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Thanks for the directions, etc. I’m going to send this info to my contractor and send him out on a fact-finding (or travertine-finding) mission first.
You know something, r2d2, you sould like Ann Coulter with a bad case of PMS! And why is it that you assume I had a Mexican restaurant? You crack me up. We had high-end, fine dining Italian restaurants that cost $60 a person to eat dinner (ten years ago!). People like you scare me. I’m not going to respond to anymore of your knee-jerk blatantly republican tirades. I’m just glad you revealed who you really are.
That’s true — just watch the nightly news to see all the illegal things being done in the name of some skewed political agenda.
interesting choice of words in your definitions GT. I certainly don’t advocate kicking the gringos out of CR, but to avoid that being a possibility in a migre sweep, they should be legal. I’m neither a lefty nor a repug. I just believe in doing the right thing when the situation presents itself, and I have no intentions of changing to fit some obtuse political agenda.
Thanks, GT, but I have one (perhaps stupid) question: I’ll be coming from San Ramon so will any of those 6 directions apply? The only time I was anywhere close to San Jose was when I got fingerprinted.
David, THANK YOU! I will call them before we come back down next month so I can get that bathroom done and then my house will be habitable.
My husband and I are well respected and well known in the Mexican community and were often the first call “illegals” made when the coyotes dropped them off in Denver. We’d pick them up, house them, employ them in our restaurants, help them get their papelles. Over an 8 year period we employed 25+ members of one extended family and now we get invited to every big occasion and fiesta they have — the last one we went to was about a month ago — 400 Mexicans and just us two gringos. Those illegals, who are now legal, own their own homes and businesses, some making several hundred thousand $$ a year. I am proud to have helped them realize their dream. The perpetual tourist thing is an attempt to skirt the law, to not be totally respnsible for complying with the rules for longterm residency. I guess people who live the surf life probably are not heavily invested in real estate, etc., so maybe if they got booted out of the country, it’s no big loss to them in terms of losing their investments. They DO do sweeps and have deported people, maybe it’s not an everyday event, but there have been rumors that there will be stricter enforcement of immigration laws. Who knows if that will take place, but the attitude that someone can deliberately defy the laws of residency by leaving the country every 90 days for five, ten, twenty years is an indication (to me, anyway) that there’s very little respect for the host country, which is only a symptom of other attitudes that are contrary to my beliefs.
Oh boy,it’s one of “those” deals! jejeje Yes, travertine floor tiles, which we want to put in the shower of our guest bathroom, and on the floor and maybe use as wainscotting. On the way to the airport from San Ramon, I saw a small sign on the side of the highway that said “travertine” but I couldn’t find any in the tile places in San Ramon — they are heavy into imported ceramic and porcelain tiles, which I used throughout my whole house, but I really want to find the travertine, which is what I have in my house in the States, but I don’t want to be driving all over the Central Valley trying to find it.
The $600 a month is the amount one must show to gain pensionado status, and it usually comes from a pension fund of some sort such as SSA or a private pension fund, but you must PROVE you have this money in perpetuity coming to you because the Embassy will check and make sure that those funds are yours. The rentista rules may change — they haven’t yet, but they might next year, and that is where the $210,000 kicks in for two adults and three children. Why should Costa Rica let poor Americans come into their country? We don’t want poor immigrants in America, so I agree that CR should enforce these laws and it should be every expats duty to become legal in their adopted country. I’ve invested a lot of money in Costa Rica and the last thing I want to do is jeapardize my investments by trying to save a few bucks and not spend the $2000 it takes to become a legal resident (which I have already done). I guess some people get away with being the perpetual trousit, but maybe they also have nothing to lose if they get their behinds booted back to the States. An illegal immigrant is an illegal immigrant, no matter which direction you are going if you don’t play by the rules, and try to get away with “something” — I’d like to stay as far away from people with that attitude as possible.
But . . . IF the CR gov’t decides to crack down on perpetual tourists, or they snag you for some other visa violation, they CAN (didn’t say they WILL) deport you and ban you from entering CR for ten years. If that were to happen to someone, what happens then to the business, the property, the other stuff? Comparing renegade companies in the US (such as Enron!?) to running a company in CR on a tourist visa doesn’t seem like a comparable comparison. Personally, I would never take the chance that something could happen to my investment or other endeavors because I neglected to become a legal resident. Seems very pennywise and pound foolish. If any of us move to CR and live as illegal aliens, we have no business complaining about the Mexicans that are flooding across the borders into the States.
I’m going to get chickens too, because like you, they remind me of my childhood, and I plan to have a HUGE garden because I refuse to eat food that has been poisoned by agribusiness’s organophosphates, even in Costa Rica. If you are going to get residency, you will have to put up $60,000 minimum in a 5-year CD to qualify for rentista status. You’re obviously not old enough to be getting a pension, which is $600 a month to qualify for a pensionado status. We plan to allocate $2000 a month for our basic living expense, but we have no mortgage, and we also plan to save some portion of that. But it’s only me and my husband and a 20 pound dog.
Koty:
The lifestyle you say you want in costa rica sounds very complicated, not simple at all, and extremely costly. I don’t agree with some of what ScottBenson said about having to live with dirt floors or not being able to buy a house for less than a hundred K unless it is in a Tico neighborhood. I bought land and built an 1800 sq foot house for $85,000 — I have all the amenities of a $500,000 house where I live in the States — custom cabinets, granite countertops, travertine sinks, a mosaic mural of Monet’s waterlillies in my bathroom. I am NOT in a Tico neighborhood per se, but there is a mix of cultures, not all Americans. You don’t really seem prepared to sacrifice anything for The Simple Life. As for high end skin care, it’s a total waste of money and I’m talking from experience as someone who used nothing but Erno Lazslo for years whose soap costs $32.00 a bar and that is the cheapest item in his line. You’ll need less of this chemicalized crap in Costa Rica — the humidity will keep your skin moist, and Bio-Land, which is the organic food company in CR, makes a fabulous coconut oil soap that costs about $.75. Put some coconut oil on your skin after that and you’re out a total of about $10.00 for six months worth of face goop. I moved to CR for all the reasons you mentioned, but I don’t want all the trappings of the US lifestyle, which is clearly what you said you want. Jenny made some good points about the maid service; yes, it’s a deal in CR but not without its problems when it comes to paying Caja ect. Your lifestyle in the States sounds extravagant and it also sounds like you want to duplicate that life in CR. Be prepared to pay top dollar for those things you say you need. Air Travel is very expensive when it originates from Costa Rica. Providing lodging for an extended family will cost you and arm and a leg in the end and complicate your life. Having two cars? Wow, not THAT is an extravagance and an unnecessary one. Costa Rica is NOT the Hamptons (where I used to live so I know about high-end everything); it is a Two-point-five world country and unless you adapt to a more simple lifestyle, you will have taught your child nothing except what it is a like to be a rich kid in a poor country.Okay, Nora, I’ll give you the name of my contractor. If you’d voted for Bush I was going to tell you that you’re on your own because I will not assist anyone who voted for him in their move to Costa Rica because those are the people I’m trying to get away from! will e-mail you provately.
