Divorce in Costa Rica: Legal Process, Grounds, and What to Expect
Divorce in Costa Rica changed significantly with recent family-law reforms.
The most important change is simple:
One spouse no longer needs the other spouse’s agreement to end the marriage.
Costa Rica continues to recognize traditional grounds such as adultery, serious mistreatment, legally declared absence, and long-term separation. But Article 48 of the Family Code also recognizes incompatibility of character as an independent ground for divorce.
That means a spouse who has concluded that the marriage can no longer continue does not necessarily have to prove misconduct by the other spouse simply because the other person refuses to sign a divorce agreement.
Costa Rica also maintains a separate procedure for divorce by mutual consent, which can be considerably simpler when the spouses agree on the terms.
The right route therefore depends on whether the couple agrees to divorce and whether there are unresolved issues involving children, support, or property.
For couples whose primary concern is property, see our guide to Prenuptial Agreements in Costa Rica and our discussion of Managing Assets During Marriage in Costa Rica.
What Are the Current Grounds for Divorce in Costa Rica?
Article 48 of the Family Code identifies the legal grounds for divorce.
Following the 2025 reform through Law 10,650, those grounds include:
adultery;
an attempt by one spouse against the life of the other spouse or the children;
attempted prostitution or corruption of the spouse or children;
serious mistreatment, or sevicia;
judicial separation for at least one year without reconciliation;
the spouse’s legally declared absence;
de facto separation for at least three years;
and incompatibility of character.
The Family Code also separately allows divorce by mutual consent.
The official text of Law 10,650 is available through Costa Rica’s legal-information system. PGR/SINALEVI: Law 10,650 reforming Article 48
Incompatibility of Character Changed Costa Rican Divorce Law
For practical purposes, incompatibility of character is now one of the most important divorce grounds.
It allows the marital bond to be dissolved without requiring one spouse to prove adultery, cruelty, or another traditional form of wrongdoing merely because the other spouse does not want the divorce.
Current Costa Rican decisions demonstrate that courts are granting divorces expressly under Article 48’s incompatibility provision. For example, a 2025 Family Court judgment dissolved a marriage on incompatibility grounds and addressed ganancial property and support without declaring one spouse legally at fault.
This changes the question from:
“Will my spouse agree to divorce me?”
to:
“Is there a statutory basis to dissolve the marriage, and what related issues still need to be resolved?”
That is a much more accurate description of current Costa Rican divorce law.
Is Costa Rica a No-Fault Divorce Country?
The answer requires some nuance.
Costa Rica still maintains traditional statutory grounds that involve conduct, such as adultery and sevicia.
But incompatibility of character allows a spouse to seek divorce without building the case around blame for marital misconduct.
So describing Costa Rica today as purely “fault based unless both spouses agree” is no longer correct.
A better way to explain the current system is:
Costa Rica recognizes both conduct-based divorce grounds and non-fault-style routes such as incompatibility of character and mutual consent.
Divorce by Mutual Consent
When both spouses agree to divorce, Article 48 permits them to proceed through mutuo consentimiento.
The agreement must be contained in an escritura pública, meaning a public deed executed before a Costa Rican notary.
Under the current Article 48, the agreement addresses, where applicable:
custody of common minor children;
the children’s support obligations;
whether there will be a support obligation between the spouses;
and the ownership and distribution of property contained in the spouses’ patrimonies.
Article 60 of the Family Code likewise addresses the contents of mutual-consent agreements, including spousal support, ganancial property, and arrangements concerning minor children.
The Costa Rican Family Code can be consulted through the official PGR/SINALEVI legal database. PGR/SINALEVI: Costa Rican Family Code
Some Mutual-Consent Divorces Can Now Go Directly to the Civil Registry
The 2025 reform created an important procedural simplification.
When a marriage has:
no common minor children, and
no property that must be addressed in the divorce agreement,
the notarized divorce agreement can be presented directly to the Registro Civil for approval and registration.
