This week plans were announced for a big shakeup in Costa Rica's Immigration system, although many are skeptical as to whether the changes will take place.

Currently the immigration organization is known for it day-long lines, 10 month waits to renew annual residency permits and its single office in San Jose causing people to camp on the street over night to make sure they get in line just to get their passports.

However, if Director Mario Zamora has his way this will all change, with services being offered at regional offices, to ease to work load on the San Jose office and the computerization of Immigration's disorganized paper file system.

Zamora also plans to tackle to what many believe to be the main problem at the heart of the immigration system, this being the drain foreign immigrants are putting on public funds. It is estimated that there are more than 200,000 illegal immigrants currently living in Costa Rica. This extra population is putting great strain on the education and health care system, according to Zamora, and is causing the Social Security System (Caja) to spend ¢10 billion ($19.4 million) more each year on immigrants' health care than it receives from legal foreign residents in taxes.

To try and ease this financial burden off the country, Zamora has proposed a new monthly tax on all foreign residents, which has unfortunately already been met with criticism. The new tax would require all foreign residents, except students, religious leaders, refugees and seasonal workers, to pay a tax of between $8-$17 per month, depending on income. The money collected would then be fed into a fund co owned by the Social Security System (Caja) and the Public Education Ministry to be used where they felt it was needed most.

According to Zamora, this new tax, when implemented, will change immigration from a threat to the state, to one of its major strengths.

However, the head of immigration services at the Costa Rican Residents Association, George Gonzalez, has said that it is neither fair nor constitutional to charge foreign residents an extra tax.

He went on to say that Immigration should concentrate on making sure that everyone, who by law is required to pay taxes are doing so, rather than trying to make the shortfall up from just the legal foreign residents. He also said that should extra money be needed, everyone not just foreign residents, should foot the bill.

It remains to be seen as to whether these changes will take place, and whether they will be the same changes as proposed.