The state has set no deadline at all for deciding an application, and after you lose your job there is not a single day of grace.
The state is not hostile to legal foreign residents: we found no measures against holders of valid DIMEX cards, and in June 2026 a regularisation scheme for migrant workers from the region was announced. Grounds for cancelling status are listed in the law, and no retroactive revocations are recorded. Children go to state schools whatever their parents' status, and the family files one application with the main applicant.
Delivery is what breaks. There is no legal deadline, the state publishes no refusal statistics, and in practice decisions take 14-24 months, then another 2-4 months for the card. Since October 2023 registering with your own country's consulate is mandatory before the first card, and since July 2024 documents cannot be added after filing. Until you have a DIMEX, banks open only restricted accounts, capped at about $1,000 a month and with strict checks on the source of funds.
Status is tightly tied to the employer. You may work only for the company approved by the migration service; working for another employer is a ground to cancel your status, and changing jobs means a new procedure with a Labour Ministry check. After dismissal there is not a single day of grace. If your document is not renewed within 3 months of expiry, the status is cancelled.
There are few other doors. The digital nomad visa is capped at two years and does not lead to permanent residence, and benefits for investors, rentistas and pensioners under Law 9996 were open to new applicants only until July 2026 (benefits already granted last 10 years). The courts struck down quotas on foreign staff back in 1999, but there are no shortage lists, and the Labour Ministry decides at its discretion, with no published criteria.
A spouse and children may study and work with a separate permit from the migration service after paying a fee; there is no need to wait for permanent residence. For regulated professions, degree recognition through CONARE takes months, sometimes years.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
No visa; the border officer sets the stay, up to 180 days. After that, the same procedure as for everyone.
Citizenship after 5 years of residence instead of 7.
No visa; the border officer sets the stay, up to 180 days. After that, the same procedure as for everyone.
No visa for up to 90 days under a 2019 agreement. We found no rule of the kind "citizens of this country are not granted residence".
A consular visa is required, with a stay of up to 30 days extendable to 90. You can enter without one if you hold a valid multiple-entry visa or residence permit for the US or Canada. According to our data, residence applications from visa-required countries go through an extra approval step, which adds time.
The place interval 60-71 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Pressure on newcomers: 75 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 65.2. The weakest is Agency processing: 27 against 48.7. Above the world average: 3 out of 7.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
There is no legal deadline. In practice decisions take 14-24 months, with months more for the appointment and 2-4 months for the DIMEX card after approval.
Yes: the digital nomad visa with income from $3,000 a month ($4,000 with family), for a year plus one renewal, but it does not lead to permanent residence. There is also a category for the self-employed.
The main cost is mandatory CCSS insurance, about 10.7% of salary for as long as you hold the status, about $12,600 over five years at the threshold salary. Fees: DIMEX card $30, change of category inside the country $200.
Yes: there is no grace period after dismissal, and working for another employer is a ground to cancel your status. If you do not renew your document within 3 months of expiry, the status is cancelled.
Permanent residence after 3 consecutive years of temporary residence. Citizenship after 7 years, with Spanish and history exams, and dual citizenship is allowed; counting processing, it takes 7-9 years from arrival to passport.
There is no hostility: no pressure on legal residents, and in 2026 the state even widened regularisation for migrant workers. The problems are bureaucratic: no processing deadline, waits of over a year, and status tied to the employer.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.