Immigration Officers Are Taking Passports Now
Immigration Maze in La Uruca
Imagine you plan your vacation to Costa Rica, and take extra special care to make a photocopy of your passport and keep the original locked away in a safe place. One evening you are enjoying a meal at a restaurant in San Jose when a group of heavily armed police enter the establishment and demand identification papers.
You show the immigration agents a photocopy of your passport only to be told that isn’t good enough anymore. You are served with a written demand to report to the immigration police on the following day and present you passport. The agents also inform you that if you fail to report to immigration and they catch you again, well then it’s off to the jail in San Sebastian.
The special police patrols are a combined group of Fuerza Publica (national police), Municipal Police, Immigration Police, and Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ). This is the new modus operandi in the central valley, and they are actively making sweeps among bars, restaurants, and other strategic locales.
Police are also being more aggressive, and this week patrons at another bar and restaurant frequented by mostly tourists were asked to turn out their pockets so that they could be inspected for contraband. The sweep was not pleasant, the music stopped, the party came to an end and all the tourists were inspected “Guatemala” style.
In the case of our friend who was ordered to report to immigration things took a turn for the worse. He dutifully showed up the next day at the immigration police station in La Uruca and presented his passport. They ran a check of the records and apparently there was some mistake when he arrived at the airport a few weeks prior.
U.S. Passport opens doors but you need legal residency to remain.
Apparently there was no record of his entry, and agents promptly confiscated his passport. They explained he was free to go, but they would have to keep the document for a while in order to verify that the entry stamp was legitimate. He needs to leave the country and return to Florida on Friday, but has twice been given the run around at immigration, being told come back later.
As you can image he has already been to the United States embassy in San Jose. Their advice to him was to behave, obey Costa Rican law, and if he liked they would issue a new passport for the usual fee. They also cautioned that if he had been placed on the Costa Rican equivalent of the “No Fly List”, a new passport would not necessarily get him through the immigration checkpoint at the airport.
At least for now these sweeps seemed to be confined to the downtown San Jose area. We have not heard reports from the beach towns or plusher central valley neighborhoods such as Escazu. We also assume that the new approach is part of the New President’s Plan to bring security to Costa Rica.
Our advice is to not carry a photocopy of your passport anymore, and instead carry the real thing in a hidden pouch around your neck. Apart from being polite to the police if stopped there isn’t much else you can do to avoid problems.
While I can understand the new tactics as there have been fake passport stamps in the past, problems with illegal immigrants and perhaps Perpetual Tourists, however the situation is making it difficult to explain to friends in the United States that Costa Rica is still a nice place to visit or vacation.
Ask most Americans with a job they depend on what would happen if their vacation in Costa Rica were to be extended by the immigration police and the answer might not be pleasant.
Costa Rica shouldn’t be the kind of place where you would expect to spend hours waiting in line to beg a government official to return your passport. Tourists do not belong in the Immigration Maze. That headache should be reserved for those of us who are crazy enough to apply for Residency in Costa Rica.
I have to hope that this latest policy is temporary, and hopefully President Chinchilla with her background in public security will also think of the big picture, and the benefits that tourism provide. The Costa Rica I know is the kind of place where a tourist can Soak in the Hot Springs, experience a Cloud Forest, enjoy the Surf or just hang out with friends at the Beach.
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Filed Under: Expat Living • Local News
Nazis. Just like the idiots in the fallen empire.
C'mon 2012 !!!
Regarding the article, I'm disappointed that you didn't identify the person to whom this has – allegedly – happened (turns the report into a 'hearsay' situation, imho). Many years ago, in High School Journalism I was taught that a news report should answer all of these questions: who, what, why, where, when? So, I'm left with all of those questions in my mind.
Meanwhile, if this is all true, and if the tourist was totally innocent in all of this, I can only hope that this was an isolated incident, and perhaps the result of an overzealous cop.
Finally, it is sad to see that Mr. Blammo is still living in some kind of parallel universe. What, btw, is "the fallen empire?"
At the moment the person who is the subject of this article is still trying to get his passport back from the immigration police and leave the country. Using his name here could make his situation worse so I have decided to leave it out.
There are already multiple witnesses to how the new new police patrol operates, and I suspect there will be plenty more in the future, and perhaps more people with confiscated passports.
So, if you like reserve judgement until there are more victims.
Still lost ?
Go say hello to the empires terrorists in Limon. ?
They await your bleating.
I had a similar experience last October in San Jose. I showed the policia a copy of my passport, my hotel key and my drivers license from the USA. I was held for half an hour before being let go. I was told that I was stopped because I looked like a Dominican or a Colombian ( Im black with dread locks) and there was a shooting the night before. But once they realized I was not Colombian or Dominican why was I still setting in the park waiting for these two cops to release me. Costa Rica is a beautiful country but its still third world. I was told later (by a Dominican black man) the cops just wanted me to bribe them with cash.
