Post Offices Accepting New Residency Aplicantions

Some first-time applicants for residency in Costa Rica will now be able to turn in their papers while mailing their packages.

The Immigration office recently announced that foreigners who are either the parent, child or spouse (qualified as vínculos de primer grado) of a Costa Rican, as well as those who work as domestic servants can present their residency solicitations at 12 post offices around the country.

With respect to the latter group, Immigration director Mario Zamora said in an e-mail that, per Labor Ministry studies, domestic service jobs were not being filled by Costa Ricans, heightening the need to quickly hire foreigners to cover the work.

Zamora said the move to utilize the post offices is part of Immigration’s effort to “decentralize” its services by making them more readily available in various parts of the country, and hopefully cut down on application processing times. He also noted his agency’s requirement by law to process all complete applications within 90 days.

Post offices in Hatillo, Alajuelita, Pavas, Y Griega, Desamparados, Curridabat, Tres Ríos, Tibás, Liberia, Puntarenas, Guápiles and the Correo Central in downtown San José will all be accepting those applications.

Post offices already provide passport and residency card (cédula) application services.