Costa Rica Law Aims to Close Immigration Loophole

new marriage law
Some Foreigners Married to Ticos Will have to Prove their Marital Ties to Maintain Residency.

For those who fell in love with Costa Rica and look for ways of coming back to stay and settle down in this enchanting country, your options for skirting the law just diminished. The practice of getting married to a Tico or Tica, in order to get residency and work permit is not going to be so easy anymore. Married couples will now not only have to prove that they know each other, but also that they live together.

The Costa Rica Immigration authority has just been granted the power to demand proof of relationship status and cohabitation. The couple in question will now have to undergo a thorough interview, and will need to provide evidence that they have lived together for a certain amount of time, by showing various bills and statements from neighbors and witnesses. The procedure of getting married by itself will no longer allow for automatic residency anymore.

Apart from a great inconvenience for the foreigners, as it is no secret that this is one popular way to get residency in this country, it will also put an end to a good prolific business for the lawyers who arranged such marriages. Mario Zamoro, general director of Immigration, explained how 1200 foreigners who got married here will be called and asked to prove that they do live with their spouse.

This new measure is taken most particularly to arrest members of the Mafia who used this method in order to avoid being arrested in their country, and thus live a good life in Costa Rica. Zamora said that this will apply to couples who got married after August 12, 2006, that is to say, after the Immigration Law started to take effect. Previous to this, Immigration did not have the power to actually question the married couple.

While this is going to make it more difficult now for some foreigners to get their residency in this country, it could also mean that lawyers will still find a way around it and charge more money to arrange these marriages. This custom is not practiced in this country alone, indeed, many people have lived together, and gone through all the long process of learning about each other in the United States so that they could get married and obtain the famous Green Card.

All over the world, this issue of immigration stems from people wanting to start again in another country where they believe they will have a better future and more chances to succeed and find happiness or freedom. They often believe that the destination country offers more job opportunities, a better life or the opportunity for a more peaceful and tranquil existence. Sometimes this idea is based on truths, or it can simply be a fantasy.

How many people have crossed borders illegally to find that the country of their dreams is not quite what they expected? How many find that far from being treated fairly, they remain a foreigner whether they hold legal resident status or not? Isn’t it true indeed that the grass is always greener on the other side? Costa Rica attracts many foreigners, some because their country is poor and has a high level of unemployment, the other half come here because they love the easy going way of life of Costa Rica and they can invest here where Costa Rica Real Estate offers better options than in their home country. Whatever the reasons, Costa Rica will continue to attract the crowds, and those that can’t enter legally will still find ways around the law.

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