How to Receive International Mail in Costa Rica

The Postal System in Costa Rica allows you to receive international mail in several ways, the most common of which include mail to a district post office (nearest you), your physical home address, courier or a post box. This post will deal with the first 3 options.

How To Receive International Mail at Your District Post Office in Costa Rica

If you do not have a fixed physical postal address in Costa Rica, you can collect your mail at the Costa Rica post office. However, in addition to the fact that it is suitable only for mail for which you are expecting and can therefore check routinely on its availability, the post office will hold your mail for only a maximum of roughly 15 to 20 days. Beware, they are prompt in returning unclaimed mail. I know from experience. This is apparently the least costly method of receiving mail but, if you have no way of tracking the arrival, the most risky method as it relates to not receiving the mail at all. Given the inherent risk of not receiving your mail, take the following steps, especially for mail that will not include a tracking number.

Steps

1. Get your nearest district's post office's street address on the Correos de Costa Rica 'búsqueda de sucursales' [ie branch search] webpage. (See an example below in the 'DOs' section). Example: Correos de Costa Rica, Sucursal Pérez Zeledón. 200 mts sur de la Municipalidad contiguo a Megasuper. San José, Pérez Zeledón, San Isidro del General. You can use this address as your mailing address. See an acceptable short form that works below.
2. When providing the address to your sending party, consider including your Costa Rica mobile telephone number after the line 'Correo de Costa Rica'.
3. Ask the sender for the following. 
• the postage date
• the tracking number. If none is available, 
• the date of posting the mail and 
• the method of delivery (this is often essential for making a reliable estimate of the transit period)
• a physical description of the envelope (just in case there is trouble finding it). Example: a yellow 4*6 inch envelope.
• to legibly write the full return address on the front of the envelope. Ideally, this address should have someone who is sure to notify you if the mail was returned. Consider using a backup Costa Rica address if possible.
4. Get an estimated date of arrival of the mail from the post office. Provide them with information regarding the type of delivery method being used, country of origin, and date of postage. My experience has shown that the receiving district post office is in a better position to provide a more reliable estimate of arrival at their facility. 
5. If you only have a prepaid mobile telephone service, create a reminder notification (on your phone, computer or otherwise) to alert you to ensure the account balance is sufficiently high to cover the cost of receiving a call or text message from Costa Rica post office if they are to notify you of the arrival of your mail. 
6. Create a reminder notification (on your phone, computer or otherwise) for the estimated arrival date of the mail. This will have to verify the estimated delivery time beforehand (with possibly better reliability from the Costa Rica personnel). Example: My district office estimated that basic letters originating from the US would arrive between 10 and 12 days. My last letter arrived on the 8th day after being posted.

My experiences with this method (no tracking number)

Positive experience: I was expecting a package of documents in a 6*9 inch envelope with a gross weight of 33 grams from the US, without a tracking number. My UPS store charges me USD 4 to send mail this way (but USD 40 by tracking). Needless to say, if I was receiving something that is not too valuable or time sensitive, this was my method of choice. Below is an activity log.

• 15 Feb - calendar day 0: Posted from the US
• 23 Feb - calendar day 8: District post office stamp of receipt
• 27 Feb - calendar day 12: I collected the mail at the nearest post office in Costa Rica with my foreign driving license as identification. There was no charge.

NB. As expected, I never received a text message or call from the post office to notify me of the mail's arrival (despite the inclusion of my mobile telephone number in the address). Despite having your telephone number on the envelope, you are unlikely to receive calls, except in a few cases as with mail from Asia. 

How To Receive International Mail at Your Home in Costa Rica 

Despite the fact lot and street numbers are not assigned to most homes in Costa Rica, mail can be delivered directly to one's doorstep. To achieve this, ensure that the address is as detailed as possible because addresses in Costa Rica read like driving directions that identify your home's location relative to the nearest or most prominent landmark, like '200 meters North of ABC Bank, red house with blue gate'. Consequently, mail arriving at the same address may be written differently. Consider including your telephone number in the 2nd line of your address.

Steps for receiving international mail at your home in Costa Rica

1. When creating your address, double-check its wording with someone who lives nearby for clarity and correction of the address. Be sure to include the following. 
• Your district
• Your postal code. Access it from the Correos de Costa Rica postal code search webpage.
• your mobile Costa Rica telephone number (see an example below)
2. Ensure that someone will be available in the day time when the post man will drop off the slip. 

My experience with this method. 

I received a package in a 5*7 inch envelope whose gross weight was 50 grams using this method. The mail did not have a tracking number. Rather than receive the package at the house, a post man who arrived on motorbike delivered a small collection notification slip. I needed to collect the package at the district post office within 10 days after signing for receipt of the slip. Furthermore, upon collecting the small package, I was also charged roughly 1,200 colones for the post man's service of delivering the notification slip.

How To Receive International Mail Via Courier Service in Costa Rica

Despite the saying, 'you get what you pay for', my most frightening mail experience involved receiving international mail by courier.

My Experience with receiving international mail by courier in Costa Rica.
I was receiving a package from the US that had a gross weight under 1 lb inside a standard document sized courier envelope. Thanks to the tracking number system, I was aware when the mail arrived in my district. However, apart from not getting a telephone call, the guy at the courier office said he could not find the package during my multiple visits and calls. Panicked over the likelihood of not receiving the very valuable and time-sensitive package and the potential of needing to repeat the costly process, I called the Costa Rica head office in San Jose. They confirmed that the package was not only in the district office but would soon be returned if not collected within 1 or 2 days. They called the same guy in my district office who immediately found and gave it to me. I have never quite figured out why this even happened at al. When I asked, the guy had no explanation. To my horror, I heard of stories of courier packages being lost.

Steps

1. Ask the sender to inform you of
• sending date.
• tracking number
2. If you have a prepaid mobile package, create a reminder notification (on your phone, computer or otherwise) to ensure the account balance is sufficiently high to cover the cost of receiving a call or text message from courier service personnel. 
3. Be swift to call the head office (in San Jose) if have not yet received your package by the expected time

DOs

• include your postal code on ALL mail. Access it from the Correo de Costa Rica postal code search webpage.
• Include your mobile Costa Rica telephone number immediately after the initial part of your address. NB the postal services will send text message notifications in only some cases. For instance, in Pérez Zeledón, they will call only if the mail arrives from Asia. In other words, they will NOT call if the mail originates from the US. it is therefore worth asking about this and including the number regardless as it may not hurt either way.

Example 

Jane Doe

'Correo de Costa Rica'

Sucursal Pérez Zeledón #800

No 8123-4567

San Isidro de El General

Pérez Zeledón

San Jose provincia

Costa Rica

11901

CONTENT RELATED TO RECEIVING INTERNATIONAL MAIL IN COSTA RICA: