Costa Rican passport holders have needed a UK ETA since January 2025. Two years of validity, multiple entries, up to six months in Britain per visit — applied for online in minutes.
6 months
Maximum stay per visit
2 years
ETA validity
Multiple
Entries permitted
3 working days
Typical decision time
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Costa Rica has one of the strongest passports in Central America and one of the region's most travelled populations. The relationship with Britain is built on tourism running in the other direction — Costa Rica is a major destination for British eco-tourism — alongside a steady flow of Costa Rican students, business travellers and visitors to Europe.
Since January 2025 travel to Britain has required an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Costa Rica remains a non-visa country for UK purposes and nothing about what Costa Rican citizens may do in Britain has changed — the ETA is a digital pre-travel permission applied for online and attached to the passport number. It simply has to be obtained before departure.
The practical shape of the journey is defined by connections. San José has no direct service to Britain, so every trip runs through Madrid, Panama City, Miami or Houston. That makes settling the paperwork well before departure more important than in a market with direct flights, since a problem discovered mid-route is far harder to recover from — and a US connection carries its own separate authorisation requirement.
At a glance
Eligibility
You do not need a visa, but you do need an ETA. Costa Rica is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so Costa Rican citizens travel to Britain as visitors for tourism, family visits, business, conferences or short courses without any consular application. The ETA precedes that permission and does not reduce it — the six months Costa Rican visitors have always been allowed is unchanged.
Every traveller needs their own, at any age. Children and infants need an ETA linked to their own passport and cannot be added to a parent's application. Families travelling together make separate applications for each member, though all can be completed in one session.
The exemptions are the standard ones. Costa Rican citizens holding a UK visa or indefinite leave to remain do not need an ETA, since their existing status already carries the permission. Some Costa Ricans hold Spanish or Italian citizenship through descent — an EU passport still requires an ETA, but gives access to the ePassport gates on arrival, which a Costa Rican passport does not.
One point specific to routing deserves emphasis. If your itinerary connects through the United States — which many Central American routings to Europe do — you will need a US ESTA or visa in addition to the UK ETA. They are entirely separate systems, and holding one confers nothing towards the other.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your Costa Rican passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on entries, and each visit can last up to six months. Given the length and cost of the journey, two years of multiple-entry validity is a real convenience.
The passport-expiry rule is the one to check first. The ETA is bound to the passport number you enter and ends when that document does. Costa Rican passports are issued for six years for adults and shorter periods for minors, so families applying together should check each expiry date individually. Renewal does not transfer the ETA and there is no refund.
Britain does not require six months of onward passport validity, only that the passport covers your stay. Transit countries do impose their own rules, however, and several Central American and Caribbean routings apply a six-month test. Check the whole itinerary rather than the British leg alone.
Six months per visit is the maximum for a single entry rather than an annual allowance. It matters most for Costa Rican students, whose courses must finish within six months or require a Student visa instead. An academic year or a full degree at a British university needs that application made from Costa Rica before travel — it cannot be arranged from within the UK.
Pricing
Live fees for Costa Rican passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Costa Rica
Requirements
Everything Costa Rican passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
Passport bio-data page — a clear colour scan or photo showing your photograph, full name, date of birth, passport number and expiry date
Recent digital photograph — full face visible against a plain background, taken within the last six months, with no headwear other than for religious or medical reasons
A valid email address, which is where the approval is sent and which you should keep accessible while travelling
A credit or debit card to pay the Home Office ETA fee and our service fee together
Your travel and accommodation details — Border Force can ask about the purpose of your visit and where you are staying
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches the Home Office.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, answer the suitability questions and upload your photograph. Most applicants finish in under ten minutes.
Our team checks your photo, passport number, name spelling and declarations against Home Office requirements before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to UK Visas and Immigration with the government fee paid, and we track its status until a decision is issued.
There is no sticker, label or document to print. The authorisation is held digitally against your passport number, and we explain exactly what to show at check-in.
