The new immigration law has had its ups and downs. Now the final, final version has been approved by a legislative committee again and is about to be subject to a vote on the floor of the Asamblea Legislativa. Approval is highly likely.
The Comisión Permanente de Gobierno y Administración has made minor changes in the law as it related to trafficking in persons. The proposed law, on the verge of passage several times, hit a roadblock when lawmakers sent it to the Sala IV constitutional court for a review.
Court reviews before final passage of legislation frequently take place in Costa Rica. The court reported that it found inconsistencies between this bill and the just-passed law to protect victims and witnesses in the area of human trafficking.
Due to legislative rules, lawmakers could not make swift changes in the existing bill and had to send it back to a committee to do the editing. That was done last week. The work appears to be minor compared to the complete rewrite of the bill published several months ago.
The committee Tuesday also incorporated other changes that had been proposed and approved before the measure went up to the court. Originally lawmakers planned a vote May 22. The bill was No. 1 on the list of priorities.
This is the measure that will raise the monthly financial requirement for a pensionado to $1,000 from the current $600 and require rentistas to show a monthly income of $2,500 from $1,000.The new law also would require all foreign residents to
become members of the Caja Costarricence de Seguro Social.
When the measure first was announced, expats and potential expats were surprised by a retroactive clause and a $5,000 a month requirement for a rentista resident. E-mail and telephone campaigns from expats are credited with being responsible for changes from the original draft.
When President Óscar Arias Sánchez took office in 2006 he moved unsuccessfully to stop a new immigration law from going into effect. That law, passed in the last days of the Abel Pacheco administration, was considered to be too harsh. It drew criticism from Roman Catholic Church officials, for example, because they thought their relief operations for illegal immigrants could be considered trafficking.
Officials called together representatives from a number of interest groups and social organizations to consider a new immigration law. For some reason, North American and European expats were not included. That is why the higher requirements for pensionados and rentistas got into the initial bill.
Costa Rican officials lump the measure together among the handful of citizen security bills that are moving through the legislature or have been approved like the victims bill or the organized crime bill. Among other changes, the final draft contains measures to reduce corruption in the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería.
Unless the paragraph has been changed in committee, expats will have six months to apply for residency under the old requirements.