Nearshore staffing and recruitment in Costa Rica
Hire in Costa Rica: the bilingual services capital of Central America.
Costa Rica is small, stable and unusually bilingual. Intel, Procter & Gamble, HP and Amazon run shared-services and support operations in the Central Valley around San José, and they have trained a generation of English-speaking finance, support and IT professionals. San José is on UTC−6 all year. nearshore.now employs your Costa Rican hires under local law; you manage the work.
Costa Rica at a glance.
- Capital
- San José
- Talent hubs
- San José, Heredia, Cartago
- Time zone
- UTC−6, all year
Costa Rica does not observe daylight saving time. San José matches Chicago in the US winter and Denver in the US summer. - Language
- Spanish. English tested live for every candidate.
- Currency
- Costa Rican colón (CRC). You are invoiced in US dollars.
- Population
- about 5 million
- Flights
- San José to Miami, about 3 h; San José to Houston, about 3 h 30 min; San José to Los Angeles, about 6 h.
- Overlap with US
- Eastern: 7 h in summer, 8 h in winter; Central: 8 h in summer, 9 h in winter; Mountain: 9 h in summer, 8 h in winter; Pacific: 8 h in summer, 7 h in winter. Working day 9:00–18:00 in both places.
Three reasons US companies hire in Costa Rica.
- 01
English and service culture. Decades of multinational shared-services centers mean Costa Rican professionals are used to US managers, US processes and US customers.
- 02
Stability and proximity. A stable democracy with no army, three hours from Miami, on Central time all year.
- 03
Senior service talent. The pool is small, about five million people, so Costa Rica is the right choice for senior bilingual service roles rather than for hiring fifty people at once.
English
English proficiency is among the highest in Latin America, especially in the Central Valley, where most professionals have worked in English for multinationals. We still test it live.
- San José UTC−06:00 –:––
- New York UTC−04:00 –:––
- Chicago UTC−05:00 –:––
- Denver UTC−06:00 –:––
- Los Angeles UTC−07:00 –:––
The roles Costa Rica is strongest for.
Customer success
Amazon and HP have run support centers there for years.
Hire customer success FINFinance & accounting
P&G and other shared-services centers train accountants on US processes.
Hire finance & accounting ITIT support
A bilingual, certified IT bench on Central time.
Hire it support EAExecutive assistants
Strong English and experience with US executives.
Hire executive assistantsWhat employing someone in Costa Rica involves.
You do not need to know any of this to hire. We employ your Costa Rican hire under local law through our entities and partners and send you one invoice in US dollars. It is here so you know what your fee covers.
- Legal workweek: 48 hours maximum for day shifts.
- Aguinaldo: a mandatory 13th salary, paid in December.
- Paid vacation: two weeks per 50 weeks worked.
- Mandatory social security (CCSS) contributions for health and pension.
Questions about hiring in Costa Rica.
Other countries
01What time zone is Costa Rica in?
UTC−6 all year, with no daylight saving time. San José matches Chicago in the US winter and Denver in the US summer.
02Is Costa Rica good for large teams?
For teams of a few people, yes. For fifty hires at once, Mexico or Colombia will fill the roles faster. Costa Rica is a quality market with a small pool.
03Why is English so strong in Costa Rica?
Multinationals have run shared-services and support centers in the Central Valley since the late 1990s, and the country invested in bilingual education to support them.
04Can I hire in Costa Rica without a local entity?
Yes, through nearshore staffing: nearshore.now employs the professional under Costa Rica’s labor law and you pay one monthly invoice in US dollars. If you already have an entity or employer of record in Costa Rica, use nearshore recruitment instead: we run the same search and vetting, and you hire directly for a one-time fee.
Your first hire in Costa Rica could start next month.
Twenty minutes with us. No commitment. We’ll tell you if nearshore is right for the role.
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