Applications from Costa Rica are decided automatically in most cases, and the majority of applicants receive approval within minutes. The Home Office asks travellers to allow up to three working days, and a proportion are referred for manual review, usually where a photograph fails the automated check.
Apply at least a week before travelling, and preferably when you book. Because there is no direct service from San José, every journey involves at least one connection, and a problem discovered mid-route is far harder to recover from than one found at a home airport with a direct flight.
Transit authorisations deserve separate attention and should be settled at the same time. If your routing goes through the United States you need an ESTA or a US visa, which is a different process with its own timescale — an ESTA is usually quick but is occasionally referred, and a US visa appointment can take months. Establish the routing before assuming which you need.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land, and how to make the arrival as quick as possible.
Your nationality is not currently in the ePassport gate cohort, so you join the queue for a staffed desk on arrival. Your ETA is exactly the same document and carries exactly the same permission — only the arrival process differs.
The officer may ask where you are staying, how long you intend to remain and how the trip is funded. Having your hotel booking, return ticket and, if you are visiting family, their address to hand makes this a thirty-second conversation.
Desk queues at Heathrow can be long at peak arrival banks, particularly early morning. If you are connecting onward to a domestic or European flight, allow more than the airline's minimum connection time.
Unlike the automated gates, a staffed desk stamps your passport with the date of entry. That stamp is your evidence of when your six-month permission began, so do not let it be obscured or removed.
Getting there
San José has no direct service to Britain, and every journey involves a connection. Madrid is the most common European gateway with Iberia, while Panama City, Miami and Houston serve the North American routings. The Madrid option avoids US transit requirements entirely.
Best time to go
Costa Rican visitors arrive from a tropical climate into a temperate one, and the contrast is substantial. Britain has four distinct seasons where Costa Rica has wet and dry, and a British winter will feel genuinely cold — worth planning clothing for properly. The long northern summer evening, with daylight past ten at night in Scotland, is a real novelty.
May, June and September are the strongest months for weather and value together. All three sit below the July and August peak in British prices, and September benefits from the end of the British school holidays while the weather in the south often holds into October.
The Costa Rican calendar offers a useful alignment. The green season from May to November is quieter at home, and its early months coincide with some of the best weather and value in Britain. The December to April dry season is Costa Rica's own peak and a natural time to stay, which conveniently avoids the British summer crush.
One practical note. Costa Rica does not observe daylight saving, so the difference with Britain shifts across the year — six hours behind London in the northern winter and seven during British Summer Time. With at least one connection on every itinerary, check the actual local times on each leg rather than assuming a fixed offset.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Costa Rica — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Many Central American routings to Europe connect through Miami, Houston or another US airport, which requires a US ESTA or visa in addition to the UK ETA. They are entirely separate systems. A traveller correctly authorised for Britain can be refused boarding in San José for lacking the American one — routing through Madrid avoids the issue entirely.
Costa Rican passports are issued for six years for adults rather than the ten common elsewhere, and shorter periods for minors. The ETA expires when the passport does, so check the expiry page before applying — a renewal voids the authorisation with no transfer and no refund.
Costa Rican passports print both surnames, and the ETA must match the machine-readable zone exactly. Entering only the paternal surname creates a mismatch between the authorisation and the passport that an airline check can flag at the departure gate.
Costa Rican passport holders are not currently in the ePassport gate cohort and will be seen at a staffed Border Force desk. The ETA is exactly the same document and carries the same permission — only the arrival process differs. If you also hold an EU passport, travelling on that gives automated gate access.
Costa Rica does not observe daylight saving, so the offset with Britain shifts between six and seven hours across the year. Travellers who assume a constant difference misread connection times, which matters more on a routing with two or three legs.
The ETA permits study of up to six months. An academic year or a full degree at a British university requires a Student visa applied for from Costa Rica before travel. It cannot be arranged from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
Passport number mistyped
By far the most common problem. The authorisation attaches to the number you enter, so a single wrong character produces an ETA that does not exist as far as the airline's check is concerned.
