immigration

Migración gears up as new laws take effect

Carlos Lemos/La Prensa

crowded: Long lines outside the Direccion de Migración are expected to lengthen next Tuesday, when new immigration requirements go into effect.1077421

It’s midday and the scene outside the Dirección de Migración, on Avenida Cuba, resembles a flea market. A motley crowd of hopeful immigrants, lawyers, and officials hurry in and out of the building’s front doors, some lining up haphazardly as street vendors push by peddling goods.

Inside the building, a sea of humanity squeezes into tiny rooms and elbows through narrow hallways and patience runs thin as the lines grow longer. Migración facilities are already stretched beyond maximum capacity, and the situation is about to get worse as new immigration legislation affecting the majority of foreign nationals living in the country goes into effect next Tuesday.

Since the updated requirements mean increased fees, higher fines and more bureaucracy, the changes have not gone over well.

“My son and I are legal, but we need to follow up on our immigration status in order to renew work permits,” commented José Granado, a Colombian immigrant. “It’s a formality that shouldn’t take more than eight days and cost more than $10. But it took 19 days, and we paid about $200 to our lawyers and we still don’t have the document.”

Fellow Colombian Elsy Narvaez said the crowding problem is due to bureaucracy.

“How is it possible that registering for a passport, which costs only a dollar, requires three steps and wastes a lot of time?” she wondered.

According to Clovis Sinisterra, the director of the entity, the complaints represent poor planning on the part of immigrants and, above all else, money.

Sinisterra reiterated that the changes to immigration legislation were discussed at length last year before being approved. The information was then made public in February 2008.

Fees for all services have gone up. Repatriation will increase from $500 to $800, and fines for expired tourist permits will cost $50 for each month following expiration, with a maximum of $300.

Sinisterra mentioned that operating hours at Migración have been extended until 5 p.m. to deal with the influx, and staff will occasionally be on hand until 1 p.m. on Saturdays. The office will be open today, despite the government announcement of a holiday to celebrate Olympian Irving Saladino’s return, and this Saturday until 1 p.m.