When common minor children or relevant property exist, the divorce proceeds judicially under the Family Procedure Code.
This is one of the most useful changes for straightforward divorces.
A couple without children or assets does not necessarily need the same judicial process as a family with custody, support, and property disputes.
When Does a Mutual-Consent Divorce Require Court Approval?
If the couple has common minor children or property that must be addressed through the settlement, the agreement is handled judicially.
The court reviews the agreement before approving it.
Where children are involved, the judge is not simply rubber-stamping whatever the parents signed.
The Family Code allows the tribunal to modify provisions affecting children’s rights when necessary.
Article 60 also provides that an agreement subject to judicial approval can be returned for clarification or completion if its provisions are incomplete or unclear.
The central point is:
Adults can settle their own economic issues extensively, but they cannot contract away the legal protections belonging to their children.
How Is a Contested or Unilateral Divorce Started?
A spouse who does not have a mutual-consent agreement can file a divorce action based on one of the statutory grounds.
Today, incompatibility of character will often be the relevant ground when the objective is simply to end an unworkable marriage rather than prove misconduct.
The divorce is processed within Costa Rica’s current Código Procesal de Familia, which came into force on October 1, 2024.
The Poder Judicial identifies divorce, judicial separation, nullity of marriage, and recognition of de facto unions within the proceso resolutivo familiar framework.
You can review the Poder Judicial’s overview of the procedural reform here: Poder Judicial: Reforma Procesal de Familia
What Happens After the Divorce Petition Is Filed?
The precise procedural steps depend on the claim and issues presented.
Broadly, the respondent must receive proper notice and an opportunity to answer.
Evidence is then addressed when factual questions remain disputed.
The process can involve documentary evidence, witnesses, expert evidence, hearings, and other procedural measures appropriate to the issues.
Costa Rican procedure should not be described through American terminology such as routine “depositions” and broad U.S.-style discovery.
The Family Procedure Code has its own evidentiary and hearing system.
Recent court notices involving incompatibility claims illustrate that respondents receive formal notice and an opportunity to oppose the action.
What If the Other Spouse Refuses to Divorce?
The other spouse’s refusal does not give that person a permanent veto over the marriage.
This is one of the largest corrections to the original article.
A spouse can bring a unilateral divorce claim based on incompatibility of character.
The court can dissolve the marriage if the applicable legal requirements are satisfied even though the respondent opposes the divorce.
That does not mean the respondent loses the right to participate.
The respondent can contest allegations, property issues, custody questions, support claims, and other matters properly before the court.
But the legal system no longer requires both people to agree that the marriage should end.
What If My Spouse Cannot Be Located?
Difficulty locating the respondent complicates service, but it does not necessarily make divorce impossible.
Costa Rican procedural law contains mechanisms for cases in which a party’s location is unknown, including court-supervised notification procedures where appropriate.
Recent family-court proceedings show divorces being processed with court-appointed procedural representation and publication when the respondent could not be located.
This is very different from simply saying that the case proceeds automatically when service fails.
Proper procedural notice remains essential.
Property Division in a Costa Rican Divorce
Costa Rican divorce should not be described as a court dividing a single “community estate” 50/50.
As explained in our article on Managing Assets During Marriage in Costa Rica, Costa Rica uses a deferred participation system in ganancial property.
Article 41 provides that when the marriage dissolves, each spouse acquires a right to participate in one-half of the net value of qualifying ganancial property found in the other spouse’s patrimony.
This is not the same as automatic 50/50 ownership of every asset.
A recent Family Court judgment illustrates the point: the court recognized a vehicle as ganancial and awarded the other spouse the right to participate in 50% of its net value, with valuation to occur later during execution of the judgment.
The official Article 41 text can be reviewed here. PGR/SINALEVI: Family Code Article 41
Does the Judge Have General Discretion to Change the 50% Ganancial Share for “Fairness”?
Not in the broad way the original article suggested.
