Moving abroad with your whole family is, for many foreigners, the start of a new life. But when that life takes an unexpected turn, the question that causes the most anguish isn’t just “what do I do now,” but “what rights do I have here.” This is the story of a client who faced exactly that question, and the answer Costa Rica gave her.
Three years ago, Tammy, her husband Rick, and their two daughters moved to Costa Rica from the United States. They sold what they had back home and built a completely new life here: they bought two houses, vehicles, and put part of their capital into an investment, lending money within the country. Tammy hadn’t worked outside the home since she got married; she devoted herself entirely to caring for her daughters and the family. Rick, for his part, never processed migratory residency for any of the four of them during those three years, even though he did enroll the girls in the most expensive private school in the area.
A year ago, Rick began having serious problems with alcohol. Tammy made the decision to leave him and moved, along with her daughters, to the family’s second property. Rick’s reaction was immediate: he cut off her access to the accounts, the cards, any source of income. Tammy found herself in an extremely vulnerable position — unable to work legally in Costa Rica because she had no residency, with no access to the family’s money, and not knowing what rights she had to protect herself and her daughters in a country that wasn’t her own.
The alimony pension: protecting her and her daughters first
The first thing we did was act on what was urgent: guaranteeing that Tammy and her daughters had support while everything else was resolved. In Costa Rica, the right of minors — and of whoever cares for them — to receive support doesn’t depend on the nationality or immigration status of either party. It’s a family right, and Costa Rican law protects it with a principle that guides every decision in this area: the best interest of the child.
The best interest of the child is the standard that must guide every judicial decision that affects them directly or indirectly — a principle that Costa Rican family law, in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, applies across every alimony proceeding.
We filed the alimony request under the current Family Procedural Code, in force since October 2024, which replaced the old Alimony Pension Law. This process is designed to move fast: if the parties don’t reach conciliation, the judge must rule within a very few days through an advance support order — what under the previous system was known as a “provisional” pension — so that the beneficiary doesn’t have to wait months to receive support.
Because Rick traveled frequently, one element was key: Costa Rican law allows a migration restriction — a bar on leaving the country — to be ordered when someone fails to meet their alimony obligation, until the debtor is current or guarantees payment. That restriction became the lever that ensured the advance pension was actually paid.
From there, a process opened to thoroughly review all of the family’s accounts and assets, which made it possible to set separate alimony pensions — one for Tammy and one for each of her daughters — based on Rick’s real standard of living and income, not just what he was willing to voluntarily acknowledge.
The divorce: you don’t need to have married in Costa Rica to divorce here
Many people assume that if they didn’t marry in Costa Rica, they can’t divorce here. That’s not the case. Tammy and Rick were married in the United States, and neither of them had formalized migratory residency: they lived in the country as tourists or with incomplete immigration paperwork. Even so, it was possible to open the divorce proceeding in Costa Rica.
The reason is that Costa Rican courts’ jurisdiction over divorce doesn’t depend on where the marriage was celebrated or on the parties’ immigration status, but on where the marital domicile is — the place where the couple actually built their life together. Recent Costa Rican case law has been clear that this is the standard that determines jurisdiction, and in Tammy and Rick’s case, that marital domicile was, without question, Costa Rica: this is where they lived, where their daughters were, where their houses and their assets were.
That same connection to Costa Rica — having the couple’s domicile and assets here — allowed the divorce proceeding to include a full review of the marital estate: the two properties, the vehicles, the investment placed as a loan within the country, and even a couple of bank accounts Rick held abroad. In Costa Rica, unless a couple has agreed otherwise through a prenuptial agreement, assets acquired during the marriage are considered part of the marital estate to be divided — and that review was built in Tammy’s favor.
Why we’re telling this story
Tammy’s case is more common than it seems among foreign families in Guanacaste: one spouse — almost always the one who devoted themselves to the home and the children — ends up completely dependent on the other, without their own residency, without their own income, and without knowing that Costa Rican law does protect them, even under those conditions.
Not having migratory residency doesn’t mean not having rights. Neither a marriage celebrated abroad nor incomplete immigration status is an obstacle to requesting an alimony pension or getting divorced in Costa Rica, if your life, your family, and your assets are here.
At Libre Verdad, we accompany foreign individuals, often at the most vulnerable moment of their family life, so they know and can exercise those rights — from the immediate protection of an alimony pension to the full resolution of a divorce with assets in multiple countries. If you or someone you know is living through a similar situation, we’d be glad to listen.
Confidentiality Notice: This story is based on a real case handled by Libre Verdad. To protect the privacy of those involved and comply with our professional duty of confidentiality, the names, certain facts, and some identifying details have been changed. Any resemblance to identifiable individuals is solely for illustrative purposes.
Información general, no constituye asesoría legal. / General information, not legal advice.
English 
Español
Recent Comments