We were successful with opening a bank account for our corporation this week. This was no small feat! We went to two different banks and received two different sets of requirements. We chose to open an account with the bank with the shortest list. We gathered the documents and on the second trip to the bank were given a different list of required documents. Back to the drawing board... It took a few more weeks to gather the
necessary papers. Meanwhile, we made friends with an Argentinean who has lived in Costa Rica on and off for 17 years. He is friends with the CEO at the bank and offered to help us open the account. Little did we know, without his help we would probably have been playing the "new list of requirements" game with the bank for quite some time.
Banking rules have recently changed in Costa Rica. The country has worked to get themselves off of the world wide bank black list and are following rules established by the USA to prevent money laundering and tax evasion. These changes make it much more difficult for a foreigner to open and maintain a bank account. We were fortunate that we opened our personal bank accounts a few years ago, before the rules changed and were enforced. This helped give us credibility to be able to open the corporate account.
I'm including a few more pictures from our new property. We saw the snake on the first visit to the property. It's a harmless false Fer de Lance. The geological makeup of the land is simply amazing. We saw the crystal cluster on a rock in the river on our second visit. The boot shaped cluster was about the size of a human foot. There are two major rivers that border our property. This is a shot of the Rio Viejo. The white orchid in the first picture was given to me by a friend. A branch from a tree in his yard fell off and on it were a few orchid plants. I simply tied the branch to a tree in our yard and the orchids are thriving.
We were successful with opening a bank account for our corporation this week. This was no small feat! We went to two different banks and received two different sets of requirements. We chose to open an account with the bank with the shortest list. We gathered the documents and on the second trip to the bank were given a different list of required documents. Back to the drawing board... It took a few more weeks to gather the 
necessary papers. Meanwhile, we made friends with an Argentinean who has lived in Costa Rica on and off for 17 years. He is friends with the CEO at the bank and offered to help us open the account. Little did we know, without his help we would probably have been playing the "new list of requirements" game with the bank for quite some time.
Banking rules have recently changed in Costa Rica. The country has worked to get themselves off of the world wide bank black list and are following rules established by the USA to prevent money laundering and tax evasion. These changes make it much more difficult for a foreigner to open and maintain a bank account. We were fortunate that we opened our personal bank accounts a few years ago, before the rules changed and were enforced. This helped give us credibility to be able to open the corporate account.
I'm including a few more pictures from our new property. We saw the snake on the first visit to the property. It's a harmless false Fer de Lance. The geological makeup of the land is simply amazing. We saw the crystal cluster on a rock in the river on our second visit. The boot shaped cluster was about the size of a human foot. There are two major rivers that border our property. This is a shot of the Rio Viejo. The white orchid in the first picture was given to me by a friend. A branch from a tree in his yard fell off and on it were a few orchid plants. I simply tied the branch to a tree in our yard and the orchids are thriving.
