Gersen wrote:
Are you saying that CR can force a gringo to pay Ch*ld support from the US....
Is this true?
YES. It is true. Costa Rica is a participant in a "....foreign reciprocating country (FRC) agreement...." with the USA. I've posted about this bi-lateral agreement several times, although when I search for the previous threads the search engine does not locate them. Irrespective:
http://archive.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse ... al_report/...and here we have
http://archive.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse ... r0503.htmlCosta Rica Becomes A Foreign Reciprocating Country
By: William Alvarado Rivera
On Feb. 16, 2005, U.S. Charge d' Affaires Douglas M. Barnes, and Costa Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar signed a bilateral agreement for the reciprocal enforcement of Ch*ld support orders at the Foreign Ministry in San Jose, Costa Rica. This is the first bilateral Ch*ld support agreement between the United States and a Latin American country. As Mr. Barnes remarked at the signing ceremony, "Our hope is that this treaty and the laws both our countries have put into effect to better establish systems for the enforcement of Ch*ld support payments will be a model for other countries in the region."
The agreement is the result of several years of negotiations, beginning with a U.S. delegation visit to Costa Rica in the summer of 2002. Subsequent negotiations between the two countries took place in the U.S. and at The Hague in 2003 and 2004, respectively. The agreement will become effective upon notification that the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly has ratified the agreement.
The U.S. and Costa Rican governments are excited at the prospect of establishing successful cooperative relationships for the enforcement of Ch*ld support orders across their borders. The 2000 Census estimates there are approximately 69,000 Costa Ricans in the U.S. According to the Department of State, over 20,000 Americans reside in Costa Rica. At the signing, officials from both countries emphasized the importance of this agreement to promoting the well-being of Ch*ldren whose parents reside in either country.
To date, the U.S. has declared nine countries and nine Canadian Provinces to be foreign reciprocating countries. OCSE expects to negotiate additional bilateral agreements during the year. We are also active participants in the multilateral negotiation at the Hague Conference Special Commission on the International Recovery of Ch*ld Support and other Forms of Family Maintenance, as OCSE continues its efforts to improve support enforcement for Ch*ldren residing in the U.S., wherever their parents may live.
For each foreign reciprocating country, OCSE is preparing guidance for Ch*ld support enforcement caseworkers to facilitate the processing of international cases. For additional information, please visit the OCSE international resources Web site at
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/international/.
PS: I got an email from the "I'm never going home....." boy's Yahoo! account a couple of weeks back. The account has been compromised as the email's content was simply a link to virus web site and the header data traced back to Turkey as I recall. I'm quite certain several other "gentlemen" got the same email. *shrug*