Since I haven't attempted to publish this blog in any serious way it's doubtful anyone would have noticed my absence. I am a resident of Costa Rica and there are certain criteria that must be met in order to remain so. The trouble is, they keep changing the rules, or forgetting to let you know that you will need to produce certain documents in order to get a renewal.
The first time I needed to be renewed, I was scammed by someone claiming to be a paralegal specializing in immigration issues and I was illegal for about 2 years. When finally I got my new "cedula", it got run through the wash along with my passport. At that point, I needed a new cedula and passport. the passport was easy enough but immigration was out of card stock and I had to make do with a stamp in my passport that declared me a legal resident. Now, my normal time for renewal has always been April 24th. For whatever reason, that devil stamp re-set the renewal date for Dec 31, 2008 which I did not discover until April, 2009. Now I was illegal again!! I made an appointment with immigration - best they could do was Aug 27th.
I went to the appointment on Thursday armed with everything I could imagine I might need to get my status as a permanent resident without work restriction. I was promised this status 5 years after attaining temporary residence back in 1999. But things change and I am still waiting. And b'y did I do some waiting on Thursday. First, processing at Immigration, then over to the bank to obtain certification that sufficient funds had been converted into local currency. Then back to Immigration to be further processed and photographed. Then a trip to the nearest post office to arrange to have the card itself prepaid for pick up in 5 days. All in all, it required an entire day. But it is done and I am legal again.
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