The blue dream of many former residents of the Soviet Union was and remains immigration to the United States of America. But sometimes entering this country is fraught with difficulties and bureaucratic delays, people are trying to find easy ways to get closer to their cherished dream. Let's try to answer the question of how to obtain citizenship of Costa Rica, located in the immediate vicinity of the United States, although it has no common borders with it.
Obtaining Costa Rican citizenship provides an important advantage - the ability to enter more than 120 countries located in different parts of the world without applying for visa documents.
How to get Costa Rican citizenship
First of all, you need to focus on the Constitution of the Republic of Costa Rica, the law on citizenship and other documents. According to these important regulations, different mechanisms can be used to obtain citizenship. Firstly, in this country there are two principles - "the right of blood" and "the right of the soil" (land). "The right of blood" means that wherever in the world a little person is born, if his parents are citizens of Costa Rica, he will receive the same citizenship.
The “right of the soil” helps to obtain citizenship for any newborn, whose blood from the navel has been shed on the territory of the country, and it does not matter what nationality his parents are and what state they are citizens of. The exception is the children of diplomatic workers, who a priori accept the citizenship of parents-ambassadors, consuls or ordinary employees of diplomatic missions.
Secondly, according to Costa Rican law, any foreigner can obtain citizenship through naturalization. Costa Rica's legal documents in this regard are identical to those used in world practice; in order to obtain a passport, the main document of a citizen, a number of requirements must be fulfilled. The first requirement, as elsewhere, is the period of permanent residence in the territory of the state, and it is different for different categories of potential citizenship seekers: five years - for Spanish citizens, as well as former residents of Central and Latin America; seven years - for all other foreign citizens.
Special offers await foreign spouses of Costa Rican citizens, for them the residency requirement has been reduced to two years, however, the marriage must be officially registered in the country, in addition, the spouses must live here for the entire required period.
Other issues related to the acquisition and loss of citizenship
Costa Rica differs from most countries in the world, as it allows residents to have a second citizenship. Therefore, when a woman marries, she may not renounce the citizenship of the former country of residence, but receive another one, Costa Rican. Also, naturalized foreigners can remain citizens of another country, keep passports, and enjoy their rights. The first point is that it is important that the former state of residence allows the institution of dual citizenship to operate. The second nuance, in connection with the changes made in 1995 to the normative acts, in particular to the Constitution of the country, in Costa Rica the loss of citizenship is not recognized, that is, a person cannot put forward any, even very serious, grounds.
At first glance, it seems that it is quite easy to obtain citizenship of the Republic of Costa Rica. It is important to obtain a permanent residence and live in the country without leaving a certain number of years. But this is not entirely true, legal practice proves that, compared to many neighboring states, in Costa Rica, the issue of obtaining citizenship by a foreigner is rather tough. If there is a question on the agenda that a citizen's passport is needed only for one reason in order to travel freely around the planet, in this case it is recommended to choose any other state located nearby, for example, the same Paraguay is more loyal to foreigners in terms of the time of residence in the territory country, and the cost of services.
For many immigrants entering the Republic of Costa Rica, the matter is limited to obtaining a residence permit, a small part of them go further, drawing up documents for obtaining a permanent residence permit. They make it possible to legally reside in the Costa Rican territory, they are valid, but with some restrictions (the type of residence permit obtained affects).
The main goal of obtaining a Costa Rican passport is achieved by few foreigners. The advantages are obvious - the ability to travel around the world with almost no problems, even to those countries that are difficult in terms of registration of entry documents. The second advantage of obtaining a republican visa is that the procedure for obtaining a multiple entry visa to the United States of America and Canada is simplified.
