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You can usually get your US driver’s license renewed up to 3 months before it is due to expire. At least that is the way it is in Florida. You may have trouble renewing it if it has been expired for 4 months when you return to the states in May. You won’t even be able to legally drive to your test in May.
As far as Costa Rica, you could get in lots of trouble driving on an expired driver’s license. The new schedule of fines that took effect on March 1st of this year is very steep. Something like driving with an expired license could result in as much as a $500 fine. If you are a resident and have been in Costa Rica for more than 3 months, you are supposed to have a Costa Rican driver’s license. Failure to comply could get you the $500 fine mentioned above. If you will be going out of the country during your stay to renew your visa, that 3 month period will start all over again but only if you have a valid US license.
I have been coming to Costa Rica for months at a time for the last 5 years and I have yet to have a traffic cop stop me and ask for my driver’s license. However, since the new fine schedule has taken effect, the traffic police seem to be hell bent on increasing their revenue. They are stopping cars in town (San Isidro, PZ) just to check documents and they seem to be particularly targeting gringos. It could be very risky to be anything other than totally compliant in regards to possessing a valid driver’s license.
Thank you for all of this extremely relevant information. It takes some of the mystery out of toeing the line to comply with the requirements for residency.
So, you only need to prove to Migración that you converted the required amount of dollars to colones each month? You don’t have to show that you spent the colones on anything? Does the conversion have to happen exactly every month in the required amount or does the total converted in a year just have to add up to 12 times the required monthly amount? If one were, for example, buying, building on or improving a property, the amount converted from dollars to colones to cover expenditures might vary widely each month and could even add up to an entire year’s worth of dollars converted to colones in one month or so.
Also, would an online receipt (converting dollars from one account to colones in another account) have all of the required information on it? Would one just need to print these out and submit them to Migración or would one need to go into the bank and get a printout or something from the bank? When we are in the states, we do not have the ability to walk into the bank and convert dollars to colones at a teller window. Even when we are in Costa Rica, most of the converting is still done online to avoid the long lines at the banks.
We find it beneficial to have both a dollar and a colon account. The exchange rate fluctuates, sometimes wildly. When the dollar buys fewer colones, I only exchange enough dollars for colones to just cover the bills. When the dollar buys more colones, I take the opportunity to buy extra colones. I call it “enriching my colon account”. If I start getting what I perceive to be too many colones in that account, I convert colones back to dollars when a dollar can be bought with fewer colones. It is a bit like playing the stock market. Once I get my residency card, I will still use this strategy to get the most colones for my dollar.
I will remember this Office of Consoloria and Maria Jose. My husband now wants to get his residency. It shouldn’t be as complicated this time because they already have the marriage certificate and my proof of income plus I now know just what to do, when to do it and where to do it. I will be able to guide him through the process. He has no medical insurance here in the US and he is 3 years too young for Medicare. The CAJA will be his primary insurer at least for the next 3 years.
As an update, I have just been informed that my residency application has been approved. It took 15 months for them to make a resolution after I submitted all of my documents. I think they would still be sitting on it, except that I paid a lawyer a total of $160 to go to Migracion to check to make sure all my documents that I submitted were in order (they were), to return 2 more times to check on the status of the application and then finally he will go back and make the appointment for me to get my card. I did all of this by myself and Migracion told me that I did not need a lawyer to do any of this for me. This is true, but many times I was confused about what I should do, how I should do it and where I should do it. Besides that, my Spanish is at a fairly elementary level (translation: my Spanish is terrible). Somehow I waded through all of the confusion and got it done right. I can understand why many people are willing to pay someone big bucks to handle everything from the get go. In the end, though, I had to pay someone to bug them about making a resolution or they would probably still be sitting on it.:roll:
Tazman, you must have a magic touch! It is so unusual to successfully raise baby opossums by hand. I have known people who have tried and failed. Opossums are marsupials which means that they are born premature and that they attach to the mother where they receive a constant supply of mother’s milk in order to finish maturing. These babies must have been close to maturation especially if they spent 3 days outside with no food and still survived. It will be interesting if they will know how to be wild when they grow up. Will they be house opossums or watch oppossums? Or will they simply run away into the woods when they are old enough to fend for themselves? As a person interested in biology and wildlife, I would be very interested in how this plays out. Adult opossums aren’t so cute but these little guys are just adorable. Could we expect a future update?
A bank account really is needed if you have a house or a permanent place to live (versus just coming as a tourist for 3 months or less)in Costa Rica. You will need to keep utilities such as electric, phone, water or a local worker paid even when you are gone. Otherwise you will have to have a friend pay these expenses for you while you are gone and you will have to wire transfer money periodically to your friend’s account. You don’t have to report foreign bank accounts to the IRS if there is less than 10,000 in the account or total of all accounts.
