Three American citizens with Costa Rican residency filed a Habeas Corpus recourse (through which a person reports unlawful detention) against the Ministry of Health and the General Directorate of Migration after they were denied entry to the country on August 6th when they flew back to the country from Houston, Texas aboard a repatriation flight.

A US national with Permanent Residency, who is married to a Costa Rican citizen and is Parent of a Costa Rican national, flew in from the US on a repatriation flight (flight UA2448) coming from Houston. This US national had departed Costa Rica in June/July and was trying to come back to his family.”

It seems that this man, along with other American citizens with Costa Rican residency, were told that they had an entry ban in the system because they had departed the country after March 25th, 2020, date in which the Government had closed borders due to the pandemic and established that foreigners with legal residency in the country or regular status who chose to leave the country would not be allowed to return into the country until the border reopened and could be subject to losing their migratory status if they had chosen to leave through an unauthorized point after the borders were closed.

Three of the four people that were denied entry had to file through their lawyers in the country a Habeas Corpus to be able to enter the country the Costa Rican Legal Firm: “The new Decrees they have issued are complicated, contradictory, they are too harsh. This Decree 42513-MGP-S is plagued with contradictions. It does not establish a clear guideline and it is impossible to understand. I have held calls with at least 4 other attorneys to discuss what this Decree is trying to say and there is no consensus. On top of that, Immigration published certain guidelines on their website (https://www.migracion.go.cr/Paginas/Cierre-de-Fronteras.aspx) that again are full of contradictions. However, guidelines published on a website carry no legal weight whatsoever. They reveal what Immigration is thinking, but it is not tantamount to a properly published Decree, Resolution, etc.”.

In these cases, the three persons were finally allowed to enter the country considering they had all their papers in order and complied with all requirements to come back to Costa Rica including the Covid-19 negative test. They spent, however, all day at the airport.