Will Citizenship Add Coolness to My Already Astonishing Life in Costa Rica?

I've been arguing with myself for over a year about pursuing citizenship here in Costa Rica. I've put in the time, which is 7 years, why not get something for it?

 

There are a lot of benefits, such as drastically lower health ins. premiums (like so low they fall into my budgetary noise), a free 10-year cedula, easier banking, ability to leave CR and return at will and return of my $200 residency security deposit.

I've also been told by those who have gone this path before that many everyday transactions that involve use of ID become somehow easier because you are no longer a foreign contaminant in the eyes of Ticos, especially those that control various process gateways. Doors open that swung with difficulty before and the wheels of bureaucracy in general suddenly present less friction if you are perceived as "normal." Those benefits are rather intangible to me at the moment.

And, of course, one mustn't overly discount the "coolness" factor of having dual citizenship and that inoffensive passport when visiting certain places disagreeable to the latest U.S. meddling around the world.

One drawback that I was hung up on for a while was the name change thing.

Guest Blogger: Expert Psychological Care for Expats Around the World

This guest post is written by Susan Bernstein, Co-Founder and Director of The Truman Group which provides US and western expats access to quality psychological care. I thought their services would be of special interest to many of my readers who live outside their home country and may have found it difficult to find effective therapy.

Who Is the Truman Group?

Susan Bernstein

Sean Truman and I co-founded the Truman Group about three years ago. Sean grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, the son of a UN diplomat and an international school teacher. He eventually made his way back to the States where he received a PhD in clinical psychology and was a National Institute of Mental Health Fellow at Yale University’s School of Medicine, where he worked both at the Child Study Center and in the Department of Psychiatry. He found his way to St. Paul, Minnesota where he opened a psychotherapy practice.

The Difficulty for Expats Finding a Therapist They Trust

He was surprised to find, after some time that a number of patients wanted to continue working with him after having been relocated overseas for work. Despite the fact these patients were living in major cities, they said they couldn’t find a therapist they felt comfortable seeing.

Sean realized that if these patients were having difficulty finding therapists, there must be many other people who, whether due to language or cultural barriers, privacy issues in tight-knit expat communities or an actual lack of qualified therapists, might be having similar difficulty finding good care.

Costa Rica's New Traffic Laws - Will They Work?

Supposedly, things are going to get tougher on the practice of careless driving that is so embedded in Tico culture. After the first pass at an overhaul of the traffic code about a year ago, most of which was thrown out by Sala IV (Supreme Court), the Costa Rican legislature made another try. This time it's stuck and went into effect October 26th.

Here's a link to a PDF of the new infractions, fines, and points. The table is sorted by the points column, values zero to six.

Points? The first run at a new code gave everyone 50 points on their license from which points were taken for the more serious infractions. Now they've reversed that notion. All licenses start off with zero points and infractions add points. When it reaches 12 points the driver's license is suspended for 12 months, and he or she must take a driver's education course to reinstate it.

Costa Rica's Place in Medical Tourism

The term coined for traveling outside your home country to obtain health care is medical tourism. The primary motivation of such travellers is to take advantage of lower medical costs with an equal or at least acceptable level of care. In some cases, other countries may have treatments that are not offered in the home country because they are too new or don't have approval by government regulation or by one's insurance carrier. Even if they are covered in your home country, there may be an unacceptable wait time for the procedure.