All vessels clearing out of Costa Rica, bound for ports in another country will be required to coordinate their departure with the following offices: Immigration, Custom, Bank, and Port Captain.
Banana Bay Marina houses a consultancy service that coordinates all of these services for you from the comfort of Banana Bay, and can speed up your entry or exit procedure to a couple of hours.
Customs office is closed on Mondays. Port Captain, Immigration and MAG is opened Monday through Friday. Banks are open all week. Be aware of office closing times; if you arrive later they will charge you an overtime fee.
Immigration Office. Fill the forms with the crew information (same as when entering the country), one for each passport, a Red Cross Stamp should be included for each passport, and a crew list COPY. If the boat came to Costa Rica through another port, a set of copies with the crew passport and boat registration will be needed (if the boat came through Golfito and new crew will be in the trip, their passport photocopies should be given to the officer). The crew list should be signed and stamped as well (this one you keep for the trip).
Customs. Customs will require that the valid Temporary Import Permit be returned along with passport photocopies and a crew list of those departing with the vessel.
Bank. The exit tax can be paid through the National Bank or the Costa Rica Bank with an “entero del Gobierno” paid to the “Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas” the subject line will be “Zarpe Internacional del barco “ ** ”, the receipt will be on the boats name. The tax is $20 for boats under 50 feet and $50 for boats over 50 feet.
Port Captain. The port captain will give the International Zarpe, and will ask for the “Solvencia Aduanera”, exit tax receipt, the crew passports stamped by immigration officer, and a stamp called “timbre fiscal de 100 colones”. Be sure that your crew list is stamped and signed. If the boat entered the country in a separate port the same set of boat registration and crew passport photocopies will be required.
To get an 90 day extension on the temporary importation permit, which must be done before it expires, often they ask for a new photocopy of the page in the passport were the entry to Costa Rica is stamped. (They may request that the date should be no older than one month)