Giving Birth in Costa Rica

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  • #180284
    deborah
    Member

    My son and daughter-in-law want to explore the possability of having their child,due May 5, 2007, in Costa Rica. This would give the child dual citizenship and them residency I believe.

    Has anyone done this? and can you point us in the right direction to get info on the requirements of doing this…

    Mucho gracias… Nana

    #180285
    scottbenson
    Member

    Wow, this is considered illegal in Costa Rica! As most of us in this forum would say if anyone is coming to Costa Rica to live please do it legally!
    I believe now I have seen everything! jajajaja

    #180286
    deborah
    Member

    My husband and I have bought property in Costa Rica and are doing this legally! Our son and daughter in law want to be a part of this country and their child to have dual citizenship. I cannot think why this would be illegal as you suggest.

    #180287
    aguirrewar
    Member

    Deborah: It is not illegal at all. If your son and in-law have a baby in CR the baby will have dual citizenship, not your son and in law. I have my oldest son born in CR, my second (daughter) in Puerto Rico and the third (son) born in Panama. They all have dual citizenship. By the way all born from the same woman, it was thanks to the US Army that they were born in different countries. I was stationed in all these countries and more. Both myself and my wife DO NOT have dual citizenship, only the children.

    #180288
    deborah
    Member

    Thank you for your reply. I did not think it was illegal. I understand it would only be the child that would have dual citizenship. Does anybody know where I could get information on the residency requirements and laws in Costa Rica?

    #180289
    GringoTico
    Member

    Technically speaking, having dual citizenship is illegal for US citizens. According to the US State Department, anyone who “swears an oath” to a foreign government risks loosing his or her US citizenship. However, it is not enforced or obvious reasons.

    For more info on residency, read through this forum. To get it all right from the horse’s mouth (this horse speaks Spanish though), go to: http://www.migracion.go.cr/

    No problems giving birth there, although they don’t permit the father to be present, and the before and after are spent in a common room with a whole load of other women about to bust, with all the associated oaths being sworn against their respective inseminators.

    By the way, upon birth the child will automatically be a citizen of Costa Rica, However, US citizenship is not automatic. You’ll have to apply for that.

    I recommend Hospital México.

    #180290
    maravilla
    Member

    Dual citizenship is NOT illegal in the United States. I have it and my step-daughter has it. There was a time when you could only have one passport, but they did away with all that nonsense and I know dozens of people with dual citizenship.

    #180291
    aguirrewar
    Member

    US citizenship is applied for after the birth at the US Embassy in CR under the law of Child born abroad from US citizen’s, the State Department issues the birth certificate. At the time my kids were born it cost around $50.00, do not know how much it is now. That is how my three children have dual citizenship. It does not affect the US citizenship, which they prefer to have but the other countries recognize them as citizen of that country also. I am married to a Tica with one of my children born in CR, they have dual citizenship with both passports from the US and CR. I can have residency in CR but not citizenship because I was born in the US.
    PS: None of my kid’s can be President of the US.

    #180292
    GringoTico
    Member

    Read the language under “Important Information” in your passport.

    “Under certain circumstances you may lose your U.S. citizenship by performing any of the following acts: (1) being naturalized in a foreign state, (2) taking an oath or making a declaration to a foreign state; (3) serving in the armed forces of a foreign state; (4) accepting employment with a foreign government, or (5) formally renouncing U.S. citizenship before a U.S. Consular office overseas.”

    As I said, it’s not enforced. My wife and kids are all dual citizens as well.

    #180293
    maravilla
    Member

    If dual citizenship were reason to lose your US citizenship, they wouldn’t allow it. However, back in the 80’s I was told by the State department that if I wanted a British passport, to which I was entitled, I would have to renounce my US citizenship because I could not hold two passports. Somewhere along the line that has all changed. My husband is going to apply for US citizenship, but he does NOT have to surrender his EU passport to do it. (I don’t recall have to swear allegiance to another country to get my second passport.)

    #180294
    scottbenson
    Member

    This would give the child dual citizenship and “them residency I believe.”

    The intent of having a child in Costa Rica for the purpose of residency is illegal in Costa Rica. When I was refering to illegal it is not the dual citizen ship for the child but the issue that you would think that you would be able to have residency because your child was born in Costa Rica. (which is not true)

    My wifes father was born in Nicaragra and at the age of 2 was brought to Costa Rica where he had lived until he died at the age of 73. Even though he had 3 children that were born in Costa Rica he would not have been able to have residency for that sole reason, He was married to a tica and came when the laws where much different this let him become a legal resident.

    Again it comes down to doing the right thing! Coming to Costa Rica and trying to side step the laws will hurt the gringos and will make the Costa Rican goverment create and implement new laws to curb the problmes. So in this case the family should follow the laws and come up with the requirments instead of having babys just to have residency in CR.
    (when I told my wife a tica about this she almost fell over dead laughing)

    #180295
    deborah
    Member

    Mr. Scott Benson, I am so glad I could provide you and your wife something to fall “over dead laughing” about! Laughter is great medicine!!

