To clearly define what it is we are doing, exactly: we are attempting to open business bank accounts with Banco Nacional in Costa Rica after having opened a business here in August last year. I am an Australian Citizen and Canadian Permanent Resident, and my last 6 months have been working on opening this account for the business. The first 4 months by distance, the last 2 being here in the country. It seems important to clearly define this because it has become apparent that every bank has different processes, and there are different requirements for businesses vs. individuals.
These are the steps we have taken so far. They may seem comical, and indeed the whole process almost is (except for the fact that we haven’t actually opened the accounts still…one day I’m certain we will look back on this with a nostalgic glint in our eyes and a fond smile…but right now, not so much).
We begin our story back in August.
When speaking with our lawyers at the time of opening our business, the lawyers said that it would be simple, that they could do it for us and that all we had to do was sign a power of attorney and they would take care of it. All we would have to do is go to the bank with them when we came back to the country and sign over the accounts. All seemed easy enough. So we did exactly as we were advised.
Skip forward to December when I arrive back in Costa Rica. I reach out to the lawyers, set up a meeting and intend to sign the accounts over. Upon arrival to their office 3 days later I discover that the documents have not been prepared. To get to our lawyers it’s a 3hr round-trip drive. We end up having a meeting where the discussion goes something like this:
Lawyer: “All we need to do is go to San Isidro, take your business registration documents with you and you need to meet us there and we’ll open your accounts”.
Me: “Okay, great! What day can I meet you in San Isidro?”
Lawyer: “On Thursday I’m going to be there already so let’s do that day. Call me the day before to confirm I’m still going.”
Me: “Okay great!”
Wednesday we call. He’s no longer going and so we push it to the following Tuesday.
We call again on Monday, to confirm. No answer but we proceed anyway. So Tuesday we drive 2hrs, leaving the centre at 6am to get to San Isidro for when the banks open at 8am, and meet our lawyer at the previously agreed upon time.
We make it in great time. My spirits are up and I’m thinking “we going to open bank accounts today and I can finally cross it off my list of things to do!“.
The lawyer forgets about us.
We call, we explain that we’ve just driven 2 hours to be here on time, and they do come racing down. They make it in 30 minutes, so all is fine and we’re still waiting at the bank. They come to pick us up though because we actually need another document first.
They take us to Immigration services to order an immigration document to show that I’m here in Costa Rica legally. It turns out that’s going to take 10 days to be completed and sent to us.
So we drive the 2 hours back to the centre, having ordered the document that will allow us to open an account. Or so we believe…
In the meantime my job is to get last years’ financial reports from the Canadian company and use that as a cash flow projection for the bank account opening.
The immigration document arrives 12 days later to the lawyers office, which is just over an hour away. I’ve also sent through the financial reports for last year. So we arrange another meeting, at their office where we collect what we believe are all the required documents to open a bank account. We are told that we also need to go to the tax office to get a tax registration number and that this can be done either before or after the bank account is open. One of the documents we are given (Certificacion De Personeria Juridica) has a validity time period of 15 days. So that is how long we have to get to the bank and open the accounts. Seems easy, right?
Oh and we’re also told at this point that we need an electricity bill or a phone bill with ICE (govt electrical and phone service).
By now I’ve been back in the country for weeks and we are now also mid-retreat/training and so it becomes very difficult to set aside 3-4 hours to go and open the accounts. It takes 8 days before we have a day off the training that is also a day that the banks are open.
First stop on this day is to ICE – and we get a local phone number and all goes well. The second stop is the bank.
We go in. I must say I’m excited at this point. We’ve been working on this for so long!
We wait. We get called over. We hand over all the documents, a little expectantly. The bank employee looks through all the things. It takes the better part of an hour of sitting and answering a few questions. And we leave after being told that we need three more things: the tax office registration, a clearer description in the legal registration of the business about our business activities and a municipal license; before the accounts can be open.
Back to the drawing board. Again.
Three more days go by before I can drop everyone who is on retreat with us at the beach and leave them there for 5 hours. Now we drive back to San Isidro (one of only a few tax offices in the country), but this time to the hacienda/tax office. It takes only about 45 minutes to get the documents we need. We leave with smiles and a positive vibe for how the day is going to go!
We jump back in the car to go back 2 hours to Cortes, where the Municipalidad is in order to get our municipal license. We walk in and we sit for another 45 minutes talking through the whole scenario with one of the employees there.
And instead of leaving with the municipal license, we have two more things added to our list. No I’m not joking. We have to get a rental agreement/intent to purchase for the land, because the land survey that we paid for was registered under the company who didn’t pay for it (the company we’re purchasing the land from). And we also need to get a “personeria”, which has something to do with employees.
In the meantime we have the new document describing our business operations in greater detail, written by the lawyers and sent directly to the bank.
We are currently…
…finalizing the “intent to purchase” agreement, before we go back to the municipalidad to get both the personeria and the municipal license.
Our 15-day validity period has now expired for the Certificacion De Personeria Juridica and so we now have to reorder it before we take the municipal license back to the bank to finalize the opening of accounts.
Or at least that appears to be the process about to take place. Let’s all collectively cross our fingers please!!
More than simply sharing the comical and lengthy process we’ve gone through, I want this to be informative for anyone who might be opening a business in Costa Rica. Here’s a list of what we found out that we need. It’s somewhat in order too:
- Registered Business
- Immigration Documents – allow 15 days for this to arrive</li>
- Cashflow Projections
- Description of business activities
- Land Survey – or Land Title (in your name/business name)
- If the land survey or title are not in your business name, you’ll need a rental agreement
- Certificacion De Personeria Juridica – this is only valid for 15 days
- Electricity bill or Phone bill that is attached to your property (go to ICE for this)
- Tax Office Registration to get a “Numero de Identificacion Tributaria especial”, which you get from the hacienda (only a few of these offices in the country)
- Personeria
- Municipal License
If there are more requirements, this post will be updated.
Patience is the virtue being taught here. Thanks for the lesson, Costa Rica!