Welcome to the Border – May I take your Order?

No, this post has nothing to do with Taco Bell.  I used to be what we call in Costa Rica a “perpetual tourist.” 

That’s one of those “types” who lives in Costa Rica on a tourist visa and just leaves every so-often (every 90 days as of the writing of this old post) to renew said visa…

I came here in 2001 on a business deal and for the next two years was traveling back and forth almost every month, therefore the thought of establishing “residency” never even occurred to me.  Then in 2004 I started a tourism business. For the first two years of that business I still traveled back and forth, so residency just didn’t seem necessary. Then in 2006 I made my permanent move and finally residency became important to me. 

So I got an attorney who promised that he could make my residency sail through the bureaucracy like grease through a goose.  A year later I was told that it wasn’t going to be as easy as first thought.  At that point I was frustrated and decided to hire another, supposedly more knowledgeable, attorney, who again told me pretty much the same.  A year later, still no residency.  By the end of 2008 I was still an f’ing tourist living in Costa Rica! 

As a perpetual tourist I had to leave the country every thee months for three days in order to renew my tourist visa.  I could go anywhere I chose, as long as I crossed the border and stayed put for three days, or seventy-two hours.  That is why there is that question on the immigration form you sign when you enter the country whereby you swear that you have been out of the country for seventy-two hours (look closely next time, it is there).

This was all fine and good in a way, as it kinda forced me to get to know our neighboring countries, like Nicaragua, Panama and even Colombia, which I visited the first time in 2008.  These places are actually very special too, despite political and social problems that still linger (especially in Nicaragua and Colombia).  It’s like getting to take a little mini-vacation every three months.

But the truth is, Costa Rica has an immigration problem.  I have heard there are some 500,000 illegal Nicaraguans living within these borders, not to mention Colombians, Panamanians, Dominicans, etc.  Proportionately speaking, the problem is even greater than in the U.S. 

I didn’t want to be part of that problem.

I am still trying to fight through the bureaucratic maze of Costa Rican Immigration and get my residency (although I really think at this point an “honorary residency” is in order…sort of along the lines of the “national convenience” decree that was issued to the billionaire Steve Case).  When I do finally get my residency, I plan to continue taking my little vacations to neighboring countries (I really would like to visit Peru). But at least I won’t carry around the stigma of being a “mojado indocumentado” any longer. And, at least, I won’t “have to!”

P.S.  For those of you out there who acquired your Costa Rican cedulas painlessly and effortlessly – GET A LIFE!

P.S.S. I did finally get my residency around 2009 (I think) and then 10 years later, became a full-fledged Costa Rican citizen.