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if you are going to live in a Spanish culture, you really do need to learn the language. without out it, the humor, the irony, the political jokes, and the culture will be out of your grasp. i cannot even imagine living in a foreign country without language skills. i learned spanish before i moved to mexico, and i learned french before i moved to france. so moving here was a slam dunk, but there is always room for improvement and i spent more than a year going to spanish classes here. there is more to life in this country than hanging out with gringos, being able to order a beer, or ordering off a menu. you will miss so much of what it really means to live here if you are the outsider who can’t communicate. besides, learning a foreign language will stave off alzheimers. and what would you do in an emergency? could you call an ambulance, or the police, or run to a neighbor for help? what if your car breaks down? how will you tell a taxi where you need to go? what if you wound up in a hospital? speaking spanish might just save your life, and this old adage that no matter how well you speak it, you will always revert to your native tongue in an emergency is a falsehood. when i had to go to the ER after a bad fall and a messed up ankle, it never occurred to me to try and tell someone what happened to me in English and then risk not getting proper care. spanish is fun, and it’s a lot easier than english, and if you can speak spanish, you can then understand french, italian, and portuguese. what a bonus. plus there are more than 500 cognates in spanish. once you learn those you already have a vocabulary.
and nobody mentioned that one of you must have a SS income of at least $1000 a month to qualify for residency.
i’ve been reading a lot about Glutton-free diets (jajaja) and while i do not presumably have any gluten intolerance or celiac disease, i can attest to the weight loss from not eating bread for more than a month. there is a book out called Wheat Belly — i haven’t read it, but it is about weight gain around the middle that is directly attributable to consuming wheat products. i didn’t stop eating bread for any particular reason, mostly just because i didn’t have time to make any (i don’t ever buy commercial bread!), and then i noticed the pounds sliding off so i just didn’t eat any even when i baked bread for my husband. judging by the way my jeans fit, i would say i lost between 3 and 5 pounds — JUST from not eating bread!
we used residencyincostarica for our status. they were the best i could’ve hoped for. trust me, scott, he is not lacking for clients. in fact, i know of several instances where he turned a client away because they were either too difficult, wouldn’t cooperate, and were completely ill-suited for dealing with the bureaucrazy here. his sister is in SJO; she is extremely tight with every office that matters. i had never seen such respect towards anyone ever as i did towards his sister when we went to la migra and the fuerza. top notch and worth every colon!!!
i really don’t think you can renew at the bank. or i would’ve done it.
what kind of cedula did you get with only 5 numbers? i’ve had my cedula for more than 7 years and it has always had the 12 digit number on it.
have you actually renewed your license at the bank, david? and if you don’t make the 900 call in spanish, you could easily eat up one or more pre-paid phone cards being on hold. when i went to renew my cedula i asked about renewing my license at the bank and was told it couldn’t be done.
no, you cannot renew at the bank. that is only for nationals. you will either have to go to LaUruca or your local MOPT office, but that is only if the passport number that is attached to your DL hasn’t changed. If it has then you have to go to Paso Ancho and get the number changed in the system and THEN go to one of the other two places. if you have your blood test from the first time, you can use that, but actually i don’t think they asked for it when i renewed, but the physical is a definite.
the lands in love folks came here with something like 28 cats and 35 dogs. you gotta love ’em for that devotion to their animals. i wish i could help with these dogs who need homes, but i have two rescues already and that is about all i can handle. good luck — i hope they get deserving homes.
proceed at your own peril. have you actually gone and talked to the homeowners whose houses were built by these guys? if not, then you are missing an important piece of the puzzle. costa rica is worse than just being the cheerleader. here she might wind up being a transvestite! hahahaha and if you think you are safe because you are dealing with gringos, you might want to rethink that. most of the people whose houses were a disaster because of construction blunders were dealing with gringo builders. but hey, it’s not my money you’re spending. but forewarned is forearmed as they say.
okay, i am going to be very blunt here. you are completely out of your mind if you want to build a house here and not be present. i could write a novella about all the people i know who did what you want to do and had it turn out worse than badly. some people spent all the money they had and their house still wasn’t finished, or was finished in such a way that a lot of stuff had to be redone, torn out, or modified. unless you have lots of money you can afford to lose, build your house when you are here; do not leave this task to your builder, your contractor, or anyone else. building a house in a third world/developing country is a hands-on project and it is not for the feint of heart either. you need to inspect every single little tiny phase of this process. even though i was here for most of the construction of my house, i found one glaring mistake. my contractor told me that when the guest bathroom was finished, it would be ready for occupancy. except for one little thing: they had neglected to put in the plumbing to hook up the toilet. so they had to rip out all the tile on the wall, bore into the cement and connect the toilet. and that was just a minor thing compared to some of the horror stories i know about.
you would have to be physically present to open this account, assuming it could be done at all. then the wire transfer expense can be considerable as they get you on both ends, so make sure that the costs are effective because they will be the same whether you wire one thou or ten. plan on about $70 for each transfer — $35 from your bank in the States, and at least that much on the other end.
although people seem to have been able to open an account without the appropriate DIMEX card, i think as the new law gets implemented this will be harder and harder. opening a new account for my husband at HSBC took 4 days and i have had an account there for 8 years. AND we are both residents WITH a DIMEX.
