will give you the receipts and let you in
- Queue to get your entry stamp (they normally allow 30 days). This is when you need your passports, the pink pieces of paper to prove you’re COVID safe (for lack of better word), the pre-chequeo (we weren’t asked for this, but I believe she was able to see we had done it on her computer), and the $26, 13 each…we didn’t have the exact amount and trust me when I say it was a nightmare to find it and then having to queue again to pay.
And now lets get the car sorted (this is where I felt like a ping pong ball…)
- Get your suitcase to the X-ray belt (in the immigration building), once checked make sure they stamp/sign your form (the one you were handed right at the beginning). They will not sign it unless you ask, which means you won’t be able to complete the next step without being sent back to the belt for the almighty signature
- Get your sticker (which is not a sticker by the way, only another piece of paper, white this time) for the car from the office with the glass wall at the very end of the immigration building (left hand side). This costs $5 and they did have change (but maybe I was just lucky?)
- Now walk back outside to the parking lot, there will be some random man/woman standing in the lot (ours was a man holding an umbrella this is how specific I can be!) who will (provided that you have had your form stamped/signed for the suitcases! We were sent back at this point…) check your car and sign the form once again.
- Now you can go to the hut with the police woman/man (small white building). They will ask for the form (we were sent back here because we had no idea the man with the umbrella had anything to do with the form), the car sticker (sent back one more time, who knew we needed a sticker?!), copy of the driving licence and passport of the car owner and copy of the title. At this point the police official will stamp the form that you need to go to the Aduana desk to get your car permit (I’d obviously made the mistake of queueing for the car permit BEFORE following all of the above unknown and impossible to guess steps…hence the ping pong feeling…)
- Go to the Aduana desk, this is once again inside the immigration office, right at the end, just before the sticker office you will have visited by now. They will ask for the (flipping) form, blue piece of paper proving fumigation, driving license and car title and voila’ you get your car permit for one month! I think they also gave me a little piece of paper to show to immigration police, but at this point I had long lost the will, so forgive me if memory fails me!
- Now you can drive out and into the country, you will be asked by the police to show that you’ve completed the car permit and had your passports stamped, but that was pretty quick and easy, we didn’t even have to get out of the car.
- Very last step: as soon as you drive into Nicaragua you will have to purchase car insurance. This was by far the easiest thing! Somebody will come to the car, fill in a piece of paper with car and driver details, take your $12 and give you the above mentioned piece of paper. It all seems a bit dodgy, but it is legit and the piece of paper is your insurance for the month!
The whole process looks us about 3 hours.
Now you’re free to enjoy Nicaragua and I must say, you will! It’s an amazing country with very friendly, smiley and helpful people (the unhelpfulness of the immigration staff is indeed an exception to the rule!)
