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I am an American getting married to a Tica and we are preparing to get her a visa to visit the US. I am trying to figure out if I am better off waiting till we are married or applying before. I have read that surprisingly the fiance visa’s tend to be processed easier.
Thanks
I doubt very much that you will get legal advice here in this forum dlopez (although that would be nice) and as far as I understand it, this issue seems to get more complicated by the day so I do hope that as you ‘prepare’ that you will be getting expert legal advice and good luck.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comThe fiancé visa is the quickest method to get the girl to the USA. I have a gringo friend who spent the money and went through a lot of hassle to obtain a fiancé visa for a girl he met in CR. With a fiancé visa, once the girl gets to the USA, the guy has 90 days to marry her or send her back. My friend married his girl and as soon as she received her green card, that enabled her to leave and return to the USA at will, she was gone. There are a few exceptions; however, if you take a Latina out of her element and away from her family, the odds are she will return to her family without you. Good luck!
“There are a few exceptions; however, if you take a Latina out of her element and away from her family, the odds are she will return to her family without you. Good luck!”
I think Costa Rica may be the exception here. Take a latina woman away from her family from just about anywhere else,(and I have done twice) and they will behave like any woman from any other culture.
Costa Ricans tend to stay put, however. I live in Miami and we have latinos from everywhere here but damned few Costa Ricans relative to people from other countries. When they do leave, Ticos are like homing pigeons…they seem to always go back to CR. Hell, I am not even from Costa Rica and I want to go back.My wife and I went the fiancée visa route. It’s a pretty straight forward process and not really necessary to hire an attorney to do the paperwork. The process between filing the application to her approval lasted about 5 months. We both had never been married, there’s no major age difference, and we have no children from past relationships. I’ve been told that these factors seem to lengthen the process.
As far as your wife returning to CR, and leaving you alone after the green card arrives, my wife has had a green card for 2+ years and all things great. I think it is necessary to immerse her in your culture. We live in TN and my wife knows no Ticos here. She does however have friends from many cultures (Colombia, Korea, Japan, US). I think it is important to make her comfortable in her surroundings. I also think it is important that she keeps in contact with her family and friends in CR. My wife’s parents fly up every year and we visit CR every year, also, my wife talks on the phone with her mother daily (llamacostarica.com is great). Earlier we had talked about returning to Costa Rica and working. My wife has told me that she loves the fact that we can leave our doors unlocked here and that we can live in privacy without unexpected family members dropping by unannounced. Maybe we are an exception but it is possible for a Tica to be content in the US.
I have no idea how it breaks down percentage wise but I have certainly met, spoken with and emailed many people on this topic and it would appear that Ticas don’t travel too well…
Many of them do dream of living the American ‘dream’ but the vast majority find that it’s not quite so dreamy and want to return.
Having said that, the same probably applies to quite a few people who dream of living in Costa Rica but I can only think of two gringas married to Costa Rican men here…
Why does this happen? This could not be considered a definitive answer but many Americans are accustomed to being apart from their families having gone to college a zillion miles away from their parents.
While Costa Rican families tend to stay together, you’ll see many areas where Mum & Dad are living in one house, next door they built a house for their daughter and next door to them is their son and his wife.
I love my parents but that’s too bloody close for me and they would say the same thing.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comJames Mitchener, the writer, once said the big difference between the Spanish and English who came to the New World was simply a matter what their priorities were. The English put things in this order:
1. country
2. god
3. familyThe Spansih put it this way:
1) family
2) god
3) countryYou can see the consequences of this cultural prioritizing today. Those places settled by the English tended to have stable governments due to a cultural bias towards making patriotic sacrifice Also, those countries obtained more wealth since young Anglo men were (and still are to a great degree today) culturally expected to strike out on their own upon reaching manhood and develop wealth apart from the family from which they came.
The Spanish countries tended to have unstable governments because they put family and god before country and so were less willing to sacrifice sons to wars of conquest. Wealth was concentrated within the extended family. Sons stayed home and so there was less of an entrepreneurial spirit to create more wealth.
I don’t know whether or not this theory has any merit but it sure sounds right. And it also explains why there is still such a strong attachment to family.I assume by nasty weather your referring to winter weather, right? Tennessee hardly has what I’d call “nasty” weather, like Michigan, New York, and other states to the north. She has taken to the “nasty” weather here like everyone else, by putting on a jacket and jacking the thermostat up. My inlaws, incidently, came in in January for the birth of our daughter and almost died from the cold (in the mid 40’s to mid 50’s)
Scott, at first my wife thought that the idea of families living “next door” was great. That was until her sister got married, had a kid, and moved in down the street from the parents. Now her mother calls and states how the sister needs to change her parenting style, and the sister calls and states how the mother needs to “keep her nose in her own business”. My wife has now changed her mind on that idea. She says that if and when we return to Costa Rica, she wants to live at least 3 hours from San Carlos (where her family is). I hear the Osa is nice!!
Simply brilliant commentary ‘sprite’ thank you for that …
The two questions I would like to ask with regards to the New World’s priorities are:
1. Does history clearly show that the New World is genuinely concerned about the ‘country’?
2. Does history clearly show that the New World is genuinely concerned about their God and all their God stand for?
Or, is it more of a case where the rulers of the New World say they care about the country and then send other people’s children to die in wars – in which they and their their children won’t even serve – to ‘protect’ them from what have proven to be – for the most part – non existent threats?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.com7 years ago my wife and I married in Costa Rica, (she is a Tica). She is now finally get around to getting her citizenship but that is because we have to other wise she would lose her permanent residency. This is because at the moment we are living in Paraguay for the next year or so. We did not do the Fiancé visa because at that time we wanted to have her family involved and for us it was easier to do the paper work in Costa Rica. The biggest issue we had was a J1 visa that she had entered into the U.S. prior to our marriage.
As to the other issue that were brought up about the green card girls .. well I see it as the same as in the states when a women marries a man for security which is 90% of the time.
My biggest recommendation to you is take your time.. travel a lot to Costa Rica to date.. and meet the family!!!!
Edited on Apr 24, 2008 13:13
The New World doesn’t seem to be New any longer. I think we have joined our European counterparts finally and maybe even surpassed them in political cynicism from our elite and political ignorance and apathy in the common ranks.
The first English immigrants were genuinely attached to the idea of community (country) and god. That has obviously changed. It seems the Spanish speaking cultures on this side of the planet are more conservative and have kept true to their original priorities. I am attracted to the Latin cultures for this reason because I put family at the top of my list of priorities. However,I am NOT a conservative. God and country are not even on my list. I think this is not a problem for me in Costa Rica. As far as I can tell, there is no proselytizing in Tico-land and since I can never be a citizen and there is no army, hence no wars, I need not even consider country as any kind of priority. Instead, I intend to focus on community on the smaller scale of city, town and neighborhood.
Edited on Apr 24, 2008 13:44
I dont know how long you know this girl or how adjusted you are to the culture,but be careful. If she is asking you for credit cards or money for her family step out of this immediately. I have talked to men from the states who have been drained dry,then end up living in a tico shack. I have dated many many beautiful girls alike and most of them all want that little bit of money,no matter how little it is. If you are one of those lonely gringos you are a meal ticket for this girl and her family. Be careful!
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