Citizenship Through Marriage: 10 Fun Facts You Need To Know

There are certain aspects to take into consideration after making the decision to apply for citizenship through marriage. Along this article, we will explore requirements and details that are important to keep in mind. You can see it as ten fun facts of the citizenship process. Let’s get started!

1. The primordial thing to take into consideration, perhaps the most obvious one, is you will need to be married to a tico or a tica. The Marriage Certificate can be easily obtained online, but your marriage needs to be registered in Costa Rica to be valid. It doesn’t count if you married a tico or a tica but never registered the marriage in the country, even if you had a gorgeous ceremony in Mexico for instance.
2. What happens if we are not married, but we’ve lived together for a certain amount of time? It doesn’t count. Marriage is required to go through the citizenship process. If you are not married or if you are still juggling the decision, know that it needs to happen.
3. You need to be married for at least two years (with the marriage registered here) and you will also need to have been in Costa Rica for two years consecutively. If you’ve been married for longer, but you’ve never been in Costa Rica consecutively, you will need to start to pack your things and come down to Costa Rica to start the two years countdown.
4. What happens if we don’t want to come to Costa Rica for that long? You won’t be able to request your citizenship since the law states that you need to be in Costa Rica for that specific amount of time. Unfortunately, there is no way around it and it is a non-negotiable topic with the authorities.
5. You may wonder, how does the calculation of the two years’ work? Let me clear that up: when you come to Costa Rica, the clock will start. However, if you decide to leave Costa Rica for any purpose, the clock will pause, and the countdown will restart once you come back to Costa Rica. For example: you’ve been in Costa Rica for almost two years uninterrupted. But you decided to go to Florida for the holidays for ten days. The moment you exit Costa Rica, the clock will stop for the ten days that you will be out. Upon your return, it will restart again. However, if you only needed those ten days to complete the total amount of the two years, you will have to wait ten more days upon your return to apply for the citizenship process.
6. It is mandatory that you provide a Criminal Background Check with no more than three months of issue date. If the date of issuance is past three months, it will be rejected, and you will be requested to submit a new one. You also need to provide a Birth Certificate.
7. What happens if I have a record in my report? Depending on the type of record, there is a 50% chance that your application is rejected. If the record was committed more than ten years ago, the authorities might be less worried about requesting further documents or rejecting the application. However, it will be entirely their decision.
8. The citizenship process is currently taking between 10 – 1 year and half to be resolved.
9. Your request needs to be submitted to the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (Supreme Electorate Court). We will prepare a Special Power of Attorney, so your presence will not be required to file your papers.
10. Once approved, you will receive a naturalization letter and your “cédula de identidad” (Costa Rican ID). This will allow you to open bank accounts and request a Costa Rican passport.

There are more facts and aspects for this process, but ten facts can provide clarity and a general idea of the main aspects and requirements to be as prepared as possible to become a citizen.

For more information, please fill out the courtesy e-meeting form at the bottom. We will be glad to assist you!