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I’ll share a pleasant U.S. Embassy experience with the group. A friend of mine, needed to renew his passport and we both wanted to vote in the 2008 USA election, so we decided to go for the embassy adventure. We parked on the street on the right side of the embassy, heading toward Rohrmoser Blvd., in front of a responsible looking parking guard and walked about three minutes to the front of the embassy on Pavas Blvd. Depending on where you live, this departure route is much less of a hassle than navigating the parking on the busy Pavas Blvd.
At 10:30 am on Thursday, there was no line outside and we checked our metal objects with the guard, passed through the metal detector, got ticket receipts for our cell phones, and walked inside to the numbered ticket machine to begin the process. You need to make sure that you select the appropriate button that applies to the purpose of your visit. So don’t forget your reading glasses and a black ink pen to fill out the forms.
The waiting area is air-conditioned and has comfortable seating. There are flat screen TV’s and audible announcements of the next ticket number being called. It’s a very organized process and the wait is made as comfortable as one can expect. The same waiting area is utilized for U.S. visas as well as passports and most of the people waiting were Latinos. Surprisingly to us, even for U.S. passports, the majority of those waiting were of Latin descent. You take a numbered ticket from a machine outside the passport agency office and go inside to wait for your turn. Our wait at 10:40 am was about twenty minutes.
The applicant needs to have a recent 2″ x 2″ passport photo, $75 and certain forms need to be filled out and presented at the passport service center.
To renew your passport you will need to fill out the DS-11 form, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/79955.pdf,
In order to obtain a new passport if yours has been lost or stolen, you need to fill out an additional DS-64 form, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/79958.pdf, and pay an additional $25 fee.
These forms can be printed and filled out by hand or filled out on-line and then printed ahead of time or you can obtain the forms at the passport center and fill them out while you wait. The forms require you to fill in your information legibly with black ink.Once your number is called and you’ve submitted the forms and your U.S. ID to the first customer service representative, you will have to pay a processing fee, (In U.S. dollars or its equivalent in colones) at another window. Then you wait again until another customer service representative calls your name in order to take your receipt and begin the process to obtain your new passport book. They tell you that it takes about 10 days for the embassy to make your new passport book. If you convince them that your situation is an emergency, then perhaps you can speed up the process.
Additionally, for the price of C2450, DHL provides a delivery service at the embassy for those who would prefer to have their new passport delivered to a DHL office closer to their home rather than having to return to the embassy to pick it up. The DHL service desk is conveniently located just outside the embassies passport service office. You present your receipt from the passport agency and your local ID to them and in about five minutes, you’re on your way with an official receipt for the delivery.
I went to the first customer service window with my friend and asked for a voter registration package so I could vote for the next U.S. president. While we were waiting for the second customer service representative to call his name, I filled out the registration form, using my voter ID card from Florida and completed the voting form. On the back of each voter ID card is the address of your supervisor of elections office, which you need to write on the envelope that the embassy will mail for you. If you do not have a voter ID card, the customer service representative has a book for you to look up your state and county election office address.
The entire process took about an hour and I was very impressed with the level of customer service and the comfortable facility.
I had a similarly positive experience when I went to make my initial application for Social Security last September. That morning, there was a huge line of Costa Ricans who, I think, were applying for visas to journey to the U.S. We, carrying U.S. passports, bypassed all that.
Too, friends have had a good experience in applying for new passports.
The recently appointed US Ambassador, Peter Cianchette, is from my neck of the woods up here in Maine. He comes from a long line of no nonsense, hard working, self made success stories. My ever so “enlightened” Mainiacs denied him the governorship a few years back in favor of a guy who couldn’t rein in spending by his own party in two terms (yeah, we reward knuckleheads up here); Maine is now a gargantuan fiscal morass. (politics off) I can only believe his no nonsense approach has streamlined procedures in the US Embassy in C.R., and I look forward to meeting him someday.
Two months ago I went with my office assistant to the U.S. Embassy to help her get a visa for a one week visit to Florida where she was to stay with my wife and visit Disney. This young lady is a dedicated University student and a very loyal employee. But, I guess the problem is that she is 23 years old and very pretty. She had letters from the University, from her parents, from her employer and from my wife, but nobody even looked at them. We were assigned to a very rude and nasty young woman who shouted at me to leave and then told the applcant she could not have a visa because she did not qualify. I think it is not too difficult to realize what the woman’s problem is. She has seen American men taking young Ticas to the U.S. for personal reasons or even to get them involved in the sex trade there. but she failed to take into account the possibility that this was something different. My wife was looking forward to intruducing the young lady to the country she has always admired and wanted to visit. But this mean and nasty woman at the Embassy has no heart and only a nasty dirty and very small mind. Yet, I suppose there is nobody to complain to.
I’m happy that three people had good experiences with the U.S. Embassy. But I am disgusted with it and I for one have no wish to return for such unwanted and unthinking treatment.
My cousin, a tico, applied for a Visa in August to attend a seminar in Wisconsin for 1 week in October. He has a web design business in Costa Rica as well as a wife and 2 young children. After his less than 5 minute interview he was denied! No reason was given and the embassy keeps your application fee.
Harvey
So now we’re going to start hearing the truth about “our” Embassy.
Perhaps the guy from Maine would like to tell us how we can corner Mr Peter Cianchette and find out why he employs that woman and probably others like her. But I doubt it. He’s probably like my Congressman and Senator in Florida who refused to talk to the people who were paying his bills. Does anyone remember what the Boston Tea Party was about? No Taxation without Representation. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that still applied in the United States. But one silver lining to that story is that Congressman Tom Feeny was finally defeated – by a landslide.
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