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If the brief is simple—incorporate cleanly, keep upkeep predictable, and get banking without three rounds of re-onboarding—Costa Rica is a sensible pick. You get a jurisdiction partners recognize, filings that don’t spiral, and a straightforward way to prove you’re a credible counterparty. If you want a defined, start-to-finish path, see Costa Rica company formation.
What makes Costa Rica practical (in real life)
It’s less about one “magic” regulation and more about friction reduction. You can gather the core IDs and corporate papers in a single pass, get drafting moving without travel, and spin up operational accounts in an order that doesn’t block day-to-day work. Vendors are used to cross-border clients; the compliance questions are predictable if your story is tidy. The payoff is momentum: predictable filing, fewer clarifications, and easier vendor reviews when you start selling.
The credible story banks and PSPs expect to hear
Every provider is trying to answer four questions. Who owns and runs the company (with evidence)? What exactly do you do (in plain language that matches your site and contracts)? How do funds move—corridors, volumes, counterparties, currencies? And how do you keep illicit funds out while safeguarding client money (if you touch flows at all)? If you cover those in one neat data room—ownership chart with IDs/addresses, one-page activity narrative, a simple flow diagram, and a short note on controls—you’re already ahead of most files in the queue.
Documents that pass first time (without a scavenger hunt)
Keep it boring and complete: clear passports and recent proof of address for directors, shareholders, and UBOs; short CVs for controllers; two or three company-name options; and a business summary that doesn’t read like marketing—who pays you, where they are, typical monthly volumes, the currencies you actually use. If anything looks fuzzy (blurry scans, mismatched addresses, expired IDs), fix that before you send the pack. Nine times out of ten, missing or messy KYC is why timelines drift.
How to set up without stalling sales
Sequence matters more than heroic effort. Start by confirming purpose (holding vs operating), roles (who signs, who decides), and where decisions will be documented (board minutes/resolutions). Get drafting going as soon as your KYC is complete; there’s no prize for waiting until every hypothetical vendor is chosen. For accounts, open a fintech-friendly EMI/PSP first so you can invoice and get paid; add a bank or a second EMI for redundancy and new corridors once you’ve shipped the first customer work. This two-track approach keeps cash moving while you finish the “nice to have” parts.
Touching client funds or assets? Tighten these three things
First, onboarding: be explicit about what information you collect, how you verify it, and how you handle sanctions hits—screenshots beat promises. Second, monitoring: even a compact ruleset should catch obvious abuse patterns, with a short escalation trail and timestamps. Third, safeguarding: if client funds are in scope, segregate them from company money and reconcile regularly with a sign-off you can show on request. None of this needs to be heavyweight; it just needs to exist and match your product’s reality.
Substance and perception (the underrated edge)
Counterparties don’t expect a large headcount, but they do expect consistency. Have your legal name, address, and scope aligned across contracts, invoices, your website, and any onboarding forms. Keep a resolutions log for anything material—banking access, officer changes, larger contracts—because someone will ask. And if you’re pitching bigger clients, show a lightweight operational footprint: the tools you actually use, how access is controlled, and where records live. It reads as maturity, not bureaucracy.
A 30–60–90 plan that keeps momentum
Days 0–30: finalize roles, gather KYC in one batch, pick a short, realistic activity description, and push drafting/filing. Build a single source of truth—a “Corporate / Banking / Contracts / Accounting / Compliance” folder tree—so you don’t lose time later.
Days 31–60: open the first account (EMI/PSP) to issue invoices and receive payments; close the loop on any registry clarifications; publish the simplest version of your website that matches the narrative in your application and contracts.
Days 61–90: add redundancy (second EMI or bank), run a dry-run month-end close (recs + short cash note), and clean up the recurring calendar—renewals, bookkeeping cadence, a quick quarterly governance review. These are small tasks that make the next vendor diligence boring—in a good way.
What usually goes wrong (and how to dodge it)
Files stall when the activity description is vague (“IT services”) and contradicts the product demo; when ownership proof for a UBO is missing; when contracts and invoices show different legal names; or when teams promise controls they haven’t actually implemented. The fix is unglamorous: write the one-page narrative first, make sure every document echoes it, and only claim what already exists. If you do plan to expand scope later (new corridors, new features), say so plainly but keep the current application anchored to v1.
Costs—think in buckets, not a single number
Budgeting is less about a headline “formation fee” and more about avoiding rework. There’s formation (government + agent + drafting), accounts (onboarding fees if any, FX margins, monthly plans), and ongoing housekeeping (renewals, bookkeeping, a couple of hours a month for governance). A slim buffer here is cheaper than scrambling when a provider asks for something you didn’t plan.
Two closing notes from the operator’s side
First, don’t overspec the structure for Day 1. A lean company with clean paperwork beats a complex arrangement you can’t maintain. Second, document decisions as you make them—especially banking access and contract approvals. These two habits alone cut most of the friction people attribute to “the jurisdiction.”
For teams that prefer an end-to-end setup with the document pack, evidence, and banking sequence handled by someone who’s done it before, LegalBison typically leads scoping, filings, and the “bank-ready” artifacts so you can focus on shipping customer work—details are on legalbison.com.
Quick FAQ
Do founders need to travel? Usually not. With verified KYC and a responsive agent, filings are handled remotely.
How fast can we go live? The slowest part is gathering complete KYC. Once that’s done, drafting/filing and your first operational account can proceed in parallel.
Will we get a bank account? It depends on model and risk profile. Common pattern: start with an EMI/PSP for speed, add a bank or second EMI later for redundancy and currencies.