New Cédulas For Legal Residents Coming Soon
All foreigners with legal residency in Costa Rica will benefit from the changes proposed by the Dirección de Migración y Extranjería (Immigration) announced yesterday.

Marco Badilla, director of Migración y Extranjería, explained that the various documents now circulation that identify the different types of residencies will be replaced by one.

The different cédulas for refugees, temporary or permanent residency, retirees, investors, etc. will come into one identity card that will be more secure and much harder to falsify.

The plan is to use one system of identity that is hard to copy and thus eliminate the frauds and the entry of illegal foreigners to Costa Rica.

The new identity card will contain information about the cardholder that cannot be changed, using coded information and a 'ghost' foto - a foto that is imbedded in the card not visible unless viewed by special equipment - makes the card almost impossible to copy and modify.

Though there will be only one card system, the different migratory status will be indicated on the card.

Director Badilla added that the new card will contain most of the information needed by immigration officials to properly identify the foreigner and his or her legal status. Using special detection equipment, immigration officials will have at their fingertips the migratory status of the cardholder and the required documentation required to support the claim.

Badilla also announced the creation of a new Costa Rican passport that includes up to 42 security measures to counter falsification and duplication of the document, especially organized groups who specialize in passport falsifications.

The cost for the new technology will be around us$2 million dollars, which doesn't include the cost of the passport or cédulas, which will be paid for by the user.

The changes are necessary because the present system is obsolete, according to the Immigration Director. Currently, the immigration service can only handle the issuing of 400 passports in one day and the current system is vulnerable to fraud and falsification of the document.

In the last several months, false Costa Rican passports have been detected in far away places like Argentina and closer to home in Nicaragua, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and several other undisclosed countries.

The new passport system will be installed by a French company that will permit the issuance of 1.000 passports daily and 220.000 visas to foreigners each year and eliminating the long lines currently experienced.

According to immigration records, there are 1 million Costa Ricans who have passports of which 750.000 are current.

The changes will be gradual, replacing the old documents with the new one as they expire.