Home › Forums › Costa Rica Living Forum › Will this new immigration bill be a disaster?
- This topic has 1 reply, 18 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 11 months ago by pranaspakeywest.
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November 16, 2008 at 5:04 pm #193511maravillaMember
Awwww, thanks for coming to my defense. That was nice. I would have to say that the person taking advantage of the CR laws would be Scott Benson who married a Tica and had a baby! Plus I already HAVE residency; what’s at issue here is if I file for permanent residency NOW under the Artist category or wait until May when I am eligible just for having been a legal resident for 3 years already. Me thinks others are jealous (and/or petty!).
November 16, 2008 at 5:30 pm #193512el hombreMemberIt strikes me as an enlightened policy on the part of the Costa Rican government to grant residency status to artists. Other countries have the same policy (Ireland comes to mind) and serves to increase the quality of life rather than just the raw economic benefits that others may bring.
Another good reason to choose Costa Rica as a place to reside. However, the new proposed rules will make the choice moot as most will not come with such high monetary thresholds.
scottbenson, stick to discussing policy without casting aspersions. I am surprised that your postings have not been deleted by the moderator. maravilla, please don’t play his game.
November 16, 2008 at 5:33 pm #193513aguirrewarMemberAnd now you will not like me Maravilla.
Why the swipe at Scottbenson about his issues. Is it your business now to decide what others members do to get the residency?
And by the way, “That was a low blow” on your part, being personal between one another in the forum is one thing, DRAGGING the family is pretty LOW
Warren
November 16, 2008 at 5:37 pm #193514sumaSalMemberThe caja is not very expensive. But probably you don’t want to stand in line at 6:00am and wait several hours before it’s your turn. Hope it doesn’t happen: you get a car-accident and break 2 legs, need surgery and stay in the hospital for 3 weeks. Are you going to pay the bill ? You probably have an insurance somewhere else (INS ?) and contribute to other insurance- and health-systems.
If you contribute to the caja, they will NOT send you a bill.About choosing a visa-category: probably this comes closest 😉
By the way: I don’t know you and this is a discussion-forum. Nothing personal against you and not jealous at all. I agree with this new immigration law, others too and that’s part of the discussion…..
November 16, 2008 at 6:16 pm #193515pranaspakeywestMemberMe again, I’m going to bring this back closer to the original post, where as I am trying to see how this proposed new set of immigration laws will effect us.
First off, a friend of mine, and ex pat there, made some inquires on my behalf with a legal team, they seem to thing that these new laws may take a little while to pass through legislation, however, there is no way to know at this point.
They also mentioned that the $5000 per month proposed for Rentista staus is accurate as the proposal is now written, and that one would need to show a TWO year amount of secured cash, rather then the present Five years at $1000 per year. Meaning that someone applying for Rentistra status will have to come up with $120,000 to demonstate this, rather then $60,000.
If this is the case, what happens after two years? If one were able to have this amount($120,000) just sit in a interest baring bank account, and not have to touch it, could this bank account serve the necessary purpose?
Also, if one were to just rely on perpetual tourist “status” and held a Costa Rican corporation, could they run there business there?
I am referring to our plan to own a home and have a separate very small retreat/spa for 2-4 people.
From the various posting ( and thanks for them) it doesn’t seem as if we will be going down the Invester route towards residency, So if Rentista can not be worked out, how legal is owning a business as a perpetual tourist?
This really SUCKS. We so did not see any of this coming, and we are lined up to start building early next year.
UGH.November 16, 2008 at 6:23 pm #193516maravillaMemberOh, I get it — there’s a double standard here; it’s okay for Scott Benson to make assinine and juvenile swipes at me, but oh my, let me wonder if he married a tica (as many gringos do)just for residency and now I’m the bad guy. Otay. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about his personal status; likewise he shouldn’t care how I attained legal status in Costa Rica either. But then he goes on to imply that I will benefit from using caja, as though what, I am going to be in there every day sucking off the system? Oh my again. But that’s not enough — he implies that because I am an artist I will contribute nothing to Costa Rica. Whew! Those are pretty scathing remarks in my circle, especially since he knows nothing about what I do or anything else about my life. I have plenty of friends who have relocated to other countries (such as Ireland and France) BECAUSE of the high regard that artists have in those countries. What’s his contribution to Costa Rica or to the world? At least I provide beautiful things for everyone to see; therefore I believe that I contribute quite a lot to society, n’est-ce pas?
November 16, 2008 at 6:30 pm #193517maravillaMemberNobody saw it coming, but I feel for you having made these plans and now wondering if you can implement them. As a tourist, yes, you can have a business and run it, but I have to believe it makes it all the more complicated what with having to trot off somewhere every 90 days, and the dim view immigration supposedly takes of perpetual tourist. Everyone I know is upset about these new rules. As for the bank account, I have one friend who has his $60,000 on deposit at Scotia Bank and that suffices for his legal requirement (he got his rentista status just before the last new set of laws went into effect raising the bar from $60,000 per family, or couple, or one single guy to $120,000.) You are going to have an unique situation so you will need to spend a significant amount of time ferreting out how you are going to accomplish your goals. And if this wasn’t enough to deal with, did you read what I posted about new property valuations? It’s enough to make your head spin.