An undeclared conviction or refusal
The Home Office asks about criminal convictions and previous immigration refusals or removals. History found later is treated far more seriously than the original matter would have been if declared.
A photograph that fails the check
Shadows across the face, glasses, a patterned background or a cropped chin all cause the automated check to reject an image, which turns a routine approval into a manual review.
Conditions
These conditions are set by the UK Home Office and do not vary by nationality. The passport-linking rule in particular catches out a great many otherwise well-planned trips.
Your authorisation is held digitally against the passport number you enter. There is nothing placed in your passport and nothing to print for the border. If you renew or replace that passport, the ETA does not transfer — you must apply for a new one on the new document.
Every person travelling needs their own ETA, including babies and children. A child cannot be added to a parent's application, and each traveller needs their own valid passport to apply against.
An approved ETA lasts two years from the date it is granted, or until the expiry date of the passport it is linked to, whichever comes first. This is the single most misunderstood rule in the scheme — a passport with eight months left produces an ETA with eight months left.
Within its validity you can travel to the UK as many times as you like. Each individual visit can be up to six months. There is no formal annual cap, but repeated long stays that add up to the majority of the year will attract questions at the border.
One ETA covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it is also accepted for travel to Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. You do not need a separate authorisation for the Crown Dependencies.
An ETA lets you board your flight, train or ship. The decision to admit you is made by Border Force on arrival, who can ask about your funds, your accommodation, your onward plans and the purpose of your visit.
Consular services
The United Kingdom maintains an embassy in San José, but it plays no part in issuing an ETA. The application is completed online and decided digitally — there is no interview, no appointment and no passport submission. The embassy handles consular assistance, visa routes where an ETA is not appropriate, and support for applicants whose circumstances require a human decision.
FAQs
The questions Costa Rican passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. Costa Rican citizens do not need a visa for tourism, business visits, short study or transit in the United Kingdom. Since January 2025 they do need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), a digital permission linked to the passport rather than a visa, applied for entirely online.
Yes. A US connection requires a separate ESTA or US visa in addition to the UK ETA — they are entirely different systems and holding one confers nothing towards the other. A traveller correctly authorised for Britain can be refused boarding for lacking the American authorisation. Routing through Madrid avoids the issue entirely.
The ETA expires when the passport it is linked to expires, and Costa Rican passports run for six years rather than the ten common elsewhere. That makes a renewal falling inside the ETA's two-year window more likely, and it voids the ETA with no transfer and no refund. Check the expiry date before applying.
Yes. Costa Rican passports print both surnames, and the ETA must match the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your photo page exactly. Entering only the paternal surname creates a mismatch that the airline check can flag at the gate.
No. Costa Rican passport holders are not currently in the ePassport gate cohort and will be seen by a Border Force officer at a staffed desk. Your ETA is exactly the same document and carries the same permission — only the arrival process differs.
Up to six months per visit. The ETA is valid for two years, or until your Costa Rican passport expires if that is sooner, and permits unlimited entries within that period. Six months is a per-visit maximum rather than an annual allowance.
Six hours behind London in the northern winter and seven during British Summer Time, because Costa Rica does not observe daylight saving. Check the actual local times on your itinerary rather than assuming a fixed offset, particularly with connections involved.
Only for courses lasting up to six months, such as a short English programme or a summer school. An academic year or a full degree requires a Student visa applied for from Costa Rica before travel. You cannot switch from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
Yes. Every traveller needs an ETA regardless of age, including babies, and each is linked to that person's own passport. Children cannot be added to a parent's application, though a family's applications can all be prepared in one session.
Yes. A single ETA covers the entire United Kingdom and is also accepted for Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. There are no internal immigration checks between the four nations, so a trip combining London and Edinburgh needs only one authorisation.
Your nationality is already set to Costa Rica. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches the Home Office.
Other nationalities
Requirements, routes and border formalities differ by passport. Here are the guides for other eligible nationalities.
