And the Wait Begins

We moved here last June not knowing how long we would stay.  We really had no idea what our future plans were and where we would be almost a year later.  Well, here we are almost one year later and we are applying for residency in Costa Rica.  The Lord has paved an amazing path here in Costa Rica. One thing happens and then another that leads us to believe this is where we are supposed to be at this time in our lives.  While our house in the states has not sold, we are praying that the Lord will take the lead there too.

While we were back for a visit in the states we did lots of paper chasing to prepare for the residency application process.  It is pretty much the same process as an international adoption.  That means lots of original documents, notaries, state Apostilled documents, and a million emails to our lawyer.

We had every page in all of our passports copied, every document in hand, new passport photos taken {this detail was very humorous to me}, and a 3.5 hour wait {with 4 children} last Tuesday.  Our lawyer managed to visit some people the day before to assist in bypassing some of the lines.  We arranged to meet her at the main headquarters of the Costa Rican police department at 8am.  Apparently people start lining up at 5am to get in the door for the 9:00 appointment slots.  She managed to get us inside the gate and start at the back of the line inside.  When we arrived there were at least 200 people in line outside the gate and more lining up every few minutes {I never saw the line get smaller}.  
So, the top left photo is the beginning of the line that was outside the gates.  We got inside the gate and then had to wait in 3 more lines, for a total of 3.5 hours.  We did not think it would take that long and this Mommy was not prepared with snacks and drinks.  Funny part ~ The lawyer told us we would need passport photos to give to the people at the police station for our fingerprinting.  She said we would be able to do this at a place next door to the police station.  Mind you, I am expecting like a copy place or something like Walgreens has where you have photo taken and wait a few moments for the big printer to print photos.  Literally right outside the police station gate is a man on the street with a small 3x5 white backdrop, a very old digital camera, and a little printer inside of a lunchbox, and a pair of scissors.  This, my friends is where we had our passport photos taken.  Who needs an office space when you can stand right at the line where everyone needs passport photos?  Very smart entrepreneur if you ask me.  No rent expense.

We moved from one line, to another line, played musical chairs on a sidewalk, moved to three chairs inside a building, and final destination the man with the ink and white gloves.  Their fingerprinting process is quite a bit different than the biometric fingerprinting experience that we have had with USCIS.  Here in Costa Rica it is no fancy computer taking your fingerprints.  Nope, it is old fashioned black ink that was as sticky as pancake syrup {and, they had no soap for you afterwards}.

{Boys will be boys...Liv was actually the first one up.}

I am thinking we had a very highly paid babysitter this day.  Our lawyer had to watch our kids when we finally got to the building for the actual fingerprinting.  Thank goodness they were SOOOOO good the entire 3.5 hours and were not revolting from absolute boredom.  They managed to find a good tree to climb and an iphone {courtesy of our lawyer}.

So, this is the inside of the main police station headquarters for Costa Rica.  Not what we were expecting.  Things down here are a bit behind in the times, but then there are some really nice places too here and there.  We kind of expected more state of the art facilities.  I will let you decide for yourself on how to categorize this one.  Pictured above in the measuring wall to determine your height in centimeters.

There were 3 different rooms with desks and clerks who input your data.  All the rooms were pretty much the same.  Like so many places, there was no air conditioning here and absolutely no airflow.  While I was with my clerk a street vendor came in selling potato chips.  I still find it odd that he was a man off the street selling food inside the headquarters and I and my lawyer had to give our full names, passport numbers, date of birth, and telephone numbers, to use the public restroom inside the compound.

Notice the chair taped to the desk : )  

I guess people were walking off with them.

Now we have completed all of the initial steps for the residency application process and have an appointment with the US consulate next Tuesday to finish up everything so that our lawyer can submit our case to the Costa Rica immigrations.  Once she submits our file, then the wait officially begins for our residency to be granted.  She informed us the the wait time right now is looking like 1 year.  The Costa Rican government has granted amnesty to immigrants right now that makes it easier for them to become legal, and the system is really blogged down with with applications.  The good news is, once our file is submitted on Tuesday then we do not have to leave the country every 90 days anymore {YES!!!!!}.  The drawback for not receiving the residency sooner is that we cannot obtain the national health insurance until the residency has been officially granted.

And, then, maybe some day we will be "Ticos."