The Directorate General of Immigration in Costa Rica was supposed to start charging foreigners today, April 20, a $100.00 fine per month of irregular (illegal) permanence in the country, however, the immigration authority announced that they will not apply the fine for another 12 months.

“The Directorate General of Immigration, through Executive Decree 41033-MGP, delays for 12 months the application of the fine for those foreigners that are currently in the country illegally exceeding the allowed time as tourists”, explained the office through a press release.

The request of the extension was made by the Presidency and received the green light of the Minister of Public Security Gustavo Mata due to the fact that Article 33 includes the fine for Temporary Residents and Special Categories, which is ‘not fair’, the request was made to modify the text.

This 12-month extension will allow the changes to Article 33 of Law 8764 which was requested to the Legislative Assembly since September 2016, to be made, clarifying and limiting the application of the fine only to those nonresidents who are in the country as tourists and exceeding their legal stay in the country.

“The Directorate General of Immigration, has recognized at all times that proceeding with this charge was not convenient without doing the proper adjustment to the text first, which is why it has been put off with the purpose of not affecting the other categories that should not be considered in this penalty.”

Authorities clarify that the objective of the law is to promote the legality of the permanence of foreigners in the country and they call to all people that come into the country as tourists but wish to stay as residents to change their condition before the term of their legal stay is past due.