Government eliminates restricted visas to 102 countries

by Daniela Unfried

Costa Rican Government eliminated the visa restrictions for citizens of 102 nations. Some countries can come to Costa Rica with normal visas and some of them just with their passport.

The measure was ordered by Mario Zamora, General Director of Migration, in a letter made the 14th of July, 2006.In this letter he puts restrictions only to 12 nations from 114 restricted countries. These 114 countries were prevailed since March 2005.
The countries with restricted visas are Cuba, Haiti, China Republic, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar (Burma), Syria, Palestinian, North Korea, Somalia, Sri Lanka and citizens from this part of the world.

The nationals of these countries will not be able to come to Costa Rica for tourist aims. Its entry to the country will be authorized by the Migration Director, Mario Zamora, with a previous recommendation of a special commission.

Single visas will be award in exceptional cases, with a verification of visiting the country only for business or for special guests.

The countries that in the past belonged to the communist block, like the Croatia, Slovakia, Estonia, Slovenia, Latvia, Russia, Czech Republic, Serbia and Montenegro are favored.

These citizens will be able to come without visa, only with their passport and to remain up to 90 days.
The new migratory rules also favor the citizens of several Arab countries, like Saudi Arabia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan and Arab Emirates, among others.

They can enter the national territory with an authorized normal visa by the Costa Rican consulate in their respective countries and by a period of 30 natural days.

Of the restricted country list, many of them were eliminated as the Indians, Croatians, Lebanese’s, Pakistan’s and Jordanians.

In the Indians case, they can come to Costa Rica with their passport (without visa) by a period of 30 days natural.

The Lebanese’s are left subjects; they have to transact their visas in the Costa Rican consulate and follow the requirements.

They also emphasized that the reduction of this list was made in query with the Foreign Trade Minister, the Costa Rican Coalition for Initiatives in the Developments (CINDE) and with some universities.