Costa Rica- What's An Apostille???

One week and one day countdown to leave for Costa Rica.  Above map shows our first stop where we understand a decent swell has arrived and expected to continue.  After midnight landing in San Jose courtesy of Spirit again ($196.00 R/T pp from Ft. Lauderdale), spending the night at a Holiday Inn (Trapp Family Inn was full- darnit!), we'll head to  the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula for 4 nights just to get back in the surf and check out rentals down there.

Then we will head back to the San Jose area and meet in person with Kevin of Great Sunrise Enterprise to start our immigration paperwork.  Here is what we had to amass for this process:
Already sent:
1) Photocopies of our passports to Kevin
2) A "Hola de Fillacion" paper for each of us with all the identifiers- name, weight, etc pre-sent to be translated into Spanish and ready when we are there to sign as we make Great Sunrise our legal representatives.
3) A money transfer to Great Sunrise to start the ball rolling.
Bringing With:
4) Newly issued birth certificates for both of us- need to be issued no more than 3 months before submitting for APOSTILLE*  I'll get to that!
5) Newly issued marriage certificate to be Apostilled
6) Letter from Nevada Personal Retirement System that says I get at least $1000 per month for the rest of my life. NOTARIZED!  and then Apostilled.
7) Form from our local police department for each that says we are upstanding citizens, no arrests, tickets etc. Notarized but not apostilled.  Post Script: 2 days later I find out is has to apostilled.  Off it goes Priority mail with $40 for the both of us and self addressed stamp envelope to the Great Sunrise's Miami address. Best laid plans of mice and men...

Hopefully the following account will be humorous as that is my intent NOW.  Not so funny while we were going through it...

Re #1: Kevin was great at sending us contracts and assurances that we were dealing with a reputable company, so that was cool to send the passport stuff.

Re #4:  John uses VitalCheck to get his birth certificate from Illinois and it cost $25 total and he got it in 6 days.  Really.  No joke. We then send it to the Secretary of State of Illinois for Apostille.  What is an Apostille?

The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Apostille convention, or the Apostille treaty is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an apostille (French: certification). It is an international certification comparable to anotarisation in domestic law, and normally supplements a local notarisation of the document.

It must be done by the Secretary of State in the state from which it originates.  What they do is then research the notary and give you a certificate that the notary exists and the certificate is real. In Illinois it cost $2 to send his birth certificate for this process.  We got it back in 6 days!!

My birth certificate? I submit my NOTARIZED request to California with $25, wait 4 weeks and get a letter back that I apparently don't exist.  No explanation.  I can only assume that I didn't fill out one of the foccacta boxes out right and they searched for my married name, not my maiden name.  My bad, but damn that's a long time! I use VitalCheck, pay $56 and it's back in 8 days! I then send it through certified mail to the Secretary of State for the Apostille at $20 per certificate with a paid, self addressed envelope, certified for return.  Surprisingly I get this back in less than 2 weeks from sending it off.

Recap:
John's birth certificate and Apostille?  $25 +$2 + 3 stamps = $28.47
Karen's birth certificate? $25.00 (first attempt) + $56 + $20 +$18 postage = $119.00

Re #5: Actually the marriage certificate went off without a hitch (Pun intended).  It's $20 per certificate in Florida and we got it back 10 working days after sending it off.  $20 + 2 stamps = $20.98

Re #6:  It takes 2 weeks to get the letter from Nevada verifying my retirement and then I send it off to the Secretary of State.  2 weeks later, it comes back- it wasn't notarized!  Can't Apostille it if it's not notarized since that's what an Apostille does- certifies the notary. Now I told them it was for Apostille.  The gal who did the request said she does these letters verifying retirement funds all the time and they never need to be notarized.  I can only assume that people from Northern Nevada are not moving to foreign countries. I may be happy about this- I don't know. She was super nice, created a new one, notarized it and then left it at the desk where my daughter, who still lives in Nevada, picks it up the next day and hand delivers it to the Secretary of State.  Thank God she lives in the capitol! But wait- the girl tells her that it will take 3-4 weeks and we are at 17 days and counting till we leave.  It cost $20 but for $75 more I can get it done in one day and with mailing I'll have it in a week.  She explains they are so far behind.  Well yeah!  Because people with money are paying to be ahead of everyone else!  The American way! I pay the money, they have processed the credit card and as of this writing I'm still waiting but it's only been 4 days.  It SHOULD be here in time.
Recap:  $95 + postage = $96.47

