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In today's Inside Costa Rica:

Up To 7 Years Jail Proposed For Taking Part In Marriages of Convenience
Legislators, Evita Arguedas of the Movimiento Libertario (ML) and Francisco Antonio Pacheco of the Liberación Nacional (PLN) - ruling party - are proposing to end marriages of conveniences between Costa Ricans and foreigners.

The proposal is to punish Costa Ricans, foreigners, as well as the notaries and witnesses, for the fixed marriages, which are used for immigration purposes by the foreigners. The proposal stipulates two to four years jail for Costa Ricans and foreigners who marry only for convenience and anyone who provides witness to such unions. If the marriage is simply to provide the foreigner an immigration status, the couple will face three to five years jail time. The penalty of five to seven years will be applied to anyone who promotes such marriages.

Legislator Arguedas said that the proposal also pretends to close the loophole in Article 30 of the Código de Familia (family code) that permits marriages by power of attorney, that is when only one of the parties to the union need to be present at the civil ceremony. Arguedas says that a network of criminals are taking advantage of this loophole by using poor people to marry a foreigner so that they can obtain residency in the country.

The proposal will also call for the suspension of one year from practice for a lawyer or notary who knowingly participates in a marriage of convenience. Currently there are a number of lawyers and notaries, mainly in San José, that provide such marriages in return for a fee in the hundreds and thousands of dollars, meanwhile paying Costa Ricans from ¢10.000 to ¢40.000 colones.

In some cases, Costa Ricans have found themselves married to a foreigner and without their knowledge, learning of their civil status after the fact. Marriages of convenience have been a very popular way for foreigners to obtain their residency, taking advantage of the prohibition of the immigration service to investigate such marriages.

In some cases, foreign nationals evading justice in their home country have been able to obtain residency and stay legally in the country by way of marriages of convenience. Legislato Pacheco said that is another loophole that he proposal pretends to close.

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

I guess that this happens more from other latin countries... However, it brings up the question of:

How would an american/canadian/european move there and obtain residency?

QBF,
If you're seriously interested in residency, there's a few different ways to obtain your CR residency, as well as different "types" of residency. The ARCR ("Association of Residents of Costa Rica") has seminars to help with residency requirements. There's some info on the board regarding this that can probably be found with a search. If memory serves, some of our CRT members have been to their seminars. Their website is www.arcr.net

But..............
It looks like putting a ring on a Tica's finger in front of a Notary or Abogado won't cut it anymore - if this thing flies. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out in the future.

MG

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

I AIN'T PUTTING ANY RING ON ANY FINGER... at least not a metal one

I have been down that road once... NEVER EVER EVER ....ad nauseum.... EVER again.

There is NO WAY I'M EVER DOING THAT AGAIN.

But yes, I was curious what was necessary to go about getting CR residence...

I'll be leaving the good ole USA sometime between Aug next year, and May 2010...

So I'm looking for a new location...

So far Canada or Europe are the best options, but CR has definitely piqued my interest over the last 11 months!

I'm going through the process for residency with the assistance of ARCR. It's slow, mostly due to the mess that is the Migracion Dept. It's do-able and not prohibitively expensive, in my opinion, though some might balk at tying up funds in a Certificate of Deposit instead of buying beachfront property in Jaco (not that you can get much for 60k, maybe enough for a hot dog kiosk).

The marriage of convenience thing is way out of control. If, and it's a big if, they actually carry this thing through AND enforce it sufficiently, it could have positive benefits regarding crime and negative effects for the Colombiana lovers at the Del Rey. I am not clear if they are going to do anything to go after sham marriages that have already been performed, or only those that take place after the law is enacted. I'm not sure if a prohibition on ex post facto laws is part of CR's constitution. If it isn't we may all be in major trouble. Someday.

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

These are a couple of additional web sites you might want to check out for information concerning residency.

http://www.residencyincostarica.com/

http://www.costaricalaw.com/immigration ... on_law.php

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Think of it this way....if the Colombianas with the phony marraiges can't stay here for a long time any more,then the turnover will be to our advantage.

Yeah, they will be spending our money on Air travel instead of slot machines and cocaine.

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Why Chicas Come to CostaRica:

"Predators gather where prey abounds"