Article 41 establishes the statutory participation in one-half of the net value of qualifying ganancial property.
The real litigation often concerns:
whether the asset is ganancial at all;
its net value;
when it was acquired;
whether an exclusion applies;
whether it belongs to one spouse or an entity;
and whether a transfer was made in good faith.
This is different from a generic U.S.-style equitable-distribution system where a judge simply chooses another percentage because it seems fair.
The upcoming article on Property Division in Divorce in Costa Rica should explore this distinction in more detail.
What Property Is Normally Excluded From Ganancial Participation?
Article 41 excludes several categories, including property brought into the marriage and property acquired gratuitously, such as inheritances and gifts.
It also contains exclusions relating to pre-marital acquisition rights, qualifying replacement assets, and property acquired during factual separation.
That means a divorce lawyer should not simply collect everything owned by the parties and divide it in half.
Each asset has to be classified.
Can Property Issues Be Resolved Separately From the Divorce?
Property litigation can continue beyond the decree ending the marriage.
A divorce judgment can recognize ganancial rights while valuation or liquidation occurs later during execution.
The 2024 court decision concerning a ganancial vehicle demonstrates this approach: the divorce was granted while the specific economic liquidation of the asset was left for the execution stage.
This is important for couples with businesses, complex corporate holdings, or disputed valuations.
Ending the marriage and completing the financial liquidation do not always happen on exactly the same date.
What About Children?
Divorce does not terminate parenthood.
Questions concerning children can include:
personal custody;
parental responsibility;
support;
and the child’s right to maintain contact and relationships with parents and other significant family members.
The Family Procedure Code now groups many related family claims within the same proceso resolutivo familiar, while certain matters such as support retain specialized procedures.
The Family Code also protects the child’s rights independently from whatever agreement the parents may reach.
For a detailed discussion, see our guide to Child Custody in Costa Rica.
Custody Is Not the Same as Parental Responsibility
This distinction will be important in the next family-law articles.
One parent can have the child’s day-to-day personal custody while both parents continue exercising other aspects of parental responsibility.
Recent divorce judgments demonstrate this directly: courts have awarded personal custody to one parent while stating that other parental responsibilities remain shared.
So language such as “the mother got full custody, therefore the father lost all parental rights” can be legally misleading.
Child Support Is a Separate Legal Obligation
Parents cannot eliminate the child’s support rights merely through a divorce agreement.
Costa Rican law treats the right to alimentos as legally protected.
The family-court framework allows agreed support arrangements to be approved, but the child’s rights remain subject to judicial protection.
This means support should not be negotiated as though it were simply another piece of marital property.
Spousal Support After Divorce
Spousal support requires a more careful explanation than the original draft’s suggestion that Costa Rican courts use a standard checklist resembling U.S. alimony law.
Costa Rican family law recognizes potential alimentos between former spouses, but entitlement is governed by the Family Code rather than a fixed mathematical formula.
In mutual-consent divorce, Article 48 expressly requires the agreement to establish whether a support obligation will exist between the spouses and the agreed amount where applicable.
The factual analysis can involve economic need, financial capacity, and the particular legal basis asserted.
We will address this separately in the article on Spousal Support in Costa Rica, rather than oversimplifying it here.
Does “Fault” Automatically Determine Spousal Support?
No simple rule says that proving adultery automatically eliminates support or that proving marital misconduct automatically increases it.
The consequences of a particular divorce ground and the support analysis should be considered under the specific Family Code provisions and facts.
Incompatibility of character also makes the old strategy of pursuing “fault” merely to obtain the divorce itself much less central than it once was.
Recent incompatibility cases expressly state that there is no legally “guilty” or “innocent” spouse under that ground.
Can Spouses Negotiate a Settlement?
Yes.
Settlement can resolve a large portion of the conflict surrounding divorce.
A properly structured agreement can address property, spousal support, children, and related economic issues subject to the limits of Costa Rican family law.
The Family Procedure Code also supports conciliation, although it restricts conciliation in situations involving unequal power relationships.
