Little by Little

I continue to make progress here, little by little. Poco a poco. Last week I went into San Jose to complete my filing for my Residency. The last step was to get my head shot for my residency card and finger prints. I expected to go to a city hall type building for this. It is the official identification and final important step. I went to Roberto's office, my CR attorney, where he had all the papers translated into Spanish for me to deliver to the official immigration location. I thought he would be going with me, but he had his helper who spoke no English at all accompany me. He was very sweet, and we mostly communicated by him pointing to where I was to stand or go next.

We pulled up in front of a building that was nothing like I had imagined these offices would be like. First of all, we walked up to a man set up at an outside table with a chair next to it. This was where I was having my head shot made for my license! He had me sit in the chair, took my picture, ran if off on a printer, cut it out and handed it to me. I was almost laughing at how crazy this appeared. We continued next door to a tin building that was completely open. There was a gate around it and a metal door to shut it off at night. This was the finger printing location. Roberto's helper told the people I was a "senior" over 65, and they took me straight to the front of the line! It would have been a 2 hours process instead of the 35 minutes it took. He pointed to a chair for me to sit in and instructed me to (pointing to his ear) listen for Claudia Sullins. Luckily the lady that came and got me spoke some English. We sat at her old metal desk as you took the papers Roberto had sent me there with and put everything into the computer. Her last questions to me were, "Is you house wood or cement, and what color is it?" In CR there are no real street addresses. Addresses are actually location by directions. The very last line of my address is, Casa de amarillo (yellow house). After that she walked me over to the line to get my finger prints. They still use the stinky black ink here.

I wanted so badly to take pictures getting my finger prints done, but there were signs everywhere with pictures of phones with lines through them. It all went so smoothly I did not want to rock the boat by pulling my phone out to take a picture. I did take a couple of the outside photographer given the important job of taking everyone's photos for their licenses.

I love it here. There is no pretense whatsoever! Nothing was in a fancy office or building, and it all worked just fine. Now I just wait for the papers to make their way through immigration then to me.

Pura Vida

Continued...Daily Living

As I was telling you in my last post most Tico homes have no hot water and no central air or heat. In Santiago de Puriscal the air and heat are not necessary, but hot water in the shower is for me!

Now this is the hardest part for me...no closets and basically no cabinets! Not one single closet in this house. The normal way is either a large armoire, or as my photo shows below, store bought metal racks for your hangers. It works fine, but it will drive my type "A" senses crazy! I really dislike lying in bed and looking at my clothes. The rest of my clothes are in the armoire, and on the ship headed my way. Thank goodness I slimmed my wardrobe WAY down! Once my furniture and belongings get here I will see what space I have and will close the area in as a closet.

There are no cabinets in the bathrooms and only three lowers with no shelves in the kitchen. Nothing to put your dishes in. There are two very nice standing pieces here for now. When my antique Hoosier gets here I will be able to get more organized. The bathroom will basically have to stay the way it is. I'll just do a little decorating to spruce it up.

Now, with all that said, I love this house! It is so cute and the perfect size for me. Once I have all my area rugs in place I will be able to make the spaces feel separate, and I will have much more storage. Also, with the sofa that makes into a bed I will have room for company! I cannot wait to unleash my creative juices!

Pura Vida!

Next

All of my Apostilles are in! Now all I have to do is get my birth certificate, Social Security papers and background check all with their apostilles to my attorney in Costa Rica, Roberto Umana, so we can walk them through immigration.

NEXT...I am now working with my shipper, Ship To Costa Rica S.A., Charles Zeller. It is not inexpensive to ship. It is also going to be hard work. Every box has to be numbered and marked with what is in it. Not each item, but for example "kitchen utensils." Every piece has to be named Ex. dining table, dining chair, dining chair, dining chair, dining chair. This is for customs. The shipping company will deliver a 20 foot container and leave it at my house for 4 hours for me to load. It is then trucked to Galveston and loaded onto a ship headed for Costa Rica. Once it gets to CR, customs unloads the entire container and checks the loading list with each item, box etc. that is taken off. Customs will access the amount of tax they are going to charge. This tax has to be paid before the container goes any further. Once the taxes are paid the container is reloaded and delivered to me at my new home. Thank goodness the shipper does unload the container and brings everything into the house. At this point it will be 4-5 weeks since my belongings left my home in Greenville and arrived in Puriscal.

If you decide you want to move to another country it is not really hard as long as you are organized and pay close attention to detail. You need to make a list and take one bite daily. Otherwise, you are sunk!

Pura Vida

Getting Your Paperwork Together For Your Move To Costa Rica

It has been a very busy couple of weeks for me. There is a lot of paper work that must be order, put together then sent off to the proper place to be authenticated.

I posted the different classifications that a person can move to Costa Rica under. I am moving there under Pensioner Resident. "The Pensioner Resident is required to show a verifiable minimum monthly pension of $1,000 US. The pension must be guaranteed for life. Only Social Security pensions, or similar, are permitted. No other kind of income will satisfy this requirement as it has to be a life time beneficiary to secure not less than $1,000, and petitioner should have to demonstrate that the issuance company has the ability to secure this monthly income for life. You can do this by certified copies of the financial status of the company. Expires every 2 years."

After meeting with my attorney in CR, Roberto Umana, I was told I must present my birth certificate with my mother's maiden name with the States Seal, my paper work from the Social Security Administration, and a background check from the State. All of these must be accompanied with a cover letter of authentication called an "Apostille." After pricing different companies I found on Google to get the Apostille I found that I can send it directly to the Texas Secretary of State office. The companies offering to do this cost anywhere from $55. an Apostille to over $125 per Apostille. The Secretary of States charges $15.00 per. What a difference! Just another example of DO YOU HOMEWORK! I had no one to instruct me where to look or the best way to do this. I just kept looking until I found the answer.

Another hint! For the background check...don't bother going to your local police department. I did that first and found they cannot do it. I went to a company called, Identogo, that the police dept. recommended, and for $25.63 they took my finger prints, took my picture and sent off to Crime Records Dept. at the Texas Department of Public Safety. They ran the background check and mailed me the official paperwork with the results.

I have sent all my paperwork to the Texas Secretary of State's office with a self-addressed pre-paid envelope, and am waiting on them to come back with their Apostilles attached.

Pura Vida!