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| In addition to letters to the editor from our readers, The Tico Times Opinion pages offer an editorial, an editorial cartoon and occasional perspective pieces submitted by readers. |
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| Becoming a Legal Resident Painless and Best Option |
| No Luck Using Bus Ticket for Airline Req. |
| Don’t Jeopardize C.R.’s Sacred Water Resources |
| Residents’ Assn and Tico Times Great Resources |
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Becoming a Legal Resident Painless and Best Option
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Dear Tico Times:
Brian Wrigley's (TT, Letters, Aug. 20) advice to Mr. Don Robertson (TT, Letters, Aug. 13) to buy a bus ticket instead of a round-trip air ticket was great advice for “beating the system.” Not unlike all the hoopla in the United States about immigration, if you choose to live here in Costa Rica, why not do it legally? Everyone doing the 90-day skate and then slipping into Panama or Nicaragua for a few days will find it much more difficult when the country starts enforcing changes to the immigration policy.
I got my first cédula de residencia in 1992 by paying a good sum to a lawyer specializing in immigration. Less than a year later I was picked up at my business by the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) and charged with having a false cédula. The lawyer, along with some people inside the San José immigration office, were making good money issuing cédulas without filing the paperwork. It took nearly two years and the help of the OIJ (after they were sure I was not part of the scheme) to get legal. In 1995, I moved to Golfito and met the excellent staff of the immigration office there when it was time to renew my residency.
If Mr. Wrigley stops by the immigration office in Golfito they will give him the requirements to live in Costa Rica legally. He will have to go to the immigration office at Paso Canoas on the Costa Rica - Panama border to actually apply, but the people there are also excellent. With all the required documents in hand, make an appointment and, if you are patient and polite, you will find the process relatively painless. It can be done without the help of a lawyer. Once you are legal, all you have to do is show your legal status at any airport in the States and they will not ask you to buy a round-trip ticket or have a bus ticket ready to present.
Todd Staley
Puerto Jiménez
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No Luck Using Bus Ticket for Airline Req.
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Dear Tico Times:
August 17th, I arrived at the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida airport for my flight back to Costa Rica. The agent says I don't have a return ticket. I inform her I have a bus ticket to Nicaragua for October. A supervisor gets involved and, after examining the bus ticket, says it is not acceptable and that I need a plane ticket.
They would not listen to reason, so I eventually bought a ticket. I didn't realize airlines could set immigration policy for Costa Rica. I'm sure Costa Rica doesn't know either!
Hopefully I will get satisfaction from my MasterCard. Or maybe from the airline itself, in keeping with the “spirit” of good public relations.
Frank Kent
Jacó
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Don’t Jeopardize C.R.’s Sacred Water Resources
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Dear Tico Times:
The majority of all gold mined that is utilized ends up in class rings, and from there, goes into the bureau drawer. The overwhelming mass of gold is held, serving no practical purpose, in vaults. Only a small fraction is used in a practical way, covering burns, gold plating printed circuit boards and other scientific applications.
St. Thomas More had the right slant on it in “Utopia”: Use it to bind slaves and amuse children, hire mercenaries.
Renowned U.S. science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein, wrote a radio script about a man trying to trade gold for water in the desert.
The idiot character on the old “A Team” TV show draped himself with it, and we buy it for security – absurd.
Costa Rica may have gold and may have oil, but the only real thing Costa Rica is blessed with is her water – two oceans and countless rivers and a greater shoreline to land mass ratio than any other country save island nations, plus the 10th deepest bay in the world, and she must not put these sacred gifts, and all they imply, at risk for mere gold or oil. No To Mining!
No To Drilling!
George H. Prosser
Golfito
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Residents’ Assn and Tico Times Great Resources
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Dear Tico Times:
There was a letter in last week's edition about bank changes (TT, Letters, Aug. 20). I have lived here for almost 15 years and am always at least one step behind. The Tico Times does a good job of keeping people informed about changes in immigration, vehicle laws, transferring money from other countries, etc.
I have found that the Association of Residents of Costa Rica is also a terrific help. The staff speak English, have the “answer of the day” for my questions, and it is well worth the inexpensive annual fee to belong. I went to ARCR for my cédula renewal. They started work on it immediately. An ARCR staff member went with me to immigration, and the whole thing was a breeze. I am affiliated with the Social Security or Caja system through ARCR, and it is easy and the cost is as reasonable as in a group plan. ARCR has a first-of-the-month luncheon and holds monthly seminars on topics for residents and newcomers. They have a team of lawyers who are really good.
ARCR is located at the corner of Av. 4, Ca. 40, #101, phone 506-2233-8068, fax: 2233-1152, e-mail: info@arcr.net, or see their website: www.arcr.net.
Carolyn Reilly
Sabanilla, Montes de Oca
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See this Friday's print or pdf edition of The Tico Times for more letters to the Editor, and please send us your letters,
500 words or fewer to letters@ticotimes.net. Additionally, send letters about Nicaragua or the rest of Central America and the Caribbean to letters@nicatimes.net. Don't forget to include your return address and phone number. Thanks!
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