Where you can become a citizen if your passport is from Costa Rica
One question, every country, with your nationality already applied. In 3 of them something is written that changes the answer for you; in the other 29 the general rule is what you get, and that is the answer rather than a gap. Every line is that country’s own record.
Where it changes for you
3
Where it does not
29
Blocs you are in
1
Where your nationality changes the answer
GuatemalaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04
A Costa Rican by Birth Can Become a Guatemalan of Origin
written for your nationality by name
The general rule it sits on
Guatemala has two doors, and they are not the same door at different speeds. Naturalisation is the ordinary one, and the Constitution delegates its terms entirely to a statute - the conditions, the residence period and the procedure are not in the Constitution and are not in the Migration Code either. The other door is constitutional and far wider than any naturalisation: a national by birth of a republic of the old Central American Federation who takes up domicile in Guatemala and declares before a competent authority that they wish to be Guatemalan is a Guatemalan of origin, not a naturalised one, and may keep their first nationality. Residence itself carries the right to opt for nationality, and a resident who obtains it has to go back to the migration institute and cancel their residence.
HondurasVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04
Costa Rica: 1 year of Residence Instead of Three
written for your nationality by name
The general rule it sits on
The waiting period depends entirely on where you were born: one year for a Central American by birth, two consecutive years for a Spaniard or an Ibero-American by birth, three consecutive years for everyone else, and no period at all stated for the foreign spouse of a Honduran by birth. The price is the same in every case - the Constitution requires the applicant to renounce their existing nationality first, unless a dual-nationality treaty says otherwise. There is a written examination on Honduran history, geography and the Constitution, sat four times a year, with one retake six months later. Naturalisation is granted by the President and can be cancelled; nationality by birth cannot be taken away and survives acquiring another.
NicaraguaVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-05
Naturalisation for Costa Ricans
written for your nationality by name
The general rule it sits on
Four years as a permanent resident is the ordinary wait, and the price is your own nationality: the law requires renunciation before the grant, and the Constitution says the same. Four groups halve the wait to two years - Spaniards, Central Americans of origin, the spouse of a Nicaraguan, and foreigners who have established an industry or who have Nicaraguan children - and two of those four are also excused the renunciation. The grant is discretionary in terms, described in the regulation as a sovereign act, and takes legal effect only when published in La Gaceta. The constitutional ground shifted under this in February 2025: the new text dropped the enumeration of who is a national by birth and the guarantee that no national may be deprived of nationality, keeping only the clauses on naturalisation, on traitors to the homeland, and on not losing nationality by acquiring another.
Where the general rule applies to you unchanged
Nothing is recorded in these that treats a citizen of Costa Rica differently on this question, so what follows is what everyone gets.
GuatemalaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04
Honduras
Nicaragua
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Barbados
Belize
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Grenada
Guyana
Haiti
Jamaica
Mexico
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname
The Bahamas
Trinidad and Tobago
Uruguay
Venezuela