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[quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”costaricabill”]
OK, I’ll bite…..
I just returned from the States yesterday and received a 90 day stamp from an immigration officer representing the Republic of Costa Rica.I do not have residency – how does that make me an illegal alien?[/quote]
It doesn’t make you an illegal alien at all, CRBill. It makes you a legal tourist for the remainder of those ninety days. And during that time, and should you be granted another tourist visa, you will have all the legal rights and protections of any other tourist which is to say . . . [b]none[/b].
[/quote]Hi David C. – I don’t believe I asserted any “legal rights and protections” for perpetual tourists (or regular tourists). I agree with your “none” statement, but with one obvious exception. I do believe that the tourism stamp does reflect that I have a “right” to be here for the time stated, subject to that right expiring or being revoked for some misdeed or possibly at the whim of some immigration officer – but until one of those events, I do have that “right” to be here. (And by the way, those having acquired Temporary Residency, Permanent Residency and even citizens can loose their rights and protections as well – and be deported!)
My question to Maravilla was simply how does my being here on a tourist visa make me an “illegal alien”…… simple question, still unanswered.
As far as being an illegal alien or not (by her definition), I wonder how many perpetual tourists remain in the perpetual tourist category because of the inefficiencies of the immigration ministry? I know at least 15-20 or so here in the tiny hamlet of Samara alone. Extrapolate that across the country and the number has to be huge!
According to articles I have read and immigration attorneys I have discussed my application with, the immigration law states that upon receiving an application for temporary residency, the office of immigration is OBLIGATED to give the applicant a yes or no answer within 90 days! So for many of us that remain “perpetual tourists” for over 2 – 3 years, it is not by choice! It’s because the workers at immigration have figured out that if they do the job that the law states they are OBLIGATED to do, all of the files on their desks will disappear and then with nothing to do, they could possibly be out of a job!
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what the new immigration regulations say when they are published, supposedly this coming week. In all probability, it will have some onerous limitations on perpetual tourists, including those of us that have had applications pending for years – even though we have followed the law and taken the required legal steps to AVOID being considered “illegal” by some!
bill — you are not even the person to whom that comment was directed. it was directed at the original poster who asked if he still had to pay taxes to support illegal aliens in the States. over the last 7 years, i have met more than a few people who are here semi-legally (and i won’t go into what all that means) who complained bitterly about the illegal mexican aliens, yet they didn’t seem to mind being an illegal alien themselves in a foreign country. sheesh.
[quote=”maravilla”]bill — you are not even the person to whom that comment was directed. it was directed at the original poster who asked if he still had to pay taxes to support illegal aliens in the States. over the last 7 years, i have met more than a few people who are here semi-legally (and i won’t go into what all that means) who complained bitterly about the illegal mexican aliens, yet they didn’t seem to mind being an illegal alien themselves in a foreign country. sheesh.[/quote]
“Sheesh”? What’s that?
I agree, I have met the some of the same people and I feel the same way. It is just that those of you who have lived her longer and arrived when (possibly) it was a bit less difficult to get residency often make comments that “permanent tourists” are a lesser form of life. I agree that people that intend to [b][/b]LIVE[b][/b] here and should seek residency. I also think that those of us that have applied for residency should not be lumped in with those that haven’t or be referred to as illegal aliens. It really isn’t our fault that the residency process has become so slow and cumbersome – we are trying to do the right thing!There are plenty of in-process-still-permanent-tourists here that support our local businesses, pay municipal taxes (unlike some in government), pay sales tax, pay the luxury tax, the marchamo, maybe pay the corporation tax, etc. etc. There are also plenty of not-in-process-permanent-tourists here that pay the same impositions but they DON’T QUALITY for any of the residency categories, so they have no choice but to remain in the PT category. I know the answer will come back that they should “just leave”, but stop and think of all of the tax payments that would leave with them.
I don’t have the resources available to determine if the PT or a burden on society or not, but I would almost bet that, on the whole, they contribute more than they receive in protection and benefits!
To be honest, I really can’t figure out why CR makes PT leave every 90 days. It’s like they are saying “go spend your money in another country for a day or three, we don’t want it!
They could achieve the same result (keeping track of PT’s) if they made each one show up at immigration office or tax office every after 90 days and get a 1 time 90 day extension for $200.00 each. It would be much more acceptable to most PT to do that rather than spending double that for 3 days in Nicaragua or Panama, or much, much more on a trip back to Norte America! And it would be a revenue producer for CR!!!
Not to change subjects (again), but speaking of revenue, here’s a tax I would support – I believe it was you, Maravilla, that once wrote that when it was all over there would be something like 5,000 cell towers in CR. If the government would tax the cell companies $100.00 [b][/b]”visual pollution tax”[b][/b] on each tower, that would be $5,000,000.00/year and take 2 or 3 clerks and one laptop to administer. Do the math, $200.00 per tower would be $10,000.000.00/year and so on. Sure, the cell companies would pass it through, but it would be pennies for each of the cell phone lines on a monthly basis. If they can pass the corporate tax and the luxury tax retroactively, they could do this as well.
taxing cell phone towers which are a blight on the landscape? i would support that. the PT issue is complicated, but it all comes down to every country having a supreme right to determine who shall live in that country. it’s just that simple. and if i were to extrapolate your argument, then we shouldn’t really be too upset about all the illegal aliens in the US, many of whom DO pay taxes, and do pay fines, and who perform jobs that no gringo would ever think of doing. i certainly don’t lump the people en tramite for years in the same category as the people who are PTs. it’s two entirely different issues. i have one friend who was en tramite for 5 years. they lost the paperwork, screwed up multiple times, and when it was all said and done, they wound up giving that person permanent residency instead of the rentista category under which she was applying. try going to italy or france, or the uk and setting up a home without any concern for being a legal resident and see how long it takes for the migra to come knocking. one of the issues is whether some of these PTs are actually desirable. i would bet some % of them wouldn’t pass the background check, so doesn’t a country have the right to not allow those people to live here?? do you want pedophiles as PTs? i don’t.
