QCOSTARICA — Authorities from Costa Rica and Honduras announced on Tuesday their agreement to change the visa application to enter their territories for a police report.
The announcement was made after a meeting held at the Casa Presidencial in Costa Rica, with the participation of official delegations from both countries.
On October 10, Costa Rica announced that Honduran nationals required a visa to enter Costa Rica, in an act of reciprocity, Honduras announced the requirement of a visa by Costa Rican nationals to enter their territory.
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This generated a large number of inconveniences, as well as delays for visitors of both countries, in particular of transporters.
“Visas are no longer required for trips by Hondurans to Costa Rica and by Costa Ricans to Honduras, be it by air, by land, a diplomat, whoever, from both sides,” Chaves said after the meeting.
“We established even stricter protocols to filter out the bad guys and welcome the good people, who are the majority,” Chaves added while noting the impossibility of providing more details for security reasons.
New requirement
Instead of the visa, Ticos and Catrachos (Costa Ricans and Hondurans) will have to present a document showing their police record before entering the respective country.
The document, “hoja de delinquencia”, is obtained in Costa Rica from the Poder Judicial and is at no charge and valid for 90 days.
In Honduras, the document is called a police record certificate and is issued by the Police Investigation Directorate.
This requirement will not be necessary for Central American carriers, who can cross the territories with the identification that identifies them as such.
“We, at the borders, will make the appropriate filter. Furthermore, someone who has that very complicated certificate is not going to come to Costa Rica,” concluded the President.
“As a Government, we will do everything possible to make the process quick, efficient, with the necessary controls, and accessible online,” said Gerardo Torres, the Honduras Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In Costa Rica, the criminal record certificate is requested from the Judicial Branch.
