Costa Rican Immigration, Part 26 or So...

On December 4th I went once again to try to get my residency visa renewed. If you haven't read about previous experiences, I will sum them up for you in a few words: long waits, repeated visits, multiple bank deposits, standing for hours at a time, confused and anxious masses of people, more delays, and many frustrations. The last time I went, I waited for hours and hours just to make an appointment that was nearly three months off. December 4th was my scheduled appointment.

My appointment was for 1:20PM and I arrived at the gates of the complex at 1:12. I had no sooner found the end of the line when the official at the door called out, “Susan Yah-net!” I’ve learned to be attentive to all renderings of my name. Sure enough, he was calling for me! I was directed to a row of chairs and sat down comfortably. I looked at my watch. 1:16.

Every few minutes we were directed to shift chairs, gradually working our way towards the front of the huge room. After about 15 minutes I was moved into another room and took my seat in order – way in the back corner. There were about 70 others in line ahead of me, comfortably arranged in order by the rows of seats. What an improvement over last time! I had not been in that room for even two minutes when an energetic, smiling young man stepped briskly out of the offices up front, strolled all the way to the back, looked directly at me and asked, “Are you here to renew your documents? What time was your appointment for? What is your name?” He told me, “We’ll call you soon.”

Not two minutes later he called out my name and I walked past everyone else, to their astonishment and my own. He greeted me enthusiastically and asked how I was doing today. He seemed to genuinely want to know. He pulled out my document file (I couldn’t believe they even could find it!) and even pulled up my data on his computer. (That was a first, too!) He had me verify the information, hand him two letters*, and sign my name. He took ten digital fingerprints, five of my right index finger and five of the left. (I wonder if they weren’t supposed to be of each of my ten fingers!!) He asked me to look at the camera, and I gave the camera a look that told all about my immigration experience today. (Photo attached.)

That’s it! I was out of there in less than an hour with my renewed visa! I have to go back in May, because I need to renew once a year, and it took so long to get the appointment that seven months of my year is already gone. But, I’m not complaining!!!

* Earier in the day I picked up a required letter of recommendation from the Central American Church offices, but too late realized that 1) it had my wrong ID number on it and 2) I needed to have it notarized. So, I held my breath as I handed it to the young man, knowing it could be rejected. He didn’t even look at it and simply added it to the file!