Starting at the beginning of next year, the Dirección General de Migracion y Extranjeros will impose a new fee for foreigners who overstay a tourist visa, according to Mario Zamora Cordero, security minister.
Delinquent persons will have to pay $100 for every month over their allowed visa period at the time they are caught. If the person cannot pay, he or she will be denied entry for a period that is triple the time that they overstayed, he said Thursday.
“So if you stay one month more, you won't be allowed to enter for three months,” said Freddy Montero Mora, deputy director general of immigration.
But for us who are perpetual tourists', that's not the good news, THIS IS:
"If a person leaves the country within the visa period and has the correct documentation, immigration agents will not bar them from returning. A perpetual tourist is a foreigner who lives here and renews a tourist visa, usually every 90 days, by traveling outside the country.
“If you want to keep leaving and coming back, that's your decision,” he said. His comments were perhaps the most clear ever uttered on the subject by an immigration official."
WHOO HOO! Talk about a HUGE stress relief.
Technically, just so you know, they talked about the $100. thing back in 2010 but obviously couldn't implement it for whatever reason, but now they say it will take effect at the beginning of next year. No sweat for us, in the 7 years we've lived in Costa Rica, we've never overstayed the 90 days.
The fact is, perpetual tourism has been going on for years, but officially it's never really been made clear if leaving the country every 90 days and then returning within 72 hours was technically legal or not. I think most of us 'perpetual tourist' types were expecting to eventually get bitched slapped with some serious changes to the immigration law, especially after a lot of misinformation was spread about the supposed 'clamp down' on perpetual tourists back in 2010. So for a government official to actually come out and say, "If you want to keep leaving and coming back..." is just the clarity we've been looking for.
We made the video below back in January 2011 and I would encourage you to check it out, it's still relevant and has some information that you need to know if you're going to live the life of a perpetual tourist in Costa Rica.
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