OK, I’m jumping through the hoops now. Just got a list of marching orders from an immigration attorney in Costa Rica with a list of bullet items to pursue.
The entire process can take from six to 18 months, but I can move down before it’s all completed.
The immigration attorney can do the following for me, before or after I arrive in Costa Rica (I prefer before!):
Cover letter
Application form
Power of attorney
Photographs
Payments of govt fees
Appointments for fingerprints (after I get in)
Registration with Caja or CR health care
Registration with the Consulate
Translations of required documents
Certified copies of passport
Notarized documents
Proof of residence (pensionado)
While still here in the U.S., I will need to get:
Birth certificate with apostile (applied today)
FBI background check with apostile (applied today; will have fingerprints taken later this week)
Passport (have this already)
Pension letter notarized by the US Embassy in CR (upon my arrival in CR; have printed it out already)
To get the apostiled (certified) birth certificate and FBI background check, I needed to contact Steve Hobbs, Secretary of State, which I have done by email this morning. He may have to refer me to a federal office for the FBI background check, if he can’t request one.I’m waiting to hear back on that…
It’s all beginning to feel very real!
And it’s exciting as all get out. I have Christmas Tree Brain, which is a great deal more pleasant than “Incoming Trump Dread” (by light years)! I will be sooooo happy when I no longer have to think at all, ever again, about T-Rex and his sociopathic millionaire and billionare minions.
My Older Sister Wants to Reconnect Before I Go
That’s cool. She says at our age (77 and 73), it might be the last time we see each other. Could be. But the truth is that we rarely connected during the many years we have lived 50 miles away from each other, so I reckon there wouldn’t be very many additional times we’d see each other, anyway.
And for me, every time I part with someone, I’m keenly aware that it could be for the last time. If I ever let that reality stop me, I’d be dead in the water! I still have a lot of living left to do. As Walt Disney put it, “I still have a lot of stories yet to tell.” I will be able to focus on those, instead of on keeping my head above water financially, when I get settled in Costa Rica. A whole new world will be at my fingertips, filled with critters and nature!
I don’t feel torn by leaving North America/the U.S., especially since the election. And I have always felt like an alien in my family, so the people I will keenly miss will be the friendships I developed and maintained, rather than blood relatives.
I’m one of the lucky ones, I think! I’m footloose enough to go where my spirit leads me, without feeling torn due to present relationships or connections. Others might consider this sad — that I don’t have people I can’t even imagine living without — but I don’t. Maybe it’s my (professionally undiagnosed) autism, but I’ve always felt cocooned in my own world, hanging with my pets (one of whom will accompany me to Costa Rica) and reveling in nature. I’m least stressed when I’m doing my own thing, freed from feeling that I owe anything to anyone but myself. I love people, but I love peace of mind a great deal more!
Costa Rica’s Monkeys (Monos)
There are three species of monos in Costa Rica: Howler monkey (mono aullador), Spider monkey (mono araña), and capuchin monkey (Mono capuchino).
Costa Rica’s Wild Cats (Gatos salvajes)
There are six species of wild cats in Costa Rica; jaguar, puma (cougar), ocelot, margay, oncilla and jaguarundi.
My Engligh-Spanish real time translator should arrive today; tomorrow at the latest. Can’t wait to put it through its paces here at home.
Last night after I went to bed I found myself translating what I was thinking from English into Spanish, and a surprising amount of it was easy to do. I will use the translator to fine tune my sentences as best I can until I get there. I figure by the time I fly down, I will be at close to 75% fluent. Not that I’d feel competent to write books in Spanish, but getting around shouldn’t be a problem.
Ticos love it when new immigrants even just try to speak fractured Spanish. They’re very helpful and forgiving, I hear. I want to impress them with my knowledge of Spanish — whenever I’m not amusing them as a result of the occasional screw up!
GERMAN ANECDOTE
When a friend from formerly East Germany came to the US for a visit and stayed with me, she told me she had taught herself English while she was still behind the Iron Curtain, which was illegal at the time. So she had made some assumptions and translations that turned out to be hilarious to me. The one I recall best was the time we chatted late into the wee hours of the morning, well past midnight. I was beginning to show extreme drowsiness, and she noticed, and apologized profusely, saying, “Oh, I’m sorry! I hope I’m not molesting you!”
Close, but no cigar. But the point was, I understood what she was doing her best to convey. I expect stuff like that will happen when I get to Costa Rica, too. I’ll use a term that means something “close, but no cigar” (cerca pero sin cigarro) there. It will be all right. Great for a laugh and for a lifetime memory!
TAKING CHANCES…
Every time I’ve ever “wandered off alone” the rewards have been amazing and life-enhancing.
When I moved to Sacramento from 1981-1985, to work with the Animal Protection Institute, I was in heaven. When I moved to Hollywood in 1989 to work in the entertainment industry, I was in heaven for 14 years.
In both places, I met lifelong friends and my move to Hollywood earned me the SS checks and small pension and annuity that I get every month, without which I would be utterly penniless except for the $26K I managed to save for my retirement during that time. (If not for the disastrous Time Warner/AOL merger fiasco, the amount would have been more than $46K, but it is what it is, which is why I’m moving to Costa Rica. I can’t stay here and live to 93. I’d run out of money here!)
I’m so excited to begin this new journey!