    My husband and I and my son and daughter-in-law have all fallen in love with Costa Rica and its people. My husband has been coming to Costa Rica since 1970. We have purchased land here legaly to eventually build a home on and for my husband and I to enjoy our retirement here part time. Over the years we have made wonderful friends here both Tico and expat. We would do nothing to cause and “hurt the gringos and make the Costa Rican government create and implement new laws to curb the problems”. More importantly, we would never do anything to hurt the Costa Rican people who so lovingly share their country and culture with us.

    Our “intent of having a child in Costa Rica for purpose of residency” was never our intent but an assumption on your part. We would never willingly “side step the law” as you put it. We are merely exploring the possability (for many different reasons) of having the birth of this child in Costa Rica. The parents becoming residents was never one of those reasons but merely a question that was presented to us by a Tico couple.

    #180296
    scottbenson
    Member

    Well Deborah, I am sorry if I am assuming any part of your question. How ever I read your question asking two parts. 1st would the child recive dual residency 2nd would having a child in Costa Rica give the parents residency rights?
    Is this correct were you asking these questions? This is why I stated my last post the way I did and copied and pasted your question.

    My wife and I are glad that you have fell in love with the Ticos, I can understand why. My question is if your son and daughter in law come to Costa Rica and have a child will they put a burden on the health care system of Costa Rica? Are they looking to stay in Costa Rica to make a permemnt home? If so are they looking at working in Costa Rica?

    If all of these are answerd yes, then Costa Rica has a problem. 1st the health care system was originaly made for only Costa Rican as a small country they cant continue to support other groups of people.
    2nd as stated in many posts Ticos are highly educated people, how ever they also have a highly compeitive job market. This does not have room for expats to come and try to compete for jobs. This is why the laws are what they are and prevent non ticos from coming and taking jobs away from them.

    Again if your question is only for the reason of dual citizen ship that is great for what ever reasons.

    #180297
    kimyoa650
    Member

    Deborah, your question has been answered many times, and just to assure you even more from what a residency expert has told me, your son & daughter-in-law would have residency at the time they have a child born in CR (the child qualifies for citizenship). Your son/d-in-law would be allowed to live/work in CR.

    Scott, I respect your position of trying to protect CR citizens, although I highly doubt that US or European citizens are taking jobs away from them. I truly don’t believe that expats are coming over to CR and putting a burden in their health care system. Your views are quite interesting, because it somewhat mirrors the views of right-wing conservatives here in the US that all the hispanic immigrants (be those coming from Mexico, or the other central american countries, INCLUDING Costa Rica) are the main cause of health-care deficits as well as all the other problems, like steal jobs from Americans, increase the crime rate, gangs, as well as moral degredation. We all know this is not true, but everyone has to have their scapegoat.

    Americans are not coming to CR to take those “high” paying jobs nor come there to work as day laborers in the field. Most come as retirees trying to escape the lifestyle, and some younger residents trying to raise their families maybe supported by starting a business or running a US based business. I personally don’t see why a US citizen would want a job in CR, when it is not worth your time. Lets be realistic, the pay scale in CR is probably 7-10 times less than in the US. Anyone going there with the intention of working for a company needs to take basic finance.

    I’m not putting anyone down, just stating the facts. There is a saying for immigrants going to the US, it is not the Americans you should watchout for when you move to the US, but rather your own countrymen. Its seems like this is ringing true for people moving to CR. Funny that Ticos seems to welcome us more than fellow expats that think they have been there long enough.

    #180298
    Raven
    Member

    Just wanted to make a quick comment on the following: “No problems giving birth there, although they don’t permit the father to be present, and the before and after are spent in a common room with a whole load of other women about to bust, with all the associated oaths being sworn against their respective inseminators.”

    This is NOT true, it all depends on where you give birth and who the obstetrician is. We personally had our baby at home with a midwife and doula, my Tico husband delivered the baby himself. We did check out hospitals ahead of time, and CIMA, while close to our house, had weird policies we didn’t agree with, while Clinical Catolica (east of San Jose) was much more flexible about what the parents wanted (you could have your whole family in the room if you wanted to, keeping the baby in the room, labor/birth all in the same room, etc.). (There’s an article on this site about it — do a search for “natural childbirth” if you’re interested.)

    That said, our son is a citizen of both the US and CR; getting his Costa Rica birth certificate was a huge pain due to the fact that we had him at home, but getting the passports was relatively easy for both countries (surprisingly). When you get the CR passport for the baby, you will need to specify whether the baby can leave the country with only one parent, or if permission of both is needed. This is something they didn’t do at the US embassy. I was already a legal resident when I had him, so I’m sorry that I can’t help you on that point.

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