Border Runs During COVID

On March 3^rd, 2021 Immigration issued their latest resolution regarding Residency processing, tourist entry stamps, appointments at Immigration, etc.  You can read a summary here. They have been consistently publishing these resolutions since the COVID19 crisis began in March 2020.

As you may recall, they started to extend the validity of entry stamps in an effort to protect the community of tourists that were visiting the country when the virus hit. Hence, people who entered the country from December 17^th,  saw the validity of their entry stamps extended numerous times, the last automatic extension was until March 02^nd, 2021 (for people who entered up until November 30^th, 2020) and a new extension was announced in March 2021 until June 1^st, 2021 if you follow the eligibility requirements and steps detailed here. Immigration announced in March 2021 that the June extension would be the last.

Furthermore, it took a while for Transportation to catch up to Immigration and recognize the validity of these extended entry stamps. You can read about the current rules for driving here.

Therefore, as the deadline for the last entry stamp extension is coming up, it is important to review what to expect when completing a border run.

If you need to depart the country, please be advised that our air and land borders are currently opened as you can see here.

That means that people who need to complete border runs can now fly out or walk out via the land borders to visit a neighboring country. You are not obliged to return to your home country, you can take a flight to Panama or Mexico or simply go to Nicaragua by land, for example, stay for a little while and return. Obviously, if you feel comfortable travelling to your home country, you surely can, but this is not an obligation. When arriving at your destination country you may not even be required to go through Immigration. We have clients who have visited Panama and have confirmed that they entered the country via air, visited the shops, ate at the airport restaurant, and took a flight back without inconveniences.

It is important to state that nowhere in the law does it say that you must be abroad for 72 hours or for X number of days. You can take a flight out and return on the same day or the next day and that would be acceptable. The same rule should apply to the land borders. It is common for Immigration Officers to speak of this 72-hour rule, but again, this is not supported by the law.

Evidently, you will need to be mindful of the receiving country’s entry requirements. Prior to flying out, please review the need for insurance, quarantine, COVID19 tests (quick tip: many private labs in Costa Rica have excellent turnaround time with COVID19 test results, one of them is Laboratorios Echandi, if needed. A good friend and client also mentioned that Hospital Clínica Bíblica is great for the rapid antigen test if needed. They take appointments 24 hours a day including Sundays. It cost around $50.00. Results are emailed in less than 2 hours), etc. since things are constantly changing. It would be awful for you to board a flight or attempt to enter another country through land only to be turned away or to be forced to quarantine abroad so please be careful with this. When returning to Costa Rica, you will need your passport, round-trip ticket, and insurance to be able to enter, as well as the rest of the requirements detailed here. If you wish to ensure that you receive a 90-day entry stamp, make sure you present insurance that covers you for 90 days as the number of days allowed in the country will depend on this. If you present 10-day insurance, you will only be allowed to stay in the country for 10 days.

Many have asked if Immigration will extend the validity of the entry stamps once again and unfortunately, we simply cannot know. Our Immigration Department is anything but consistent. They did state in resolution N° DJUR-0031-03-2021-JM that the June 2021 extension would be the last. Reasons why they would no longer extend the entry stamps include the fact that our borders are now fully open, and Immigration has been taking applications since mid-October 2020. The extension of entry stamps was granted since our borders were limited for a significant number of months. Additionally, Immigration closed its doors in March 2020. However, now that the borders are opened and since Immigration has been back in business (slower than usual) since October, the country is now in a position to ask its tourists to regularize their immigration status. Immigration cannot endorse perpetual tourism because it goes against the very law that it needs to enforce.

Remember that people with appointments scheduled at the Immigration Department of people with application in progress, meaning people whose Residency requests have been filed at the Immigration Department and have an expediente number) are not required to depart. For Immigration purposes, you can legally stay in the country during the analysis period of your process as we discussed here.

Consequently, if you will soon need to depart because you need a valid entry stamp to drive or because you are not ready to file for Residency, ensure you do your border run the correct way and in a timely manner.