This is getting real

We met with the attorney and his staff at ARCR who will handle our residency application. This friendly & knowledgeable team is efficient and answered all our questions. We met with Saicy, one of the assistants who reviewed our documents.

M & I had to provide birth certificates, police reports, his SocSec income statement, my Naturalization Certificate. These documents had to be apostilled from various US & Canadian government departments. The estimated time for processing our application at the Department of Immigration is 12 - 18 months! In the meantime, we have a 90 day tourist visa in our passports. After our application is submitted, we will receive an file number from the Dept of Immigration. After our 90 day visa expires, we can show this file number to any official to extend our stay. We can travel outside and return to Costa Rica at any time.

Our morning meeting wrapped up in about 90 minutes. We had an hour until our appointment for finger-printing in the afternoon. We asked the attorney for a recommendation. I guess that he is used to working with Americans that don't go outside their comfort zone because he recommended McDonalds. M & I both cringed. With a little more prompting, he recommended "Soda La Huerta" just up the street. A Soda is the Costa Rican version of fast food. The main item on the menu is "Casado" (marriage). It is a plate of rice, red beans, fried plaintains and your choice of chicken, pork, beef and sometimes fish. We opted for the chicken, it was grilled to perfection and melt in your mouth. A cold glass of Tamarindo juice and a dessert of rice pudding rounded up the meal. All this for about $6 USD. Yum!