CRBill, if your application for legal residency, for a category for which you qualify, is complete and has been submitted to and accepted by Immigration, then in short order you should receive (or have received) a [i]comprobante[/i] (I think that’s the term). Anyway, it’s a legal document and it’ll have a file number. And with that, you are no longer in the status of tourist regardless how your passport is stamped, and you do not have to obtain a new tourist visa when the last one issued expires.
Costa Rican citizens cannot, in fact, be summarily deported from this country, and legal residents can be only after legal due process. Likewise, neither can be denied entry save for a legal due process.
Tourists, on the other hand, enjoy none of those protections. They can be denied re-entry for cause or for no cause. They can be taken into custody and deported without any legal process. That’s why when a tourist enters Costa Rica they are required by the carrier to have an outbound ticket, so that if they are deported Costa Rica needn’t bear the expense of their travel. The carrier requires the outbound passage because it is they who must assure the departure of the individual or face a very stiff fine.
and lets not forget that if a PT is deported for whatever reason, or no reason, they ain’t comin’back for at least 5 years. that is what happened to a couple who got caught up in a migra sweep at a local gringo hang-out. no due process, no time to call the lawyer, no time to go home and pack or arrange for pet care. off to the airport they went and they were put on the first flight to miami. and it was all perfectly legal, although the couple was not.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]CRBill, if your application for legal residency, for a category for which you qualify, is complete and has been submitted to and accepted by Immigration, then in short order you should receive (or have received) a [i]comprobante[/i] (I think that’s the term). Anyway, it’s a legal document and it’ll have a file number. And with that, you are no longer in the status of tourist regardless how your passport is stamped, and you do not have to obtain a new tourist visa when the last one issued expires. [/quote]
Oops David, I am at the risk of disagreeing with you for the second time is recent memory. Maybe it’s your “halftimer’s” kicking in again and you may not remember, but we had this discussion last December (and you participated with your usual thoughtful responses).
The title of the thread was “New Immigration Requirement – Something New??”
My original post was:
• I heard tonight that there is a new immigracion requirement (or interpretation) that says even if you have a file number and an “entramite” document, you must still leave every 90 days. Does anyone know about this?I followed that up with another post which, in part, read:
• Also, 2 friends were detained for several hours here in Samara last week during a check for illegals. They had their passports and entramite, but had been in country for more than 90 days. The explanation given to them was that even though you are “in process”, there is no assurance that you will be approved for residency. So if you are not approved and have been here more than 90 days, then you would be in the country illegally; hence, the need to leave every 90 days even while in process.As usual, there was a healthy debate, and then it was brought into focus by ‘watchdog’ who Scott identified as Costa Rica (and Canadian) Attorney Rick Philp, and he wrote:
• The problem with the “Residency en tramite” policy for not having to leave the Country to renew the Tourist Visa every 90 days while waiting for Residency to be granted, is that it is an unwritten policy of enforcement and not the law, nor an Immigration Directive. It has been followed for many years by most police and Immigration Officials. I’m not aware of any change to this unwritten policy of enforcement, but at the same time, it is at the discretion of the police, or Immigration Officials to apply it. Likewise, the Airlines are not able to rely on a Residency en tramite document to allow for a one way ticket to Costa Rica, only Residency which has been granted.Then, after his original post disagreeing with my first post, Waggoner41 promised to come back with a report from his attorney – and he did – and here it is:
• Apparently it is true. This from my attorney:
“Immigration is a magic box, I knew they would eventually do that, BUT on the other hand that happens because they do not have a resolution within 90 days which is what the law indicates, regardless if they don´t have enough resources, people or whatever they need, it´s their obligation. If anyone ever is in that position I would file a Constitutional case, because they´re basically punishing the applicant for their delays.”
• You can take my attorneys word to heart. If she has a client who is caught in this position she WILL file a Constitutional case. Migracion has a legal obligation to either approve or deny an application within 90 days.
• I was in process for 29 months and never had a problem with Fuerza Publica and COSEVI who were running regular stop operations in Ciudad Colon during late 2007 and early 2008 and never gave me a problem because I had my CR drivers license so I doubted the story.Since that time I have had correspondence with several others who have been told the same thing by their attorneys and the folks at immigration. The “no need to leave after receipt of your file number and en tramite document” is an unwritten policy of enforcement and not the law, nor an Immigration Directive”, as stated by Attorney Rick Philp.
In other words they could not and still can’t perform to the obligations of their own law, so somewhere along the way it was decided to turn a blind eye toward those “in process” as far as immigration’s enforcement of the 90 day rule.
Apparently this policy was reviewed and changed with the arrival of the new regime in Immigration. I guess we can always hope that the new immigration minister hasn’t paid all of his taxes either!
[i]Tiene razón, Sr. Bill.[/i]
I stand corrected. We did have those exchanges and I’d forgotten them.
And, by the way, it’s “Halfsheimer’s”.
[quote=”dmh57″]I have a question on United States Taxes. When living in Costa Rica I know I will have to pay US taxes on my pension. If I live Costa Rica year round will I get most of the taxes I paid back or do I still have to support the illegals back here in the states.:)[/quote]
you will be helping to support “the illegals” in the States AND the illegal Nicas in Costa Rica. Welcome to reality. 😆
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