Ombudsman Calls For
Reforms To Immigration
Law
The defensor de los
habitantes (Ombudsman),
Daniel Soley, is urging
legislators for a reform
to the Ley de Migración
y Extranjería
(immigration law) to
allow the immigration
service to refute
marriages of
convenience.
Last month, the ministro
de Seguridad, Fernando
Berrocal and the
director de Migración,
Mario Zamora, presented
the comisión de Gobierno
y Administración a 180
page document detailing
plans for the reform of
the existing immigration
law.
Soley is asking
legislators to include
an article in the reform
so that the Dirección de
Migración, theRegistro
Civil and the Dirección
Nacional de Notariado
can oppose marriages of
convenience or marriages
by power of attorney,
before the judicial
authorities.
The change proposed by
the Ombudsman would
allow the government to
have the power to define
by way of regulations,
the requisites and
mechanisms to verify and
assure correctly the
immigration benefits
derived from marriage.
According to Soley, the
government should have
the ability to regulate
by law and establish a
guideline so that
authorities can
investigate and be
assured that the couple
live together and have
the ability to establish
controls to avoid fraud.
Currently, marriages by
foreigners to Costa
Ricans allow the
foreigner to apply for
residency and
citizenship without
having to provide proof
that the couple is
living together as
husband and wife or even
know each other for that
matter.
Lawyers and notaries are
used, for a fee, to
contract marriage
between foreigners and
Costa Ricans for the
purposes of obtaining
residency for the
foreigner, in many cases
the couple do not know
each other or have ever
or will ever meet. Three
years later, a divorce
is filed and the union
dissolved, and the
foreigner has obtained
residency.
In some of the cases the
Costa Rican does not
even know that he or she
is married and to a
foreigner, discovering
the marriage by accident
when requesting a
document from the
Registro Civil.
In such cases, though
immigration officials
know that the marriage
is one of convenience,
they are powerless to
investigate and reject a
residency application
based on the marriage.
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