That limitation matters.
Settlement should be voluntary and legally informed, not the result of coercion.
Mediation and Conciliation
Costa Rica’s modern family procedure encourages resolution of disputes where appropriate.
The Family Procedure Code permits parties to request a conciliation hearing even before the formal lawsuit in qualifying circumstances.
But the Code expressly prohibits conciliation when unequal power relationships make the process inappropriate.
This is a more useful formulation than simply saying mediation is always “faster and cheaper.”
Sometimes negotiated resolution is highly effective.
Sometimes judicial protection is necessary.
How Long Does Divorce Take in Costa Rica?
There is no reliable universal timeline.
A simple mutual-consent divorce can move considerably faster than contested litigation.
The Family Code provides that qualifying judicial mutual-consent agreements should be reviewed through the statutory process, and Article 60 refers to a fifteen-business-day period for the tribunal’s reasoned approval once the qualifying agreement is before it.
That does not mean the entire divorce is guaranteed to finish in fifteen days.
Document preparation, notarization, court intake, clarifications, child-related issues, registration, and other procedural steps can add time.
Likewise, it is not responsible to promise that every contested case will take “one to three years.”
The actual duration depends on service, evidence, number of disputed issues, court workload, expert evidence, appeals, and enforcement.
For SEO purposes, precise but unsupported timelines do more harm than good.
How Much Does Divorce Cost?
There is no responsible universal dollar figure.
The original draft gave ranges such as US$800–US$2,000 for consensual divorce and US$2,000–US$10,000+ for contested cases.
Those figures vary according to professional fees, asset value, litigation complexity, experts, translations, foreign documents, notarial work, and the number of related family claims.
The cost of a mutual-consent divorce with no children or property can be dramatically different from a case involving several corporations, real estate, custody litigation, and international assets.
CRI can provide a case-specific quote after determining what the divorce actually involves.
Do You Have to Be Costa Rican to Divorce Here?
No.
Costa Rican family courts regularly deal with foreign spouses and internationally connected marriages.
The jurisdictional question depends on the particular case rather than citizenship alone.
Costa Rica’s Sala Segunda has recognized international jurisdiction in a mutual-consent divorce involving foreign connections where the parties submitted the matter to Costa Rican courts.
International cases require special attention to:
where the spouses live;
where the marriage was registered;
where children habitually reside;
where property is located;
and whether the resulting judgment needs recognition abroad.
What If the Marriage Was Celebrated Outside Costa Rica?
A foreign marriage can still create a divorce issue in Costa Rica.
Whether Costa Rican courts have jurisdiction and what documents are required depend on the circumstances.
Foreign marriage certificates commonly need authentication or apostille and official Spanish translation when used in Costa Rican proceedings.
If the marriage involving a Costa Rican citizen was previously registered with the Costa Rican Civil Registry, the eventual divorce also needs to be reflected in the civil-status records.
When Is the Divorce Legally Effective?
A divorce proceeding does not end simply because one spouse tells the other that the relationship is over.
There must be an effective legal resolution or approved mutual-consent procedure.
Once the divorce becomes final, it must be reflected in the Registro Civil so the parties’ civil status is updated.
Recent court judgments expressly order registration of the divorce in the marriage records after the judgment becomes final.
This is especially important for someone who later wants to remarry.
Practical Steps Before Filing for Divorce
A person considering divorce should begin by understanding the family finances.
Identify real estate, vehicles, companies, bank accounts, loans, investments, and significant personal property.
Obtain company books when either spouse owns an SA or SRL.
Preserve documents showing when important assets were acquired and how they were financed.
Identify property received by inheritance or gift.
Review any capitulaciones matrimoniales.
Keep records of substantial transfers.
And if there are children, distinguish financial disputes from decisions concerning their care and relationships.
The purpose is not to escalate conflict.
It is to understand what the case actually contains before making legal decisions.