Re #7: John got his police form with a social security card and his drivers license last week.  Took 10 minutes.  I went today... surely I think I have run the gamut of glitches and it should go smoothly.  I've already passed a background check to be a teacher here so fingers crossed! First they give my form to the guy at Window 1 and I get his at Window 2.  That's awesome considering he's all of 25 years old and black! We exchange papers but wait....after I leave we realize they have given me the wrong form even after telling them I need the Immigration standard paperwork.  John asks if its notarized?  "No", then "Go back'.  I do- in pouring rain with zero parking spaces outside of small lakes possibly teeming with alligators- it is Florida- and get the right form and get it notarized.  Not one single paper with my name alone on it has gone without a hitch!

So if you're thinking of doing this, start as soon as you can at the 3 month mark!  It can take a long time if there's several states involved.
Last thought of this day:
Apostille California- $20 per certificate, Apostille Florida- $20 per certificate, Apostille Illinois- $2 per certificate.  Interesting....

Costa Rica with an Ex-Pat Pensionado Purpose!

John enjoying a surprise swell in the late afternoon, Juno Beach, Wed. 1/ 22/2014

Today- 12 days before we leave for Costa Rica, which I'll chronicle on this blog as it happens, I'm also going to include details of the process of becoming a "Pensionado" in Costa Rica, a form of residency that John and I have decided to do.  We think that our experience will definitely help others because it's confusing (!!!).  We haven't an exit date yet for moving there but the paperwork is so detailed and time exhaustive, we will have it in the can, or at least to the place where we can go legally, when we finally decide to do this crazy thing!

So...

I never finished the last 4 days of my last Costa Rica post. Mostly because we hit the Tamarindo area for the last bit of the last trip and it failed to inspire-literally.  We'd been there once before- shortly after we first met actually, and we'd had an amazing time.  BUT...Tamarindo compared now to other parts of the country is a disappointment in the waves, the beach crowds, the local attitude, the absurd meshing of really expensive restaurants and hotels to the extreme poverty.  YUCK! It doesn't feel like community and we really hated it.  I did have an interview for a teaching job though at a private school not far from Playa Grande and we would've taken it had it been offered.  But, they decided to hire in house and we breathed a short sigh of "Nyah" followed by a huge sigh of relief.   We definitely crossed this entire area off the list of potential, future retirement choices.  Sorry Tamarindo, but you get plenty of exposure and you are a place where folk can start a business easier than the wilder places, so that will net you plenty of other fish.

We've been talking since we met about living the dream, leaving the states and pursuing surfing, art, and just being together in paradise.  We tossed around several places.  Ecuador is supposed to be a really good spot for ex-pat surfers.  Bali calls to both John and I constantly!  But these spots didn't make the grade because of the cost of travel to and from.  We have kids and grandkids and my Mom is still with us.  Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama are not cost prohibitive for air travel.  Panama is supposed to be cheaper than Costa Rica for products, etc. but some investigation into that country kept are heads in CR.  Panama is supposed to have more political and police corruption, Nicaragua has the bandito issue.  A friend of mine who runs Rancho Chilamante there is widely respected and loved, yet he still runs afoul of the country's issues with being a Communist state. Let it be said here that CR has it's issues too and we aren't going with vapid, fairytale expectations!

But  Costa Rica it is.

