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Updated immigration law in Costa Rica

Updated immigration law requires longer physical stay for permanent residency renewal

As long as they met these expectations they could continue to renew their residencies each year as permanent residents of Costa Rica.  This meant that they could approximately be out of the country residing elsewhere for two thirds of the year.  Even more surprising is the fact that the four months did not even have to be completed in any type of sequential order.  Therefore to be considered a permanent resident of Costa Rica one could in essence spend just a little over one week a month physically residing in Costa Rica and still be considered a permanent resident.  
    However, the Costa Rican government rethought its stance on the matter when it passed a new Immigration law in April of 2006 that stated to be considered a permanent resident when it was time to renew residency at the close of a year, a resident could not have been out of Costa Rico for more than a period of six months.  This seems to imply they could leave for up to six months at a time, but to qualify at the close of a year’s time they would now have to physically reside in Costa Rica for six months instead of four.  
    This has sparked some absurd debates about rather immigrants who applied for immigration under the four month physical residency immigration law would still be able to follow the four month obligation or rather they would now have to follow the six month physical residency law.  Being considered a permanent resident of a country and only spending half a year there is a pretty loose immigration law to start with, even if it is a two month increase from the previous law.  Foreigners applied for immigration should consider themselves lucky to have gotten away with only having to spend a third of their time physically in Costa Rico for as long as they did.  Trying to contest the new law in a court seems like a ridiculous idea as it is hard to see why a judge would pity their situation.


    There is an article, article 34 of the Costa Rican constitution they could use to argue their case that they were granted residency by the old immigration law and thus should not be held to the new six month standard, however, as mentioned before it is a very risky situation to place themselves in because if they lose they will lose their permanent residency.  For investors who only apply as immigrants to gain rights to maritime property, this could mean giving up the rights to their properties as to hold maritime property they must be permanent residents.  
There is a significant chance that a judge would consider the new law as all inclusive of any citizen’s renewal residency regardless of when they were brought into the country, and this would be the ruling that could result in an immigrant being denied their residency.  Frankly, since residency is only important in owning maritime property, and there are ways around that too for investors, it is hard to see why this situation sparked any debate at all.  As previously stated, being expected to stay in a country  for half of their residency period is hardly a large request.
 

Newsflash

Real estate projects in Costa Rica’s beachfront
Several positive changes are taking place in a number of beachside areas in Costa Rica. This may be due to the fact that a lot of local and foreign visitors flock the area to have a great time with their families and friends, basking under the heat of the sun and swimming in the blue waters.
In the past years, all you can see are small stores and restaurants set up on these areas. However, a large grocery market has been put up last year in El Llano, just under 30 minutes away from Playa Tamarindo. This signifies great progress in the area. Not only that, several grocery stores are about to be set up in other neighboring beach towns such as Supermercado de Pacifico and Supercompro. In fact, several high profile government officials will be present to do the ribbon cutting of these establishments.
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