Las Tablillas/Los Chiles | Customs and Immigration

March 1st, 2024 by PerfectAdventures.com

Exiting Costa Rica:
Always very efficient in Costa Rica.
Pay your exit tax $8 usd online anytime or day before you exit. That payment is linked to your passport number. Very efficient!
Immigration office-stamp out of country.
TIP- close it out
Done

The day we arrived the CR computer system was down. We waited over 1 hour. Then they made a copy of our TIP paper & said they would close it out when system is back up again. Hope that process gets done!

Entering Nicaragua:
$10 per person entry fee
$6 ? fee
$4.40 fumigation fee
$5 some new BS tourist fee with receipt
$12 3rd party vehicle insurance

Beware! Have new crisp US bills. Nicaragua is so picky about that. If a bill has a tiny tear, writing on it or looks dirty they will not accept it. They refused to accept a $20usd, then refused a $5 because she “thought” it was fake. Have lots of 1’s & 5’s on hand.

We thought this small border would be a breeze. Not so on Nicaragua side. This Los Chilies border is Inefficient, employees on cell phones, no direction or explanation on next step even though we asked. Employees were confused, had us run bags through xray twice cuz they didn’t believe we had just completed that step.

Immigration chica asked us same questions over & over & didn’t understand where & why we were driving north to USA. 4th time immigration asked, I said “we are driving to Honduras” in Spanish. Then she started to stamp our passports. Peñas Blancas border was easier early in morning during the week.

January 26th, 2024 by bitoer

Costa Rica to Nicaragua
Just an update on the main points.
Still a very quiet border when we were there at opening time 7 am.
Salida Costa Rica was quick and easy, right order with vehicle:
- pay exit tax $8 pp at the pay machine with credit card, cash not possible anymore
- passport stamped for exit at the windows left
- canceling TIP in the far right corner left from the pay machine
All done in 25 minutes

Entrada Nicaragua
Still a process that’s hard to understand, just be patient and follow their instructions.
- first check at entry point by police and DGA, they give you a form to fill in
- 3/4 roundabout through Fumigation
- drive around the new big blue/white building and park
- right doors for passport stamps, pay $13 / pp
- left doors for police and aduana (DGA)
- find police to inspect your vehicle, can be annoying process but depends on their mood how far they inspect
- when papers are stamped by police, follow their instructions inside to address 3 different windows for TIP and payments
$15 per TIP car or camper
$10 per TIP motorcycle
$5 fumigation
- just outside the main door sits a lady at a wooden desk selling the mandatory insurance (seguras) $13 per vehicle

We did this whole process (without any waiting lines) in 2.5 hours for a camper and motorcycle

January 25th, 2024 by David

From Nicaragua to Costa Rica. Border at Nicaragua was very quiet and easy. Cost 3$ for passport stamping. No cordoba accepted only us dollar, money changer present at border. Only annoying part was the check of the luggage. We were with two motorcycles, key is to to be very slow and at the end they lost interest. Border Costa Rica was very well organised, first immigration and in same area you need to apply for the TIP, afterwards you need to buy insurance at the border. Agents are friendly and supportive.

October 10th, 2023 by Adam

Nicaragua to Costa Rica.
Very easy crossing on both side. Less than 2 hrs total. I arrived at 7 am with my motorcycle. First check at the gate, the docs. Then to NIC Migracion. White modern building on your right 200m past the first gate. Park at the furthest place as that's where Aduana will be. They have Air Conditioning there! Migracion is through the first colourful door and go to the window as directed. Passport stamped in 5 minutes. $3 charge. Then off to Aduana the next hall on your left. Fiil the form you got from the passport officer and present it to Aduana. They will go outside to check your bike. They looked only at my licence plate. But they made me open all my bags and then I had to take them all off the bike and run them through the scanner inside. They checked few items inside and all was OK. Aduana lady looked at my docs again and I was done. Total time: 40 min. They check passport and at the final gate again.