November 16, 2008 at 10:02 pm #193518aguirrewarMemberNo you don’t get it. Settle down and think about this as it is Not right for him to zing you and by the same then it is not right for you to go on the low end to defend your position.
Hold the HIGH ground always, let stupid remarks be answered by intelligent ones and be above the water mark.
Think
Warren
November 16, 2008 at 11:07 pm #193519maravillaMemberYou’re right, Warren. I should never have stooped to his level. I will not do that again.
November 16, 2008 at 11:23 pm #193520maravillaMemberAs for the new immigration laws, I guess we can all stop panicking, at least those of us who already have residency:
Ryan Piercy, the manager of ARCR (Association of Residents of
Costa Rica) wrote on November 14th on the ARCR Forums, in
response to mostly these same concerns which have been flying
around:“Understand that this law should NOT affect those that already
live here with residency, nor those in process under the current
law. However these amounts could affect the possibility of others
arriving, and would affect the future of the economy negatively.”And today Mr. Piercy followed up on that up when he wrote:
“… the ARCR is already preparing a media campaign to first get
the word out (once again) to the Costa Rican community, to be
initiated with a press conference, then a press release to various
organizations in Costa Rica, and finally direct-approach to the
legislative members once we have a worthy news item.”November 17, 2008 at 4:30 pm #193521pranaspakeywestMemberDo you read this to mean that if we begin our residency application now, that we can expect to be brought in under the current rules?
If so, does this signal that residents already established will be grandfathered in until they next need to apply, or forever? Or neither?
I’ve contacted and have begun communications with “Javier”, but do we expect he, or anybody, to be able to answer these questons with authority, or is this now and will this always be a guessing game?
Are there parts to the laws in Costa Rica that protect legal residents from these proposed changes?
People are rightfully upset the the prospect of being legally established as residents, and then having the rug pulled out from under them.
If this does indeed happen, is that legal?
Wow, lot’s of questions…………..any answers will be greatfully digested.
And where is our great leader and moderator Scott in all of this?????November 17, 2008 at 11:26 pm #193522sumaSalMemberOur great leader and moderator Scott is in Spain looking for new oportunities in real estate (joke).
Read this on our WLCR: https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/1982.cfm
If this becomes true:
“Another troubling portion of the proposed law is that any renewal of the Pensionado or Rentista status would have to be done under the new proposed law. This means that if you were approved under the $600 program and you wanted to renew the status you would have to qualify with the $2,000 stipulated in the new law.”
a lot of pensionados can start packing…..
November 18, 2008 at 4:30 pm #193523ImxploringParticipantI’ve watched this whole thread… and have to wonder… does ANYONE here have legal status based on being some type of “artist”? I’ve seen the claims and the quotes as to what the law is… but I know several artist… and not one of them has legal staus under this questionable area of law… perhaps someone knows someone that’s here as an “artisit”?
November 19, 2008 at 5:58 am #193524ibarnonMemberInteresting thread. The issue here is that Costa Rica (which they obviously have every right to) can always change the laws at ANY time that would affect foreigners living here. Does it make any sense to me what they are proposing to do? Absolutely not, but that’s one of the risks we took coming here. But like I said, if they think this is for their benefit, then its just something we have to live with. From what I can see, the pensionados or rentistas are hardly taking away anything from the country and are rather bringing in money. Those that are taking advantage of CR are rather the Nicaraguans, Chinese, Columbians and lately Venezuelans who find loopholes to gain residency. I am not upset or anything its just one of the things that doesn’t make any sense here along with a lot of things.
Unfortunately or fortunately, we are moving back to the US at the end of this year after trying it out here for just over a year and a half. There’s a lot of good things, but also many negatives living here and just one example is this change in the residency laws. Again, for me this punishes those people that are actually trying to obey the laws. But its not up to me to judge if this right or wrong for the country, just not logical. Fortunately I realized early on that there’s too much of a risk investing here either buying a house or putting up a business because laws can be changed very easily especially against resident. So although it does not affect me anymore, I do hope that they realize that this new law would have a bad effect rather than help the country. If it does pass, I just can’t see a lot of Americans or Europeans qualifying for this, and if they do qualify, I don’t see why they would risk such huge amounts of money. ANyway, good luck to all and overall it has been a good experience for me and my family.
November 19, 2008 at 2:41 pm #193525BIGWOODMemberScott you are funny are you not the same Jim Jones who gives tips on how to utilize swiss bank accounts and divert money so you won’t be taxed. I see, now someone who is not breaking the residency law but using it to their bennifit should be looked down upon, hmmm. I guess we should all marry a tica have babies and then start a large following and do as I say not as I do. I was wondering is this the party where you serve us all the PUNCH.
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