I began the exhaustive Internet surfing, gathering info.  There are several ways to become a resident of Costa Rica.  From therealcostarica.com  

Costa Rica offers many alternatives for legal residency. Here are the most common and those that affect the majority of people moving here:

• a pensionado is defined as a person receiving a lifetime pension such as social security, state retirement benefits, military pension. or someone who has purchased or owns a lifetime annuity guaranteeing an income (for life) of no less than $1,000 US per month. While this residency is most common for older folks, there is no age limit. We have many retired military retiring here who are in their forties and are qualified pensionados.

• a rentista is a foreigner with a guaranteed income stream (rare) or who makes a deposit to a Costa Rica bank) in the amount of $60,000 (more common).
This deposit is the rentista's money and is paid out to him at the rate of $2,500 per month for 24 months. This residency is for two years after which it must be renewed (another 60,000) or you must leave the country. This new residency allows people to learn if they really enjoy living here.

• an investor, who has at least $200,000 or more invested in Costa Rica

• if associated while doing a foreign government assignment or an international mission.

• representante a person who is an executive of a company doing business in Costa Rica. Many restrictions apply.

The pensionado and rentista programs are the easiest and most popular methods of establishing temporary residency in Costa Rica. They are called temporary because both have expiration dates and must be renewed in order to stay here. After three years of either you have the right to “upgrade” to permanent residence. This implies at least ONE renewal after two years. Some residents, especially rentistas, can and should convert to permanent residency after three years to avoid a third large deposit of $60,000. Permanent residency implies permanency... not true. Permanent residents must also regularly renew their residency.

Well, we qualify under the "Pensionado" status.  My 24 years of teaching in Nevada paid off with a retirement plan that is quite generous. We won't be living in luxury, or even as one net spot termed it by incomes: "Well Off'.   We'll be: "Upper Class by South American Standards"  level.  Not sure where that puts us on the scale of "American Standards" where I think we are probably Low Middle Class.  But good waves everyday?  No work?  Fishing and shopping in green markets for our food.  Affordable health care( as of this post, John's is still covered at work- mine is $400 per month!  Costa Rica CAJA health care will run us about $100 per month for both of us!)  Priceless!  John won't have to take his social security till the latest, most lucrative age and we will do just fine- not fancy, but that's not us anyways.  And I'll be getting $500 a month social security down the road too from 8 years of working in a bank before becoming a teacher.  Plus we each have little 401K's tucked away.  We count ourselves pretty lucky to be the tail end of a generation where  some benefits are providing us with these choices.  Our kids, their kids- not so lucky! 

Important note here: People who used to just pop over to Panama or Nicaragua every three months as perpetual turistas are now often required to go home to their country of origin instead.  

One "Hitch"?  John and I weren't married and neither of us really cared to do it again, full commitment to one another notwithstanding.  I emailed SEVERAL companies who help establish residency to find out if they honor legal partnerships in Costa Rica.  Not one answered my question until I found Great Sunrise Enterprises on Craigslist Costa Rica. Kevin McNamee answered immediately and we decided to use them as our liaison for the legal process.  He'll Skype with you, answer questions and send a monthly newsletter with ex-pat details, new laws, etc. ALL without receiving a cent.  So that's why he gets our money.  You have to have someone to do this for you!  It's just too legal crazy and too many hoops.  Kevin has been doing this for decades and we feel good about him handling our paperwork, choosing the lawyers and everything else that goes with this insane process.

Ohhh...so we did have to get married because I'm the only one with the "guaranteed" monthly salary at this point and CR does not recognize "domestic partnerships".  

Hitched: Dec. 31st, 2014 at the courthouse in North Palm Beach.  

Next post: Starting the paperwork and what the hell is an Apostille?

Ending with a little video that was shot the other day on the above mentioned mini swell that unexpectedly came through Forida last week. SUP Surfing in Jupiter Beach, From the air!  John is paddling out at 1:18 on the video- shot by a drone!- and he is followed by my tiny figure on the shore with our black lab who is insane for the ocean as she jumps in chasing her toy.  Yes she is going with us when we move.