The documents needed to open a bank account have been mentioned above and for most banks these are enough. BCR, in addition, required two letters of recommendation in Spanish from current customers. It is so funny that the banks will accept someone else’s utility bill as proof of your living status. It was a good thing, though, because it took 3 years for us to get our electric bill in our corporate name because the previous owner did not do that when we bought the property. Also, if you rent (or even if you buy property), you cannot get utility bills in your name unless you are a resident or own a corporation. We found it beneficial to open two accounts – one in colones and one in dollars. I can manage both accounts online, transfer money back and forth between them, pay utilities automatically even if the utility account is in someone else’s name (sign up for this)and pay a farm worker.
There is no vaccine for dengue fever. There are, however, very strict new regulations regarding proper car seats for babies and children. The fines for not having a car seat or for not having the proper car seat are very high (maybe as high as $500) just like all of the other new fines that were imposed on March 1st of 2010. If you are going to be renting a car or riding in a car, check with a Costa Rican consulate in the US to find out what you need to bring in this regard for your 1 year old.
I have seen that too in the countryside villages (chickens running all over the place). Maybe the predators stay away from the well traveled towns. Otherwise, these permanently free-ranging chickens wouldn’t last very long. In my experience, the Ticos who keep chickens for serious meat or egg production (that is – for a profit) never let them outside. We find that a combination of protecting them at night, restricting their range in the morning until their eggs have been deposited and free-ranging them until bedtime works best – both for the chickens and for the quality and quantity of the eggs.
Last year the rainy season was almost nonexistent and very short. We needed the extra rain this year to replenish the aquifers so that we can keep getting that wonderful tasting spring water. This year has been perfect for tree planting. Luckily, we are doing the bulk of our reforestation project this year instead of last year. Last year the workers had to stop in the middle of the project, run hoses and water the new trees to keep from losing them to a drought right in the middle of the rainy season. Last year we planted 500 trees. This year the count is approaching 7,000. Yeah for an abundant rainy season!:D
We have a wire, metal and wood enclosed chicken coop that is surrounded by a large chicken yard with 6+ ft high chicken wire. The coop is on 4 thick legs about 2.5 feet off the ground. We house the chickens in their coop until daybreak (which happens at about 5:30 each morning). Then we let them into their chicken yard leaving the coop open so the chickens can return to the coop to lay their eggs in the nest boxes at the back of the coop. We feed them chicken feed at that time so they are happy to remain there for a while. By about noon, the feed is gone and most or all of the eggs have been deposited in the nest boxes. They start asking to be let out by then so we open the gate to the chicken yard and let them free-range. First stop is a dust bath under a covered area next to the house, then they proceed on their rounds to eat grass, flowers (of the perennial peanut in our yard, seeds and bugs. The entire flock of 7 hens is guarded by a huge, almost turkey sized, rooster (dominique x Panama mix) named Oscar. Since Oscar has been full grown, nothing has attacked the hens. The whole group stays pretty much together and they don’t venture more than 200 feet from the house. Unfortunately, one of our gardens is a little further than that and they will not go that far to eat bugs. I think I saw a Tayra on our farm one day. It had a weasal like body, very dark reddish brown fur with a fluffy tail and a fairly flat face. I thought it was a large stray cat at first. When I called it, it ran away never to be seen again. The chickens were out at the time but fortunately, he saw me before he saw the chickens. When dusk approaches the chickens make their way back to the chicken yard and put themselves to bed in the coop that has roosts. When all of the hens and rooster are in the coop, we close the door and secure the coop and the gate to the chicken yard for the night. When we first got the chickens, we had trouble with skunks getting in the coop and killing chickens and then snakes getiing in and biting the chickens. We just kept finding and patching any and all possible openings with very stiff rabbit wire until nothing else could get in. One day my local worker saw me let the chickens out to free-range and he asked me if they would come back by themselves at night. I was so surpirised that he didn’t know the answer to his own question. But then when I thought about it, every Tico chicken that I have ever seen has been caged up all day. Maybe this is something the Ticos can learn from us gringos. Our eggs are the best I have ever tasted. And our chickens have great chicken lives.
Thank you all very much for this information. It was most helpful. Now if Migracion would just get around to my application for residency.
Is Uruca the only place to go for a license? Do you need a car? I have a car but I never drive to San Jose from San Isidro. I take the bus and then taxis if I have to. I still am not sure how to prepare to get the driver’s license.
How much Spanish do you need to know to get a Costa Rican Driver’s license? Is there a book to study like in the US? My Spanish isn’t exactly conversational yet but I do know what all of the traffic signs say. Where do you get it? I live near San Isidro, PZ.
I applied under the old rules on June 3rd, 2009 and I still have not gotten an appointment. I hired a lawyer to check my file and find out why it was tasking so long. In March 2010, the lawyer said that my file was complete and in perfect order and that I would receive a determination within 30 days. I still have heard nothing. I have the same dated and stamped document called Comprobante Requisitos Expediente N 135-xxxxxx. However there is also Solicitud N 135-xxxxxx (different number). I am guessing that this is maybe my future cedula number? Can I take this form to the Caja to sign up for medical insurance or do we have to wait to be approved or get the fax notifying me of my appointment? I am told that there is nothing more I can do except wait for their determination. Is this so? Are people applying under the new rules being approved while those who applied before March 1st, 2010 are put on the bacl burner?