Costa Rica side. You have to go through the spray on your left. It looks like a truck carwash. I had to wait for 20’ for the operator. Go through and then park your bike at the parking ahead and walk to Migracion on your right. Soldier at the hallway will direct you. Standard questions, got 7 day transit visa. Right behind you is Aduana. They will give you a form to fill and you have to take that to Seguro. It is along the fence 50m past Migracion. Give them the form you got from Aduana and he will issue you a Mandatory Insurance. $40USD. Take those docs back to Aduana and he will issue your TIP. It is all digital so I made a photo of his screen for myself. Then he will tell you to bring your bike around and will make a cursory check and you are done. Important, Aduana guys will give you a small coloured ticked which you present to the guard by the gate. Welcome to Costa Rica.

Overall, very smooth on both ends.

August 13th, 2023 by overlandbrosonInstagram

Nicaragua to Costa Rica- BEWARE of this border.
The people that inspected our truck were upset we didn't declare literally everything we had in our truck that wasn't normal suitcase contents.
they made us pull every single spare part out of every drawer, the surfboard and storage bins off the roof....saying we should have "declared" all of them individually.
We explained over and over that the other border looked at the whole truck and helped us fill out the declaration form, so we can't understand why it is any different here.
made no.difference, they made us wait while they itemized every item on a big list.
It took many hours in the heat unpacking and repacking.
Then they collected our paperwork, and I kid you not, left for lunch.
Eventually when she came back she spent an hour inputting everything gin the computer and charged us a fee of 1250c for transporting it across the country or.something?
6 hours total, to LEAVE

July 25th, 2023 by MoraVentures

WARNING TO TRAVELERS WITH PETS:
Today we tried to cross the border into Nicaragua from Costa Rica. We were denied entry because we are traveling with a dog and Nicaragua has a ban on animals entering their country as of July 18, 2023 due to a parasite called screw worm. We tried a few days prior at Peñas Blancas and they would not let us through either. We tried to slip our dog past but both borders do a very thorough vehicle check and as soon as Aduana sees an animal they alert IPSA (the animal/agriculture agency). We tried to go to a vet in CR to get a health certificate/pet exportation permit but Senasa would not stamp the paperwork because they are aware of the ban. IPSA said the ban could be weeks or years. Hoping to save others from this very unfortunate and frustrating situation.
@MoraVentures

May 2nd, 2023 by Cloud9ontour

We crossed this border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua 2 days ago and in general it was very smooth and trouble free. no queues. both sides in 2 1/4 hours . note that the border closes at 5pm and we were required to produce proof of covid vaccinations on entry to Nicaragua.
here is a more detailed description.
on approach to the border drive past the queue of lorries straight to the first pre check.
After precheck drive 50m to first large parking area.
then walk back towards the first pre check and on your right is a collection of containers that have been converted into offices. inside the square you will go to immigration first . During this process you will be directed to a nearby ATM style machine opposite. Here you pay 8USD for the checkout fee. The machine takes credit cards. If you don't have a credit card you can pay cash but its 10 usd elsewhere.
you then return to the Immigration window and they complete the process.
next you go to the window just to the left of the ATM style machine to cancel or suspend your TIP.
you then drive to the frontier where the police do a final check. you are now out of Costa Rica.
As you enter Nicaragua we were required to produce proof of covid vaccination and you are given a declaration form as we hadn't done it online . you then drive 100m and pass through a fumigation spray.
you then park up at the front of the Immigration office.
inside to the right is Immigration. you will need the name and address of your destination in Nicaragua. We used a hotel in Managua. you will also need to pay 13 usd per person cash for Immigration fee.
you then go to the other end of the building. you need to find the window to pay for your fumigation . it was 4 usd per vehicle.
After this you need to find the Police window and they will come and check your vehicle. They did a pretty thorough search looking for fruit , drones etc. They didn't check chassis numbers etc.
After this you go back to the customs area and find the window to get the TIP.
During all this process every stage stamps your declation form and you hand it in at the TIP window.
Once you get your TIP you need to get the police to give it a stamp and you are.
complete.
please check you get the right TIP. initially they started to give us a Transit TIP which is only 3 days. Having explained we were tourists the gave us the maximum TIP which is 30 days. You need to check this .
it's also worth noting that our vehicle wasn't scanned and we didn't see a scanning machine here.

