Costa Rica Migration has temporarily “handed off” the checking of each passengers Health Pass to the Ministry of Health.
The high season passenger loads and extra time taken to check passengers for Covid-19 requirements has been causing long line ups at both airports in Costa Rica.
As a result, and as a TEMPORARY MEASURE to speed up the processing of passengers, Costa Rica Migration will not be checking each passenger Health Pass at the airports.
The General Directorate of Immigration and Foreigners has published a circular stating that as of Friday 28th of January 2022, they will no longer review the Health Pass.
How Will They Check My Health Pass?
Ministry of Health officials will review the flight information and will report their findings to the Immigration Police. It will therefore not be necessary for each Immigration Officer to individually check each Health Pass at the immigration control point when other immigration checks are being made.
Prior to the circular, Immigration Police were responsible for reviewing the Health Pass in the Ministry of Health computer system. As of the aforementioned date, this work will be carried out (on a temporary basis) by officials of the Ministry of Health.
Costa Rica Citizens
The Ministry of Health has also authorized a “temporary cancellation” of the Health Pass review for Costa Ricans. However, they made it clear that this does not exempt national passengers from completing the on line form in the usual way.
Speeding Up the Process
Immigration hopes that this new measure will reduce the waiting time for attention at the counters and speed up entry to the country.
“Even with these measures taken by the Migration Police and the Ministry of Health, it is possible that people have to wait within the physical spaces at both the Juan Santamaría International Airport (San José – Alajuela) and Daniel Oduber (Liberia) for reasons of infrastructure, approved hours for landing of aircraft and queue management that is not related to Immigration control” – Raquel Vargas, Director of Migration, Costa Rica.
