Costa Rica: Efficiency Experts Apply Here

Big news here in Costa Rica: The city of San Jose is putting up street signs! If you've never had to find a location based solely on "turn left at the red barn"-type of directions, you may not fully grasp the significance of this step. It's not that the streets have no names, it's just that nobody knows what they are. Addresses here are given in 100-meter segments, meant to indicate a city block but it's a loose measure for sure, and distances are counted from landmarks. For instance, our home address is "200 meters east of the Catholic Church, on the left side." But that doesn't get you to our house. What's on the "left side" is a street, which, unless you know otherwise, looks like a driveway, especially since the surface quickly disappears from view in a steep incline that hides the houses below. So there's that. But then, said street has two houses on it; ours happens to be the last one on the left. Try telling that to a taxi driver - in Spanish! So it's a big deal to be getting street signs. First thing you know we may even have numbers on buildings!

The other recent big news for Layne and me was that we successfully renewed our cedulas, the plastic identification card that says you are in the country legally. It's amazing to us that two years have flown by since we got residency here, but it's true. So with our friend Carmen as hired translator, we started the process a few weeks ago. I had already called our residency attorney to learn a little about the process. She explained the documentation we would need, along with a fee of $129 in colones, and she gave me a phone number to set up an appointment. Oddly to us, this transaction would be handled by the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR), a banking institution instead of immigration. Perhaps that just reflects the key point for the Costa Rican government: get the money.

My Cedula

Requirements for pensionado or retiree residency in Costa Rica include transferring $1000 per month into colones and maintaining a paid-up membership in the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, better known as just the CAJA, the country's universal health care system. So our first step was for Carmen to call BCR to make the appointment and learn what we should bring. This included a letter from our bank proving we had transferred the required amount of money each month, copies of our cedulas, copies of our CAJA receipt and, of course, those fees.

Next we met Carmen at our bank to get the letter, which proved to be an amusing example of Tico bureaucratic inefficiency. Layne and I had printouts of all the deposit confirmations, which included dates and dollar amounts from our online transfers. When the clerk looked at our paperwork, however, she told Carmen she was unsure whether they were acceptable. Since the banks "say" they only keep records going back six months, we had a moment of panic. If they didn't have the records and wouldn't accept ours, what would we do? Fortunately, after checking with her supervisor, she said our copies were fine. Then she proceeded to handwrite each month's date and dollar amount on a blank sheet of paper to check against the records in her computer. Never mind that the same information was right in front of her on those printouts. But finally, after a mind-bogglingly slow process, she typed up our letter and sent us on our way. Pura Vida!

For the next couple of weeks, Layne and I stressed over whether we had everything we needed: copies of cedulas, copies of CAJA receipt, copies of the bank letter, proof of Social Security income from the US Embassy, a form showing his check is direct deposited here, a letter showing I am his dependent (in Costa Rica, I'm a married woman so dependent on mi esposo) and of course, the money. We had it all organized in separate folders, carefully paper-clipped together.

On the day of our appointment, we had everything with us as we bused with Carmen to the

No photos allowed in BCR, but here's the food service at Int'l Mall

International Mall in Alajuela where the BCR was located. At BCR, however, the procedure was anti-climactic. After a long wait, (Pura Vida again), it was finally my turn. The unsmiling clerk entered in her computer my street address (see above re addresses), asked for my CAJA receipt and the $129, of course. That was it. No proof of income; no letter from the bank; no issue of dependency. She took my picture and my fingerprint - same finger, four times. Go figure. Then in a classic case of ineptitude, she lost all of the data she had entered, had to restart her computer and go through it all again. Hey, lady -- hit Save next time!

For Layne the process took less than ten minutes. In neither case did she ask for proof of income or the letter from our bank, even though that is one of the most stringent requirements. All we could do was shake our heads in amusement and count our lucky stars that our cedulas will be renewed. For how long? we asked the clerk. She didn't know. And neither will we until we receive our new cards. Sigh. Pura Vida indeed.

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Expat Hurdles and Yigüirro Birds

Saturday, April 24, 2010

(Click on photos to enlarge)

         After a brief but heavy rain yesterday afternoon, we enjoyed another spectacular tropical sunset, with pale blue sky breaking through gold-edged clouds, their dark hearts presenting a tantalizing threat of another shower, which never developed. As we sat out on the patio, the relentless voices of the early evening birds punctuated our reverie with staccato chirps and ringing trills, a soprano chorus welcoming the night. There are so many such breathtaking sights and sounds here; we find joy in every moment.

