Because of the increased numbers of people who are moving to Costa Rica from the U.S. and Canada (mostly), the wait times to receive pensionado status (or any other long-term immigrant/residency status) to get a DIMEX card has been extended 12 to 18 months, and at times longer if the application itself isn’t clean and green.
(If, for example, there have been names changes, gender changes, dicey FBI reports, etc.).
By contrast, a year or so ago, when my quest to move here got underway, the wait times between application and acceptance were between 4 and 10 months.
Because my application is clean and green (I’ve had the same name since birth, no marriage or divorce, no official gender marker changes, no criminal history), I’m anticipating approval by this time next year, but it could extend beyond that time. Until then, I need to keep my passport with me at all times.
And — starting in December or January — I need to keep checking my email regularly to see if by some small miracle my application was delivered just in time to find its way closer to the 4 to 8 months processing time than the folks who arrived after me (and are arriving still) will experience.
DIMEX CARD
As soon as I receive notification of acceptance as a pensionado resident in a email, I will need to pay an additional fee (I think it’s $455 but it has been a while since I reviewed the process), print out a current Social Security income statement, and make my first CAJA payment ($125 to $150, most likely) at a local post office in order to get my DIMEX card. I can get my picture and a thumbprint taken there, and then wait two to four weeks for the DIMEX card to arrive at the PO so I can go retrieve it, Jon says.
Margaret tells me there is a way around the two to four week wait (and that the wait can extend to three months if I go the PO route) if I’m antsy about getting the DIMEX card sooner: I can get three copies of the migracion resolucion, pay the security fee and the CAJA payment at the Bank of Costa Rica, print out a current SS statement, and then travel to San Jose to Migracion very early in the morning (since I’m a senior and old enough to get priority treatment) to get a DIMEX card directly from them on the same day within the hour. The immigration office would take the thumbprint and picture on the same day I appear there, if I go that route. I would need to hire Jon and his driver to do that, so they’d have to be available and amenable.
As soon as I have the DIMEX, I will no longer need to keep my passport in my immediate possession whenever I go out: the card will suffice to show I’m here legally and it will prove that I’ve paid my first CAJA payment so I’ll be covered from then on by the national health care system.
Just before I get my DIMEX card I will be required to apply for CAJA health coverage, which is what I’m mostly concerned about: having health care coverage asap in case of accident, illness, or precipitous decline in my ability to care for myself for any other reason.
Although I have MediSmart (a medical and drug discount plan) and the medical services here are a fraction of what they are in the U.S., at my age it’s a good idea to have health coverage. Private medical insurance coverage is out of my range unless I drop Part 2 of Medicare so I can pay for it, which I can do, but I don’t know if I can do that now (or in January, I mean) or if I need to wait to get my DIMEX card. My insurance broker Katheryn Evans with Strategic Sound Solutions in Puyallup Wshington is weighing options so I’ll have a plan in place by January 1st: I just don’t know what it will be until after next week.
MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLAN IN COSTA RICA
There is a Medicare Advantage plan that is accepted here in Costa Rica at Hospital Metropolitano, which Jon says is an excellent hospital in San Jose, so Katheryn is looking into that for me. (We’ve been looking into it for a while, but open enrollment just started, so we’re zeroing in on it laser-like now.) And there are six or more U.S immigrants here waiting to find out more about this MA option so they can either consider it themselves or let their other immigrant friends and families know about it. (I believe that holders of this unique MA plan have to have a home or property in the U.S. to qualify, which I still do.)
“BUREAUCRACY — THE ONLY CONSTANT IN THE UNIVERSE”
Doctor McCoy
There are additional hoops to jump through every couple years here in Costa Rica even after I get the DIMEX — and additional nominal (totally affordable/reasonable payments). I can actually apply for citizenship seven years after I’m officially approved as a pensionado. Then I’d be able to vote down here, too, and then the additional hoops can disappear.