You gotta love the Costa Rican Immigration Department.  They hand out residencies based on “marriages for convenience” left and right, but just try to get your residency the hard and legitimate way.  Now that’s another story.  The inefficiency of the department is historic. It is a place where files get mysteriously lost and lines wrap around the building.  The best way to get a jump in line is to camp out the night before, like you are attending a Grateful Dead concert or something.  You might even get a glimpse of the czar of immigration, Mario Zamora, as he arrives in his limo, and a chance to plea for his mercy.  Oh, and there are any number of attorneys who will promise to make your residency sail through the process in record time….because they “know someone inside.”  Then after you’ve paid your $1,500 that “someone inside” ends up dying, getting fired or quitting.  Do I sound a little cynical?  Well I have been trying to get my residency the legitimate way now for about three years.  There is also the rule that says you must present your papers in the U.S. (at the Consular’s office nearest your last place of U.S. residency). That makes a whole heap of sense when you are in Costa Rica.  Why should I have to find someone who for a fee will present my papers there so that they can then be sent here, when I am here in the first place?  And then there are those whose residencies were acquired with ease.  Then those guys try to use that fact as some marketing advantage.  The “why do business with a perpetual tourist” crowd. Well I will put my knowledge and experience up against any Wall Street type sequestered over in Escazu with the other expats that group there and who think they “know Costa Rica.”  I got a message for you, that ain’t Costa Rica. The bottom line is that acquiring residency here is a mess.  But I guess that is probably true for immigrants to the U.S. as well.  My question is that if someone comes to Costa Rica and makes a legitimate contribution to society, why make it so hard and painful to acquire residency here? Does that make sense?  I understand that the country cannot afford to dole out residencies to those who would come here and end up as burdens to the state. But the corruption and inefficiency of the Immigration Department is resulting in what they are trying to combat. Heck, I know of criminal types who come here fleeing from the law and quickly obtain a “permanent” Costa Rican residency by either marrying for convenience or paying a sum under the table, or some combination of both.  So here is my message to the Costa Rican Immigration Department and its leader, Mario Zamora….clean up your act, but in the process of doing so make the department more welcome and accessible to those who have something legitimate to offer as residents. In the meantime I heard that my lawyer has finally found someone for me to marry…..hope a honeymoon is included.  Just kidding! 

My Costa Rican Residency Squidoo Lens

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