         With almost three months in Costa Rica now, Layne and I are more convinced than ever that we want to make a permanent home here as expats, doing some travel writing and blogging, seeking out rewarding volunteer opportunities, basking in the tropical climate, enjoying those amazing sunsets and a national temperament of warmth and good cheer. Of course, “perpetual tourists,” those who stay on as visitors rather than acquiring legal residency, are not so welcome, and for good reason. Such tourists tend to take more from this friendly and generous country than they give. The new residency law, which went into effect March 1, 2010, aims to make it more difficult for those folk who ignore the immigration rules by staying on past the 90-day tourist visa allotment or, as often happens, leaving the country every 90 days for 72 hours then returning and getting a new 90-day tourist visa. Under the new law, tourists will be able to do this twice (or alternatively, pay $100 to renew each time) but the third time they will have to stay out of Costa Rica for at least 15 days, a policy designed to encourage long-term visitors to seek another form of residency. Violators who are caught will pay dearly in money or even expulsion from the country.

         For those of us who choose to go through the rigorous process to obtain legal residency in one of several categories, the procedure can be challenging, lengthy and yet, with the right attitude, downright amusing. Without a good sense of humor, parts of it can be a royal pain! Once Layne and I made our decision this spring, we started looking for a good attorney to help us. Now, you can do all the paperwork yourself, you can deal directly with the Immigration Department, you can achieve residency on your own - BUT it is truly a daunting prospect and a little research will inform you that horror stories abound: paperwork lost, problems with language or translations, bewildering or contradictory instructions from bureaucrats, unresponsive or even dishonest attorneys -- all resulting in long waits for residency.

         The laws and regulations are definitely confusing. Indeed, written rules for implementation of the new residency law are yet to be approved. In February Costa Rica elected a new president and the task of drafting the new regulations has been deferred to her new administration, which will take over on May 8th. Meanwhile, even veteran immigration attorneys are confused as to how the new law will be enforced. Our attorney, Monika Valerio de Ford, who enjoys a top-notch reputation among the Gringos here in Atenas, is unclear on several points herself, such as whether pensionados (retirees) must show a guaranteed $1000 per month income per couple or $1000 for each person. Huge difference, of course.

         Layne and I are nowhere near the end of the process but our experience to date might be illustrative of the hurdles one must overcome along the way. First of all, after hearing of a few unfortunate situations, we would urge thorough due diligence on your attorney. Ask for references; talk to people who have used him or her; look into their track record (how long did it take them to get residency for others?); and most importantly, insist on a written contract that specifies the total amount of money they charge, what services that covers, what extra costs are NOT included, and when the monies are due. A reputable attorney will not require you to pay all the fees up front so don’t. In fact, in our contract, the final 1/3 of the total is not due until AFTER our residency is completed and we have our cedulas, or residency identification.

         Before we even signed a contract, Monika provided us with a step-by-step outline of the process we were facing: what papers we would have to get from the United States, how they would be authenticated, what kind of timeline was involved, and what steps we could handle here in Costa Rica prior to our departure. Our first task was to have eight small headshots made. When we easily had that done at a local photo studio for less than $5, we felt we were on our way to becoming residents. Little did we know what was ahead!

         We were also told to go online and register with the U.S. State Department as tourists living in a foreign country, then print out the confirmation they would send us and bring that to our next meeting with Monika. Foolishly, we failed to do this step promptly and when we realized our error had to scramble to get copies made at a local libreria (stationery and copy store) since we have no printer. At our next meeting we signed the contract, then Monika drove us into San Jose to have our fingerprints recorded by the police department there.

         The fingerprint procedure began with a lengthy wait outdoors along with two dozen Ticos sitting in a few chairs or on a low concrete wall lining the sidewalk. The wait seemed interminable and when we were finally called inside, the scene was a Third World tableau of peeling light green paint on walls and bored bureaucrats seated at ancient metal desks. But they were working on modern computers and the actual process of answering questions and fingerprinting took only a few minutes.

         Next stop: the U.S. Embassy to obtain documents proving our Social Security income but when we arrived, we learned that that section of the Embassy was open only from 8:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. each day. Since it was early afternoon by then, that part of our day’s activities were scrapped. The next day Layne and I went in once again, this time by bus and taxi, and got the necessary documents promptly and with little bureaucratic hassle. Quite a contrast from the fingerprinting experience.

         Lest I bore you with too much on the residency process, I’ll end this post with a very happy recent occurrence. Big numbers of the national bird of Costa Rica, the clay-colored robin named the Yigüirro, live near our casa and are the source of many of the melodious birdcalls we hear. A few days ago as Layne and I were sitting inside with the sliding door open to catch the breeze, there was a sudden movement, then a loud clunk as something hit the floor-to-ceiling window. We looked behind the sofa and there was a Yigüirro, stunned from his wrong turn into our living room! Quickly but gently, I picked him up and set him outside in the shade of a plant, hoping that his open mouth and inert body didn’t indicate a mortal injury. For long minutes, he didn’t move. I even went back out and petted him softly but got no reaction so I left him alone. Soon, I looked out to find him gingerly pecking at the ground, apparently picking up small bugs and shortly after that, I was relieved to find that he had flown away. It seemed worthy of a minor award of some kind, saving the life of a national bird!