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what would you do for a passport were you to renounce US citizenship? that would be a big hurdle to overcome. you couldn’t apply for one here until you had been a resident for 7 years and then you’d have to take the test and sing the anthem. i’ve thought about doing this (getting a CR passport), but i can’t do it until next year. it used to be free to renounce your citizenship, but now they charge you $450 for the application and who knows what else they put you through. it ain’t an easy process, that’s for sure.
i was told that it’s not JUST the written test you have to take, but the driving test as well, AFTER you complete a one-week course in driver’s ed. all of this is in spanish. the course was $40, and was two-hours a day for 5 days. this nightmare in itself would be reason enough to keep everything current.
There is a demonstration on Tuesday Nov 6 in San Jose against GMO corn. i will try to find other details.
the vendor i buy my chicken from said they don’t use concentrado — that they are free range and what corn they are fed is corn that was grown in costa rica. oh boy. i am going to start living on air.
remember Madonna and all her catholic angst she decided to work out on stage? personally, i wouldn’t pay to see her OR Lady GooGoo — would rather read a book!
the US isn’t going to recover anytime soon. all they did was create another bubble. that will burst. that will take down everyone, including the countries (worse than it already has!)
and then there is the issue of legal residency — and if you still have to work, you probably don’t have a lifetime pension now. which means, you’d have to put up at least $60,000 to get the other category of residency. it’s just not that easy to pick up and move here, esp if you still have a need to earn a living.
of course i’m not kidding. we actually had some good laughs. i had to humor the old gal more than once. at one point just before she put me on hold for the umpteenth time i heard her say to a co-worker “When i’m done with this call, i’m going to LUNCH!” I blurted out, “better you should go have a martini!” after explaining exactly where Costa Rica was, she admitted she had never heard of it. and then trying to explain why i lived in a foreign country but had a colorado prefix for my phone (MJ) was a whole other ordeal. i’m not going there. . .
oh, yes, and if you don’t report and if they don’t have a number to reach you, they will cut your benefits until you check in. i spent exactly one hour on the phone changing an address last week. the poor woman kept asking me which STATE costa rica was next to. i had to give her a geography lesson. she had never heard of costa rica. you can call the 800 number and do this over the phone, but after my ordeal, going to the embajada might be easier.
are you doing this to save money on the dogs? i know someone who did this a few years ago. it cost her an arm and a leg and then she only stayed a year or two.
costaricafinca is absolutely right. you give these people your money and you have no way in hell to ever enforce what they promise you. there are so many people who did just what you are thinking of doing only to have these companies abscond with the dough, leave a blight on the landscape, and now those trusting people are plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit. this is not the way to buy property in costa rica. if you do it this way, it’s at your own peril.
first you have to define ocean view. it could be miles and miles away with just a tiny, tiny glimpse of the water beyond. ocean view is vastly different than ocean front. if you are so far away from the ocean that you can’t get there easily, then it’s probably not a bait and switch. this is where people get screwed. they they one thing is something else. and if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.
you need the advice of a good tax consultant and maybe a lawyer. you have a complicated situation, so i would get the best advice you can so you don’t have the taxman on your doorstep.
