Costa Rica Tightens Up Immigration Procedures

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, New York

14 August 2002

Costa Rican Immigration Director Marco Badilla says that as from next January, applications for residency will have to be made through a Costa Rican consulate outside the country.

Immigration officials say they are simply applying a law that already exists: "At no time will residency requests be processed from applicants who have entered the country with a tourist visa," says Chapter 2, Article 41 of the General Immigration Law.

Badilla says the new administration’s goal is to apply the letter of the law: "The consulates abroad will receive all the documentation and will forward it all to us," he says. But he says that the 6,000 applicants who are already in the queue will not have to begin again. Chief Consul Ricardo Otárola told the Tico Times: "What we don’t want is for all the pending applicants to have to start from scratch through a consulate."

Although the exemption for existing applicants is still subject to approval by the Attorney general, anyone thinking about becoming a Costa Rica resident should probably begin the procedure now.

Experienced immigration consultants say that the new procedure bodes ill for applicants. Costa Rican consulates are not known for their efficiency, even in processing simple tourist applications. "If it’s hard for a Costa Rican consulate to authenticate a single document without losing something, how can it be expected to handle the entire residency application?" asked one adviser.

Otárola admitted to the newspaper that consular officials abroad will need additional training, but couldn’t say what the Foreign Ministry is doing to prepare them to take on residency applications.

Badilla said that the 'tourist card', currently issued to citizens of the US and Canada on presentation of certified birth certificates and valid photo identification, will no longer be issued after 31st December. "From a legal and security standpoint, we’ve decided that the tourist card is obsolete," Badilla said.

Residence in Costa Rica can be obtained in one of 2 ways:

Under Law No 6982 of 1984 (known as "the Retirement Law") a foreigner may acquire residence in Costa Rica if he can show a sufficient income whether from investments or from a pension and irrespective of whether the income is sourced locally or abroad. Residence obtained under this law allows an individual to work in Costa Rica but does not allow him to work in areas which would have the effect of displacing indigenous workers. A resident under this law is expected to reside in Costa Rica for at least 4 months in each calendar year.

Residence permits obtained under Law 1155 of 1950 (known as "the Residence Law 1950") carry no restrictions on the sorts of economic activity that a resident permit holder can engage in. However permits under this law are granted on a very selective basis and only to businessmen and professionals.

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