Protecting Ganancial Rights When Assets Are at Risk
If there is a legitimate concern that one spouse is attempting to remove or dissipate assets to defeat the other’s ganancial rights, Costa Rican law provides protective mechanisms.
Article 41 permits anticipatory liquidation of ganancial property where the court establishes that a spouse’s interests are at risk because of the other’s mismanagement or acts threatening to defeat those rights.
Courts can also order appropriate annotations and inventories.
A spouse concerned about disappearing assets should therefore seek legal advice before responding by secretly transferring assets in return.
Frequently Asked Questions About Divorce in Costa Rica
Can one spouse get divorced if the other spouse says no?
Yes. Incompatibility of character is an express ground for divorce under Article 48. Mutual consent is therefore not required in every divorce.
Do I need to prove adultery to get divorced?
No. Adultery remains one statutory ground, but incompatibility of character provides another route that does not require proving adultery.
Is incompatibility of character considered a fault divorce?
Current cases applying this ground state that there is no legally guilty or innocent spouse simply because the divorce is based on incompatibility.
Can we divorce directly through the Civil Registry?
Under the 2025 reform, a mutual-consent divorce with no common minor children and no property requiring disposition in the agreement can be presented directly to the Civil Registry after execution of the required public deed.
What if we have children or property?
A mutual-consent divorce involving common minor children or property addressed in the agreement follows the judicial process under the Family Procedure Code.
Do we need a notary for a mutual-consent divorce?
Yes. Article 48 requires the divorce agreement to be executed in an escritura pública.
How is property divided?
Each spouse acquires the right to participate in one-half of the net value of qualifying ganancial property found in the other spouse’s patrimony. This is not the same as dividing every asset physically in half.
Can I keep property I owned before marriage?
Property brought into the marriage is ordinarily excluded from ganancial participation under Article 41, subject to the specific facts and any later transactions affecting the asset.
Is inherited property divided in divorce?
Property received gratuitously, including inheritance, falls within Article 41’s exclusions. Documentation and tracing remain important.
Will the judge always divide ganancial property during the divorce judgment itself?
Not necessarily. A judgment can recognize ganancial rights while valuation or final economic liquidation occurs during the execution stage.
Can I get divorced in Costa Rica if my spouse is a foreigner?
Foreign nationality does not prevent a Costa Rican divorce. Jurisdiction depends on the facts and international connections of the case.
Can I get divorced if my spouse cannot be found?
Potentially, yes, but proper procedural notice is still required. Costa Rican courts have mechanisms for respondents whose whereabouts are unknown.
Does divorce automatically cancel both parents’ parental responsibility?
No. Divorce ends the marriage, not the parent-child relationship. Personal custody and other elements of parental responsibility must be distinguished.
Can child arrangements be changed later?
Yes. Provisions affecting children do not necessarily become permanently unchangeable merely because they appeared in the divorce judgment or agreement. The child’s circumstances and legal interests remain controlling.
The Most Important Change: A Spouse Cannot Hold the Marriage Hostage
The practical meaning of modern divorce in Costa Rica is that mutual consent is useful, but it is not always necessary.
When both people agree, a carefully prepared mutual-consent divorce can simplify the process substantially—and in the simplest cases, the 2025 reform now allows direct Civil Registry processing.
When one spouse does not agree, incompatibility of character provides an express legal route to seek dissolution of the marriage without converting the case into a battle over adultery or other misconduct simply to establish a divorce ground.
The more complicated questions are often not whether the marriage can end.
They are:
What happens to the children?
What property is actually ganancial?
How are companies valued?
Does either spouse have a support claim?
Are assets located abroad?
Has one spouse transferred property?
And what issues can be settled rather than litigated?
Those questions should be addressed individually instead of treating divorce as one single dispute.
If you are considering divorce in Costa Rica—or need to understand how a Costa Rican divorce would affect your property, children, support obligations, or international assets—reach us. We can review the circumstances and explain which divorce procedure applies under the current Family Code and Family Procedure Code.
