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As a temporary resident with a cedula, you can get your Costa Rican driver’s license now. Somewhere in these forums, you should find just what you need and how to make the appointment.
You do not have to go out of the country for 72 hours to revalidate your US or Canadian driver’s license. You could go out and come right back in. Why don’t you get a Costa Rican driver’s license since you have residency? It is so easy if your current driver’s license is valid. You have to go to Uruca the first time but after that you can renew it in your local area. The cost to get the license has got to be less expensive and so much less hassle than going out of the country every 3 months. Since you have a valid driver’s license from another country, you do not need to take a written or driving test. Make sure your US or Canadian license does not expire though. The procedure to get a Costa Rican license when your license is expired is way more complicated and expensive.:) The first time that I got it, it was for 3 years. When I renewed in 2014, they gave me 6 years.
The property taxes would be based on the $200,000 investment also and would include an extra amount in the form of a luxury tax.
If you will be maintaining a connection with the states such as owning a house there and still being considered a resident of that state, you may be able to use Virtual School Online. Most states/counties have a connection with/option of Virtual School Online. We are residents of Florida and my elementary aged granddaughter came to Costa Rica with us for 2 different years. I was her learning coach and her schooling was totally online. Of course, you would need to choose a place in Costa Rica with a good internet connection. We live out in the mountains and our internet connection started out good when 3G was first introduced but then it has deteriorated every year. Luckily she is not still with us because our internet is too poor now to support a day of schooling.
Only use one income. The cost of the CAJA that you have to pay once you receive your temporary residency is based on the income that you report in your application. One person has to have an income of at least $1000. They will not use combined income to make the $1000. You will not benefit in any way to use both of your incomes over $1000 to qualify both of you for pensionado residency.
You can not bring more than $10,000 with you when you travel to Costa Rica even if it is in the form of a check. It is the aggregate of cash and checks that must not be more than $10,000. Your transaction should be done by wire transfer from your US bank to a bank in Costa Rica. Even 8 checks in the amount of $8,000 each would total more than $10,000 and you risk confiscation of the checks. A wire transfer of more than $10,000 will be reported to the federal government but you have a legitimate reason for the transfer (ie. you are purchasing property). The wire transfer will only take a few days to clear to your seller whereas any check (even a certified one) will take 21 days to become available in Costa Rica. Even though the $40,000 transfer will be reported to the Fed, they will not do anything about it (unless you have certain outstanding debts to the government) because that amount, even though it is significant to you, is small change to the federal government. Now, if you sent a $40,000 wire transfer every week, they might begin to take notice. The approximate $50 wire transfer fee is small compared to the total amount of money transferred and it protects you from tons of possible legal problems if you do otherwise.
I forgot to mention that the international health certification must be obtained no more than 10 days before you fly. A few years back, we brought our sheltie to Costa Rica and back to the states with no problems. He was too big for a Sherpa bag so he rode underneath in a crate. Not all airlines will carry pets underneath so we chose and airline that would. You won’t have that problem since your pets are small enough to fly in the cabin.
There is no quarantine in Costa Rica. Dogs this small can come to Costa Rica in carry-on bags made especially for small pets (commonly called Sherpa bags but there are now many more makers of these). The stories you have read that mention brokers, etc only apply to animals shipped to Costa Rica and not flying with you. Your dogs will need an international health certificate (in Florida it is called APHIS form 7001) signed by your state’s veterinarian and they can both be on the same form since they will be flying together. They must be vaccinated against rabies and Leptospirosis. If there are two of you flying, each one of you can carry a bag with a pet. Check with your airlines about their regulations regarding on-board pets. Some airlines limit how many on-board pets can be on any one flight so you might have to reserve the space for your dogs as early as possible or when you make your airline reservations to make sure they get on the flight. Most airlines charge a fee for carry-on pets.
