Visa Renewal Trip - Hannah

Every 90 days, an important deadline comes up for expats living in Costa Rica. It means visa renewal time. When you come to Costa Rica, your passport serves as a 90-day tourist visa. If you want to stay an additional 90 days, and don't have residency, you have to renew your visa by leaving the country. Our deadline came up on Thanksgiving, so we combined our renewal trip with our trip to the beach.

The difficulty came in trying to figure out exactly what the law says about this. You can do some research, but everyone seems to have a different take. Some people say you need to leave the country for 72 hours in order to renew your visa. Others say that the 72 hours is only for people who are buying things and need to declare items for customs. One site said there was a place you could go to pay a $100 dollar fee, and get a renewal stamp on your visa; others said that was illegal. This probably stems from the fact that you can pay $100 and have some paperwork done through the embassy (think bureaucratic nightmare), but this is only good for up to 60 days and can only be done once. Some people say that the whole leaving-to-renew-your-visa thing is skirting the law anyway.

So after some research and talking to other expats, we decided to try going in and out of Nicaragua, the closest country to the north of us. We had heard that taking a car across can be a lot of extra paperwork and hassle, so we ended up driving our car to the border, parking it at a local Alamo, and walking across the border. Though it was stressful, we were able to get in and out of Nicaragua in about two hours, with the stamps on our passports giving us another 90 days. After that, we were able to go have our Thanksgiving vacation in Playa Potrero.

The experience has given me compassion for immigrants to the United States. There are probably a lot who are seeking a better life for their families, are trying to do things the right way, but are uncertain how to go about the process. They talk to their friends and do the research they can, but they're also dealing with misinformation, an unfamiliar language, and, in some cases, corrupt government officials. It's unfortunate that the process is so cryptic, both in the United States and elsewhere.

That being said, we've got another 90 days here. The kids want another country on their passport, so we'll probably go to Panama next time.