www.CostaRicaTicas.com

When choosing a future retirement destination, my criteria was affordability and, as Brother ID said, stability. Tell you the truth, the lack so far of legal constraints on "our thing" is only icing on the cake. Only CR in Latin America truly fulfills both (with apologies to Brazil and any place I over-looked). yum-v

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

As many have been saying here, I think going to Nicaragua from Costa Rica would be like "jumping out of the frying pan into the fire". While I have NOT been there, a number of in my view reliable sources who have been are all unanimous in saying they would never go back. It is ONE place I dont need to experience to believe what I read in the press and with these first hand reviews. You think CR has a twisted government system...whew...

I do think there are many other and better places to go in Latin America than CR. I am currently studying Guatemala which has been seeing quiet growth and advancement with its new young President and growing democracy. http://www.foreignaffairs.org/sponsored ... temala.pdf is an article I recently read that seems quite hopeful about the leadership and future of Guatemala. I know they still have their crime problems and like many of these countries, you dont want to get too far off the beaten path...but I now dont know that it is any less safe there than CR now. I will check it out personally in the near future.

Many regular posters here speak highly of Peru. Again, I dont know it YET, but have never found the women there that attractive to me though I'm sure you can find some lookers there.

Colombia continues to be to me the next wave of growth and development in these Latin Countries. With their continued cleanup of guerilla activity, significant economic growth and literal size of population and geography, I think it holds the most diversity of most of these other countries we discuss. I have been there a number of times and need no more convincing about the quality of women there.

All this to say there are many horizons in this region guys. Get out of your CR rut and smell the roses of these other countries. 3 years was plenty for me in CR and I will never live there again after experiencing Panama, Colombia, Mexico and the anticipation of many other places to experience.

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All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts...

I don't ever mind being shown to be wrong by someone who knows what he/she is talking about. Thanks for the info, Brother Tman--great food for thought.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

Some of us are too deeply invested to be able to leave.

Save yourself some trouble!!!

The 3 day requirement is for customs, not for immigration. You need to stay out 3 days if you want to take advantage of the $500 customs exemption.

Now I am going to make your day:

For purposes of immigration you only need to be out of the country for 5 minutes.

Legislative committee passes the new immigration bill unanimously yesterday. story on page 1 www.amcostarica.com today.

Phantom...I'm not sure I understand your post about only needing 5 minutes out of the country every 3 months to satify immigration. Anyways,if I am leaving for 5 minutes,I may as well leave for 3 days.So what's the advantage?

I would be interested in how you arrived at that conclusion.

The only evidence I have every heard confirming that was anecdotal. EVERY immigration abogodo I have ever talked with say the law is very clear. In order to get a VALID 90 day tourist visa you must have been out of the country for a minimum of 72 hours since your last visit.

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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

My understanding is that there in nothing in the law that specifies the amount of time that you need to be out of the country.

The questions regarding the amount of time that you have been out of the country (3 days) is ONLY on customs forms. There is nothing on the immigration forms questioning how long you have been out of the country.

I operated under the same misconception for the longest time. My last two trips, I went in and out. I was never questioned. I properly filled out the customs form indicating I had NOT been out for 3 days. I did not have a problem.

There was a recent discussion on the ARCR forum that clarified.

I wish you continued success. However the fact that it has not caused you a problem up to this point is no guarantee that it will not in the future.

I read the ARCR forum that you refer to and did not see any posting by an attorney knowledgeable in immigration law either confirming or disputing the assumption. All the posts were, like the posts on CRT, mainly people giving their opinion without citing any source. Nothing wrong with that but it can be dangerous to accept those opinions as fact.

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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

You may be right Phantom. I just did a Word search on the Ley General de Migración y Extranjería, No. 7033, and there is no mention of 72 hours for any reason. I searched the document using Arabic numerals (72) or spelling the words out in Spanish.

On the other hand, a Google search of Costa Rica Immigration 72 hours revealed numerous statements about the 72 hour out of the country rule. Also, based on articles in The Tico Times and AM Costarica, there have been criminal investigations of immigration employees who have falsified the authentication of a traveler being out the country for 72 hours.

It is confusing. It could be that the statute does not provide for it but the 72 hours concept is codified in Administrative Laws and Reglations.

If you notice, they do not record your passport number when you are departing as they do upon entry into Costa Rica. They look over your documents to make sure they are in order, but there is no record keeping.

I hate to be redundant, but the questions surrounding the time out of the country (72 hours) are only on the customs forms. They do not track your time out of the country for the purposes of immigration.

I just think that a lot of people lump together the customs requirements with the immigration requirements and that there has been a long standing misunderstanding regarding the actual requirements as they specifically relate to immigration.

Not to belabor the point but there are some problems with your argument.

If you depart by air your exit tax paperwork does record you passport number which is entered in immigrations computers.



Because the immigration form does not ask the question does not mean they do not track your entries and departures. When you enter the country your immigration data is entered into their data base. A few years ago their system was so antiquated that every arrival and departure had to manually entered into the data base. They were 6 months behind real time. They have improved and cut that time dramatically and continue to improve and move ever closer to real time.

I am not saying your interpretation is incorrect but rather pointing out the examples you are choosing to buttress your position do not do that.

As DiegoC correctly pointed out it could be that the statute does not provide for it but the 72 hours concept is codified in Administrative Laws and Regulations. When ever a new immigration law is passed by the legislature it contains the broad outlines of what they want the law to due. The administrative regulations promulgated by immigration are the tools that implement those broad concepts.

Hopefully those who are following the course you have chosen are correct in their interpretation. If I was in that position, which I am not, I would leave for the 72 hours rather then take the chance. As Vegas Bob pointed out if you have to leave whats the big deal in staying out the 72 hours?

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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

That is a good point. I do not believe that their computer systems scan your passport at that point either, but maybe. However, you can pay that tax at any time, days, weeks, months prior to your departure and in fact you can process that transaction in many locations in the country. Some hotels will even take care of it. So I find it unlikely that they use that as a method of tracking your departure.

There is a paper trail however when they collect your receipt at the airport so they could enter the info manually, but that does not seem to make sense when it would be so much easier to just scan it when they are checking your documents upon your departure.

My thinking it that if there was a requirement that you have to be out for 72 hours that the government would be upfront with it and make it known. They are very specific with the customs requirements, why not similarly with immigration requirements?

On this 72-hour/90 days immigration non-compliance thingie:
Here's the deal--(1) Brother Phantom is correct>>penalty: extra expense 4 times a year;
(2) Brothers ID and DiegoC are correct>>penalty: being barred from Costa Rica for a term of years
Conclusion: Who's willing to bear the greater sanction to prove an ambiguous point? Certainly not me. There is no winner or loser in this type of (so far unprovable) argument, but prudence surely rules. Now what was the topic thread again? I forget.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

from all the great advice on here...my conclusion is:

Rent don't buy in Latin America.

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The Most Interesting Man in the World
"Stay thirsty my friends"