Immigration Delays Fines For Illegals
The Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (immigration service) will not be charging the us$100 fine for living illegally in the country for at least another six months, explained the director, Mario Zamora.
The delay, Zamora said, is allowing illegal immigrant a grace period to legalize their situation.
The fine for overstaying a stay in Costa Rica is called for in article 33 of the Ley No. 8764 went into effect on March 1, 2010.
However, according to Zamora, who will be leaving the immigration service in two weeks, time is needed for the immigration service to draft regulations regarding the charging and mechanisms for collection of the fine.
"It is being revised and adjusted," said the director.
Once the regulations are in place, Zamora explained that the payment of the fine can be made at any point of entry or exit to Costa Rica, that includes land crossing points, as well as airports.
The regulation calls for a barring of re-entry of any illegal person who does not pay the fine before leaving the country. The bar of re-entry will be up to three times the period of illegal stay in the country.
The new immigration law also forces foreigners who want to renew their work visa or residency to be voluntary contributors to the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS). According to the CCSS, that regulation alone has seen as 63% increase in contributors in the past month or so.
Those foreigners are also required to provide a birth certificate notarized by the Costa Rican consulate in the country of origin (save for those countries who issue the certificates in Costa Rica) and a police record, as well as a guarantee deposit for the value of a flight out of Costa Rica to the country of origin.
The guarantee, according to Zamora, is to allow the foreigner to be deported in the event they commit a crime in Costa Rica.
However, the fine excludes foreigners who are in Costa Rica as refugees, according to Vanessa Leandro, legal advisor to the Alto Comisionado de la ONU para los Refugiados (Acnur) in Costa Rica.
The new immigration law also sanctions employers who hire illegals.
Article 177 of the new immigration law allow for a fine of up to 12 basic salaries of a class 1 office worker, which is currently between ¢443.000 and ¢2.6 million colones.
Director Zamora emphasized that the fine for employers is not being deferred and is applicable.