February 2nd, 2023 by ed.flueger

Realized that when I entered Nicaragua at Elspina they only gave me a 3 day TI.permit. Went to border today to sort it out. Had to pay a fifty dollar fine and was a few Cordobas short. Said I could pay in dollars but scrutinized my cash for wrinkles and rips. Finally found an acceptable 100$ and had to walk back outside of customs compound twice before the money changer guy was happy with the bill and converted to Cordobas. Costa Rica side went smoothly. But had to ride hard and fast to make my hotel reservation in Los Lagos before dark. All worked out but burned up 5 hours. Moral of the story....Check out your T.I.P upon entering Nicaragua and make sure they give you the max 30 day permit even if you are in transit. I would have stayed another week if I could have but my motorcycle was illegal for 3 days.

February 19th, 2022 by rouletout.ch

Crossing from Nicaragua to Costa Rica:

The border on the side of Nicaragua is all finished, brand new buildings, a scanner and lots of staff for not much going on.

After a pre-check on the road we were told to park in front of the building, fill in the customs form and proceeded to immigration. Paid 110C$ each tourist tax and were stamped out.

Customs decided to check a few things in the truck and scanned 2 random bags, canceling the TIP was quick and we proceeded to Costa Rica.

Health check is directly at the barrier (they take your temperature and pulse but you do not need to show the QR code here). Once done you drive through fumigation and proceed to immigration, quick and free (you need your QR Code here) then customs. Before that you need to buy insurance which took an hour as the lady was not around ($45 for truck and 35 for the motorbike). With this and copies of your license, registration and passport (incl. page with stamp of today) you receive your TIP. The lady was not very cooperative and had troubles dealing with 2 vehicles under one name which resulted in phone calls and delays, after 2 more hours we were told to proceed to inspection.

Inspection focused on fruits and other edible stuff (you can’t bring fruits, seeds, meat, milk products, etc.) and of course the dogs.

As we just had a health certificate from a vet (and not the official one from IPSA in Nicaragua) we had lots of troubles. We went back and forth, also received an official stamp from IPSA in Nicaragua but in the end we had to go back to Nicaragua to obtain the official government certificate. This one you can only get in Managua! So be prepared - get a health certificate from an approved vet and get it certified at IPSA in Managua before you show up at the border - saves you a lot of trouble...

December 22nd, 2021 by louis.ligaulthurel

NOTE : INFORMATIONS THAT APPLY ONLY IF YOUR VEHICLE IS COSTA RICA PLATED (which will not concern many)

Costa Rica was easy, as I had the "permiso de salida" for my vehicle (otherwise you don't get out).
get that paper in "Registro nacional de la propiedad" in any city that has one of these offices.

------------

Nicaraguan side was a real mess and took a veeeeeeeery long time. Everything is so disorganised, crazy amount of checks, double check and so on.

They make mistakes which added extra delays and overall they seem to not really know what they are doing, very very bureaucratic and inefficient, even by Latin American standards. An overall pretty stressful crossing.

Not many people at the border I can barely imagine what it's like at the other one that's 100 times more crowded.

Come early and be patient, don't stress and again... be patient and double check every paper they give you. For instance, the insurance was made for a car even though the man clearly inspected my vehicle and noted it was a motorcycle, had to do the insurance process again.

August 11th, 2021 by Schiebockner

Crossed from Nicaragua into Costa Rica.

Still huge construction in progress on the Nica side. In addition to that there must have been over a hundred people from we believe some country in Africa apparently waiting for days to get into Nicaragua. We heard the current administration makes it hard for them to enter/pass through the country.
It felt weird to walk over sleeping people to reach the next counter and it made it somewhat harder to figure out where to go.
But the officials were not busy at all and the actual processing was efficient and quick.

On the Costa Rican side everything was very organised and neat. People were incredibly friendly and helpful.
We hit lunchtime before importing our vehicle and had to wait over an hour to do so. But we just went back to the truck and had lunch ourselves. Tranquilo ;)

Definitely the perfect border to cross, especially once they finish constriction on the Nica side.

May 10th, 2021 by michieldrummer

At the Nica side they are building big brand new border facilities, should open soon.

Relaxt border crossing, very quiet. Took us almost two hours in total, going from Nica to Costa Rica.
At Nica side was one guy who did money exchange. The border guard did not accept my 5 dollar note with a very small crack in it, so he let me change it.

