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.

Costa Rica Cedula Renewal the Second Time Around - A Pleasant Surprise

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Sometime around the end of 2013, I started to faintly hear a giant sucking sound, which I soon identified as an impending residency cedula renewal event fast approaching. 

That giant sucking sound of cedula renewal

If you've followed this blog for long, you may recall that we had completed our first renewal the middle of last summer, which makes it appear that Dec. should have been way too early to fret about renewal again. For all the bloody details, read about that first renewal, but the takeaway was that it consumed far more time than it should have, turned out all-right in the end, but left us a short window to the next renewal.

The Very First Time Through the Maze

In hindsight, our first renewal difficulty was rooted in our out-of-the-mainstream initial residency application and the procedural swamp that characterized Costa Rica's immigration process back in 2008.

Four Years On, We're Thriving in Costa Rica

On the eve of another U.S. Presidential election, I'm reminded that we are beginning our fifth year of residing in Costa Rica. We arrived permanently on November 2nd, 2008, the day Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. Our departure from the U.S. on that particular date was coincidence, by the way, but it certainly made it memorable. I watched the election results late into the evening as Sean and Tamara slept in the hotel in Cartago, just a couple hours after landing in our adopted country.

Just a few days past four years, here we are again awaiting the results of another national election. Seems like as good a time as any for a reflection over the last four years. A cursory review of my previous 202 blog posts does more than jog the memory, however. It's not a great deal of time, but still I feel a very different perspective today than I had at the start of this adventure. Simply put, it feels like home now, though distinctly foreign at the same time.

So, I thought I'd present a "best hits" list of posts grouped by events and activities. These weren't selected because of either popularity or by virtue of good writing (some are just bloody awful), but they seemed like a decent sampling that captures the highlights and low-lights of our experiences here.

New Immigration System In Costa Rica Is Gummed Up

I'm sure it's not a surprise to anyone that trying to implement new governmental procedures and mechanisms never quite goes smoothly. Leave it to Costa Rica, however, to make sure that the works get gummed up before you even start. They have implemented some new rules for residency recently and introduced a new system, available in select branches of Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) and some post office branches. I already described our experience at the Curridibat P.O. that went about as smoothly as one could rightfully expect. Except ...

Our cedulas were to be delivered on September 24th, over a month since our appointment in Curridibat. The first time we got our cedulas they were in our hot little hands just two days after our appointment. So, we went to our local P.O. on Monday hoping to finally have our new cards.