It’s not only in Costa Rica even in my home country Gabon(west central africa) is the same thing, the immigration officer over there are very strict with the law on expatriates but the fact that many immigrants take things for granted in another man’s country like it always says that ”you can’t leave your own country and expect to settle in aother man’s country without proper residence requirement”. If you go abroad for tourism, obey the laws to avoid troubles. Sometimes this is the reason why i love to be in my homeland(Gabon) because of consequences like that.
tourists with possible contraband(?) in a pocket and passport stamps ARE NOT the problem
corrupt cops — stealing and destroying a hard earned vaction are REAL PROBLEMS
the security and criminal problems of Costa Rica is far far far beyond any tourists (the all to frequent victims)
the security and criminal problems of Costa Rica are urban poverty problems
leave the money giving tourists ALONE
I always carry the passport with me – I have been stopped 9 times in the last 2 years on the streets of San Jose – each time it was a short question and answer and a search of my pockets of course I had nothing to hide and had no problem with it. Living here in North Havana (Key West) I often wished the same policy would be used here. In Costa Rica it is very clear that the new President isn't interested in tourism, and has a real edge against the Gringo that strolls the streets around the Gulch. She has one goal and that is change the image of Costa Rica from being a haven for sex tourism and gambling, if the same approach stays in tact, she will get her way and tourism will drop by 30 percent, just another way of third world thinking shooting itself in the foot.
If a country is known for its sex tourism, they might as well shut the door on the horny pricks.
Horny pricks?l resemble that statement so does everyone else including chinchilla.What does Guatamalan style mean?
I have traveled all over Central and South America, and in Guatemala the police are known to frequently enter bars that are open at night, close the business for about an hour and in some detail search people and review documents, tourists included.
In five years I have never seen the police behave like this in Costa Rica until this week.
Dave is not dangerous to carry the original passport with U?
It's the culture and we should not expect the practices of the Government, Police, taxi drivers, etc. to change. President Laura and her party will talk and talk but I doubt anything will really change. Security is what it is….people are hungry, have bills to pay, were never taught how to manage money and as a result do deperate things. Including the Cops. Obviously most people are honest but you will "Never" change the "Dishonest and the Scammers". It's not a problem unique to CR.
Well the problem is clearly a law and order problem which evidently the authorities have little clue how to tackle. The easiest way is to catch the foreigners and blame them though apparently the crimes committed by locals are far more in scale and size.
Add to that the prevailing “machismo” (not restricted to Costa Rica but whole of Central / South America) where young mothers are left to fend for themselves and their children, the government cannot just wish the gulch away. Surely it attracts tourists of a kind not necessarily welcome, but think about all those dollars and the hunger it keeps at bay. Stopping those tourists will only aggravate the situation, nothing else. Unless the government comes up with a comprehensive plan, nothing will change. They may simply antagonise well meaning tourists and shoot themselves in the foot.
That is waht they seem quite intent on doing….
I am happy to say our friend got his passport back from immigration today. The explanation he received was that an investigation of the flight records was required to confirm that he actually entered the country legally as for some reason there was no record of his arrival in the system.
The morale of the story I think is if you frequent downtown San Jose where this new police task force might come calling, then you should carry your real passport and hopefully avoid being put into the "system" with a letter to report to immigration.
But that was an excuse..Why he was being stops in the first place,,,That mean is the politics they will follow since now on
I have seen this trend continue and be more heavy handed by the Costa Rica government. Its more about easy targets then anything else. Costa Rica loves the big show and from top to bottom is consumed by image. The cops don't want to work and the politicians have no idea how. The country is run ill logically. It would rather enforce immigration laws no one understands then lock up criminals caught red handed. Its only getting worse for the people who live here and the tourist who visit. This person deserves an apology from the CR government. Oh yeah, good luck driving the roads without being stopped by MOPT money making squad. Costa Rica is now stealing money from drivers using unfair laws instead of the usual bribes. Facts friends.
Did the person who’s passport was confiscated ALSO have a copy of his entry stamp page? From what I’m hearing (which includes from a friend that is an Immigration Police) is THAT’s one of the MAIN reasons they’re holding the passports or if you don’t have it, demanding people bring it into immigrations!!
Some of the BIG things they’re looking for is ROOF that they’ve not overstayed their visa – as well as people that “shouldn’t be here” for various reasons (like they’re not the most “upstanding characters” &/or into some illegal things!!).
Haven’t a majority of these raids been in the “massage parlors” & gambling type establishments? The current president is being HEAVILY influenced by the catholic church & MANY of these things are “moral” issues.
Since this article was written (May ’10), they’ve also randomly done these raids in some beach areas as well.
These surface shows of “security” are REALLY SAD as literally, the word has gotten out within the travel community of things things – added to how UNsafe CR’s gotten for MANY (a large % of the people I’ve known have had some sort of problem with incidents involving guns or theft [& it is NOT just coming from Columbians or Nicas!!]) & add this to the world economic situation, doesn’t make CR as high on many peoples lists these days sadly.
I’m currently almost two months here in CR with a overstay Visa. Long story, but in short..I have sleeping issues, and I usually just let the insomnia run it’s course for two or three nights, until I collapse and fall asleep.
After that I might not have another “episode” for several months. This time I screwed up..A Tico friend of mine suggested ” hey, go to the pharmacy here and get some Zopiclone..It’s OTC / Over The Counter, and it will put you right to sleep. ” .
I’ve always avoided pills like Ambien and Benzos..I had no idea what Zopiclone was, but I was kind of desperate ( insomnia while exploring CR ? No way, I need to get rid of this fast! I thought..), so I bought a few pills. First night I slept great ( like a rock, I was out cold..). Second night, I couldn’t sleep, so I took another pill..
Got to the point, I couldn’t sleep without the darn pills. Now I’m a week into detox, here at the place where I’m staying..My sleep is coming back slowly..I slept two hours last night without the pills.
I’ll be going to Nicaragua in a few days on bus, so let’s see how much I have to pay at the border. I’ll repost here and let you guys know how much they fined me ( hopefully nothing worse than that will happend.).
John B, how did it go in Nicaragua?