All Entries in the "Expat Living" Category
Skype Dominates International Phone Calling
The future of mobile phone calling is Skype, and while the service is very much entrenched among the expatriate community in Costa Rica the day is coming when many of our friends and relatives in the United States will abandon their traditional telephone numbers and go totally Skype. In fact it’s already happened for the [...]
Consensus on Caja Enrollment for Residency Applicants
The good news is that according to La Nacion there is consensus on when those seeking legal residency should handle their enrollment in the Caja, which is the common term for the Costa Rican Social Security System. Unlike the United States the Caja provides both pension benefits and Universal Heath Care. The system is universal [...]
Calling Costa Rica
A recently as a decade ago Costa Rica was an expensive place from which to place an international phone, and while the Internet changed that for many people there still was a large group who couldn’t make an inexpensive phone call to the United States from the comfort of their home. This is because broadband [...]
Immigration Officers Are Taking Passports Now
Imagine you plan your vacation to Costa Rica, and take extra special care to make a photocopy of your passport and keep the original locked away in a safe place. One evening you are enjoying a meal at a restaurant in San Jose when a group of heavily armed police enter the establishment and demand [...]
Kolbi 3G Cellular Internet Service No Substitute for ADSL
The new mobile Internet service is called “Kolbi Banda Ancha”, and while no substitute for Acelera ADSL service it’s worth looking into if you need Internet on the go. It could also eventually represent the future of broadband Internet service in Costa Rica. The system uses the 3G cellular telephone network, but you do not [...]
English Language Media Blindsided by New Residency Law
The new law took effect on March 1st, and it’s clear that the English language news sources have failed to educate us. Apparently the only way you could begin to understand the scope of changes would have been to read all 268 articles of Spanish legal text published in La Gaceta for yourself. Perhaps the [...]
American Living in Costa Rica Discovers Public Health Care
I am a United States citizen and would have never thought it was possible to walk into a hospital emergency room and receive treatment at no cost had I not come to live in Costa Rica. The first time I went to a “Caja” or publicly funded social security Hospital in Costa Rica was after [...]
Living Abroad in Exponential Times
The video talks about the proliferation of Internet technology, and scale of International population growth. It’s basically a power point presentation with music that puts forward some interesting statistics. It’s a good thing to watch if you are feeling down, think all the great novels have already been written or are just trying to put [...]
Legal Residency: Costs and Wait Time
Perhaps the most common questions that most expatriates tend to ask each other their residency is how long did it take to receive, and how much did it cost. Since I prepared and submitted my Residency Application personally I was able to get the cost down to about $200, and like most people I waited [...]
The Residency Waiting Game
Residency applicants can be expected to wait more than a year for immigration to process their applications. A common question is what to do to remain legal while the application is in process. Prior to the immigration law enacted in March of 2010, applicants were told to remain in Costa Rica as the previous law [...]