They had the Lantus pens in boxes of 5 but we only needed 1 pen and so that is all that we bought. They had no problem with taking one pen out of a box and selling it to us. I can’t remember exactly what we paid but it seems like it was around 15-20,000 colones for one pen which was significantly cheaper than buying a whole bottle of Lantus for around 80,000 colones. It was similar to what we would have to pay in a pharmacy in the US without insurance. We had no problem bringing all of my granddaughter’s diabetic supplies including about 5 bottles of insulin (Humalog) with us when we traveled to Costa Rica. She had all of it in a separate bag that we told TCA was her “medical supplies” and they did not count it as a carry-on bag (Spirit Airlines). They even had no problem with the 4 frozen juice boxes in the little cooler bag that contained her insulin. The juice boxes not only served to keep the insulin cool but were also a possible source of glucose if her blood sugar went low. If you travel back and forth between the US and Costa Rica, bringing your supplies with you for the length of your stay is a viable way to get your diabetic medications here.
Lantus pens and testing strips are available in Costa Rica. Last year, my granddaughter, who is a type 1 diabetic, came with us to Costa Rica and she ran out of her medtronic pump supplies while here. We had plenty of humalog and the pharmacy at the Maxi Pali in San Isidro carried Lantus pens. We only needed 1 pen to last her until we returned to the states and that is what we bought. If they carry the Lantus pens (as well as the bottles), it would be reasonable to assume that they also carry the Humalog pens as well. Not every pharmacy that we checked carried the pens. However, if you live nearer to San Jose than we do, you might find a larger number of pharmacies that do carry the pens especially the closer you are to areas heavily populated by Gringos. We did not need a prescription.
Janet2424, you will get more relevant information if you share where you are so that people from that area can give you more specific information. In San Isidro PZ, you sign up for the CAJA at the Social Security office. I don’t think an appointment is necessary unless they are really busy. They will ask you questions about your income and some of your expenses such as rent or mortgage payment. What you will need to pay each month will be based on a % of your income that was used to apply for your status. You will need to show your residency acceptance letter because the CAJA must be signed up for before you get your cedula. Also you can not sin up for the CAJA until your residency application has been approved. Once you pay the first month’s fee, they will tell you where your “home” hospital will be and that is based on where you live in Costa Rica. You go there to register and they will give you a Clinic Card. When you need to see a doctor, you will show the card along with a copy of the current month’s receipt showing that the CAJA is up to date. For me, the whole thing was done in about 1/2 day. So everything has to be done in order. First you apply for residency, then your attorney gets faxed a letter that your application has been accepted, you take the letter to the SS office and sign up for the CAJA, then you go to San Jose (you do need appointment for this) to Migracion with your CAJA receipt to get your cedula. Complicated and a bit confusing if you are doing it all yourself (which I did).
Colleen is correct. Dill grows quite well in Costa Rica. If you are short on space, you can put some good soil in a pot or a plastic planting bag (sold almost everywhere in hardware and garden stores), add some seeds (bring from the states, buy in garden center or obtain from a friend), water it every day or so and you will have your own dill forever. It lavishly reseeds itself and it will many times regrow if it is cut back. Dill is, after all, a weed and it will grow like a weed in many places. If left un-kept, it could end up growing all over the place from reseeding but it is easily pulled up if it grows where it is not wanted as it does not root very deeply as most weeds do. It is one of the easier herbs to grow. I also love dill in food and I love the smell of it when picking or cutting it. I use it on green beans, on potatoes, on fish and in bread (both seeds and leaves)among other things.
You can apply for permanent residency after 3 years of temporary residency status. I was told by Migracion that all I needed to apply for permanent status was a letter, in Spanish, requesting a change of status from temorary to permanent. It is hard to believe that is all I would need since I have read on this forum that the change could take up to a year to complete. Since you have passed the 3 year mark of temporary residency, you can and should apply for permanent residency ASAP.
[quote=”costaricafinca”]I was advised that they will[u] not[/u] stamp or issue a receipt on demand, but they will email it to the address listed on the form, to prove that they did indeed get the form from you.[/quote]
That is good information to know. I will leave our second signed copies with a friend here in Costa Rica just in case we don’t get an email confirmation. We are leaving for a few months in the states next week and we won’t be back until after the due date.
It is better to download the form from the website since forms may or may not be available at the places listed. I am not surprised that some government offices knew nothing of the forms. Government agencies in Costa Rica do not communicate well with each other. It was suggested to me to print out 2 copies per driver and fill out and sign both forms. Then turn in one and have the agency stamp the second one as proof that you submitted the form. Our RITVE is due this month so we turned ours in at the inspection station. I can see that expats are going to know about this a lot more that the local population since they are more likely to get this information and to have an email address.
