Second Covid-19 Vaccine Shot and Renewing Our Drivers’ Licences - Costa Rica

Last Tuesday, we received a call from our doctor at our assigned EBAIS reminding us of our 0930 appointment the next day to receive our second Pfizer vaccine shot. We are registered with EDUS on line and this is where we go to make appointments, etc.

They like you to be there about 10 to 15 minutes early and we arrived well before then. Our clinic is about a 5 minute drive from our house. After washing our hands and checking in with the nice lady guard who keeps everyone organized, we sat down on the benches outside in the shade.

Within a very short time and well before our scheduled 0930 time, we were called in to the doctor’s office. In this country, nobody minds if family members are with the patient for appointments so we had our shots together. Once I even had a Tica I just met at the clinic accompany me into the nurse’s office so she could translate for me. The needles don’t hurt that much!

Next day effects: sore arms - Lance felt like he was coming down with a cold - I had a headache.  None of these lasted very long.

We will still observe hand washing, mask wearing and avoiding gatherings but we feel we have done our part to help control Covid-19. Here is my vaccination card;

Obviously, these cards could be easily forged. Hopefully, at some time in the future, it will be possible to get a Covid-19 passport confirming that one has had the injections. Moreover, hopefully, these passports will be recognized in most countries of the world.

The other important matter that needed to be taken care of was renewing our drivers’ licences, which were due to expire on March 27th.

Because of covid, some aspects of arranging this have changed. Three things must be done in this order:

1. Go to a doctor for a medical exam, or Comprobante Dictamen de Licencia. You don’t need an appointment - we just walked into a medical office. It’s a very simple exam - BP, eye exam (read a chart), any medical conditions, etc. The cost was CRC 21,800 each. You will be issued a código dictamen, a number assigned to you that is now in the system. The document with the number is sent to your email address and you are required to show it electronically (not a paper copy) after which you are obliged to go to a bank to pay the licensing fees.
2. Pay the licensing fees - CRC 5,000 each. We went to BCR (Banco de Costa Rica) here in Grecia. I just pulled up the documents on my phone, the teller found us in the computer system and we were issued a receipt. Caveat: Citizens can renew their licences at BCR but we cannot because we are not citizens, we are legal permanent residents (not the same thing). The guard thought we were there to do just that and kept checking his list for our names. A nice Tica in line tried to help us (again, we are always being helped by Costa Ricans!). We made it to the teller and she knew exactly what we were there for. Paid the fees.
3. The most difficult part - at one time you could just show up at any Cosevi (Roadway Safety Council), hang around and get your licence after you had completed the two steps listed above. Because of Covid-19, appointments now need to be made on line. For this, you go to this link. You can only make these appointments on Thursday from 0830 to 1500 (I think this is correct). I won’t go into all the details of making the appointment. You need document numbers, etc. I started at 0830 and finally got appointments at 1100. I chose the San Ramon Cosevi as it is a town not far from us. Our appointments were for the following Monday, March 22nd at 11:40 and 11:50. We got there an hour early. The nice guard looked at our (printed out) appointment letters, parked us in the correct chairs, winked at me and we were in and out of there in about 15 minutes with our new licences (good for six years), well before our scheduled times.