At the Costa Rica side is a temporary health check, with breething check and smell test included.

September 14th, 2019 by mischling

Easy and relaxed border.

Be aware: harpoons, crossbows and similar 'weapons' are not allowed to be brought into the country since 2015. You need to get a permission from the police (department DAEM) to do so. Because some youngsters killed 8 dogs with crossbow in a rich district of Managua.
Our archery stuff was confiscated and we had to go to San Carlos and have lots of patience and insistance to get a paper which says that archery equipment is not a weapon to thean get back to the border and pick up our stuff. Managed to do this the next day and we are lucky we did not have to wait until the weekend and national holidays were over 4 days later.

Hide stuff which could

July 4th, 2019 by post

All good, but don't get there around lunch time. Then all are gone for eating lunch and you will stand there waiting for them to come back.

May 20th, 2019 by iOverlander-User

Costa Rica to Nicaragua
1.5h total for both.

Exiting CR: 7$ or 5000 colones exit fee, payable at the first container office on the left (or ATM). Immigration is the second container on the left. Aduana is the last container on the right.
No copies needed.

Entering NI: No shady helpers, just friendly officials helping you find out where to go and what to do next. Lots of tickets and stamps to do:
I got the declaration form right at the entrance. Then fumigation straight ahead. Then park on the left. Go to the police (two bored officers sitting at a table outside the immigration) to stamp the declaration form (no idea why).
Pay the 4$ fumigation to get a ticket for the customs, caja is left of immigration (hard to see). Do Immigration, 12$ (10$ tourist tax, 2$ something else, you get tickets).
Go to customs for the TIP. At the same place, but different lady for the insurance (12$).
Final stamp on the TIP back at the police.
No searching or scanning of my luggage, no questions about my drone. No copies needed, they have copiers now.

Make sure they write the 90days onto the stamp! As this is the entrance to the CA-4 area, you will have issues later in Honduras and El Salvador if they forget it!

March 5th, 2019 by m.babey

Nothing straight forward ... leaving Costa Rica and entering Nicaragua took 3hours. The Nicaraguans had not much to do to so they did everything very slow by involving numerous people ... explaining there are new rules to cross the country ... cost unchanged

February 22nd, 2019 by manuel.riederer

Straight forward border without helpers. Cost Costa Rica USD 7 p.p. Copy Costa Rica from TIP needed. Costs Nicaragua USD 2 for motocycle, entry fee USD 12 p.p., SOAT USD 12 for motocycle.

October 7th, 2018 by Michelle

Crossing from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. As previously described, CR side seems to be a little more organised and passed through there in about half an hour. A little more complicated on the Nicaraguan with lots of checks, re-checks etc. Everything was very friendly, I guess it is a result of their in country situation. No issues though. Roads on both sides are great.

May 26th, 2018 by jasminamiika

Such an easy border. Might take some time when they have lunch (12-1pm ish). We crossed south to north. In Nicaragua the following payments:
*exit 12usd per person
*fummigation of the car 3usd
*tip free
*insurance 12 usd
We were the only once at the border. Good road in Nic side.

April 26th, 2018 by edward.moseley

We went Nica-CR. Despite being the slowest border crossing we have done so far, it was actually the most chilled. Neither side was busy. The facilities are new, so that means the bathrooms are nice, and there's shade, and benches to sit down on Costa Rican side, and buildings on both sides are organized.

It took about two hours on each side. Not because they weren't trying. But in Nica they are busy doing silly bureaucratic stuff (they asked for our invitation letter again and to put the van through scanner, measured our bicycles, lol, etc) but you're always moving. On CR side, they were really helpful in moving the process along. The only thing that held us up was the guy who processes the vehicle permit never came back from lunch, so in the end the insurance guy stepped in to help. Everyone was apologetic, haha, first time at a border ever.

As long as you allow yourself some time, this will be a very easy and non-stressful crossing.

April 22nd, 2018 by 640taller

Very nice crossing. Did it from CR to Nicaragua on a Sunday evening and it took 1 hour and a half to pass the two borders. There are money changers in the Nicaraguan side. No helpers. Quiet and nice. Cooler than the coast.

Side Note: Claro network works for all Centroamerica with no roaming charges (other than Belize).

December 29th, 2016 by Rob Wilson Photography

Pretty brutal crossing; considering this is supposed to be the easy one, I can't imagine how the other one is.

There weren't any helpers and no money changers on either side, so that was nice. The roads up to and after the crossing are great, and the buildings were fairly nice; but man did it take forever. We arrived at the border at 13:30, and weren't through until about 16:15.

The process of leaving Nic. is just ridiculously redundant, gathering signatures from multiple people (who don't want to leave the covered areas to inspect the vehicle if it's raining) in order to cancel the TIP. First we received and filled out a declaration form, from the officers at the boom. We then drove to the parking lot and a police officer approached us and signed the form. Then we walked to the little circular booth and from there it was just a mess of having people not really know what they're doing signing the form and stamping it. Then we went to migration (behind and to the right of the circular booth), where we paid the fee and got our passports stamped. Then, we crossed the street to the aduana office where we were finally able to cancel the TIP and leave. Before we left the parking lot we exchanged currency at the bank booth. The lady had both currencies as well as USD.

On the Costa Rican side we drove through the boom and stopped at the police checkpoint. They checked our passports and sent us through. We drove through fumigation free-of-charge, and then parked in the big parking lot on the left. We walked along the road for a few seconds and turned right into the complex of seacans. Grab a declaration card and fill it out, then go to the farthest right window for the Entrada. Here we got stamped in, then turned around and went directly over to the aduana booth. The guy then told us we needed insurance and multiple photocopies including the new passport stamp and the insurance document. Thus, walk along the pathway past the photocopy booth on the left and the migration windows on the right, then past the bathrooms, and go left until finding the insurance window. Once we got insurance we went to the photocopy booth to find a sizable line. Finally once we got the photocopy of the stamp and insurance (we had the rest), we returned to the aduana window to find the guy nowhere in sight, with 10mins until 16:00 when the border closes. Luckily he finally showed up from who-knows-where, and got us a TIP. Then, he summons some guys to check the vehicle for mostly veggies, meat, eggs, etc. They confiscated our eggs and bananas.

Although most people were friendly, and they seem to be headed in the right direction, nearly nobody seemed to know what they were doing and that combined with even the shortest lines led to a very long and somewhat stressful crossing. Though the crossing with the least amount of traffic thus far experienced, this one took the longest. Get here long before 16:00 if you want to make it.

November 15th, 2016 by brett.williams27

travelled from nicaragua to Costa Rica, very quiet with no helpers or money changers that I could see, small exit fee in nicaragua but easy and simple procedures, Costa Rican side was slow and difficult with no one appearing to know what was going on, had to make copies of docs on Costa Rican side, insurance cost $30usd but no permit or immigration fees, took about about 3.5hours, avoid lunch time, got 90 days on permit passport and insurance, did not inspect or check motorcycle at all.

March 14th, 2016 by PanAmericanAdventures

fantastic quiet border to cross at. It closes at 4 but we got here early Monday morning. Besides 3 people we were the only ones there leaving costa rica to Nicaragua.
to exit costa rica, turn past the road blocks to your right and go in the small brown building there will be an officer there to record your passport out front of the building. Once you are stamped out (pay exit fee of 7usd per person at atm next to booth) out of the building on your right is a small booth where they will cancel your vehicle permit and give you a small paper. don't lose this you will need it for them to open the gate.
drive up, show the guard the papers and passport and drive through the gate.

To enter Nicaragua- drive through the gate and on your left is a medium size building with booths facing the road. stamp your passports here and pay your entrance fee.
vehicle permit and customs are on the other side. they don't need copies they take what they need.

March 13th, 2016 by PanAmericanAdventures

just want to add, this border closes at 4pm.

November 3rd, 2015 by Nick Weaver

New border crossing opened in May 2015.
Very quiet no 'helpers' around as yet and not much traffic passing through.
I went from Nicaragua into Costa Rica. No need to buy any photocopies as they take what they need themselves. Staff very helpful on both sides.
I was unlucky as there was a planned power outage on the CR side, but without that I would have been through in an hour.
No costs on the Nic side and just compulsory insurance on the CR side.
There was a money changer on the Nic side, didn't see any on the CR side.