Going .... Going .... We're Gone!

Today, we met with the Consulado General de Costa Rica in North Vancouver. He officially stamped and certified the five documents we need to take to our lawyer in Costa Rica - two birth certificates, two RCMP  reports of good conduct and one marriage certificate. Our lawyer will also need our passports and a letter from my pension source stating we meet the monthly financial pensionado requirements, but these do not have to be certified by the Canadian Costa Rican Consul. All the documents will be translated into Spanish in Costa Rica, and our lawyer will take care of that.

We'll also need to register with the Canadian Embassy in San Jose once we arrive.

Senor Arreaga-Valdes is so helpful and friendly. We chatted about life in Costa Rica and he said we can ask him questions any time and request his help if we need it. He is a real gentleman.

So, we are really on our way. I can now start booking our flights, hotels, etc. We'll be gone by the end of May, 2011. Even the stray cat who moved herself into our house about a year ago has found a new forever home with my niece in Toronto. Sometime in the next two months, Tuffy will be winging her way east. Genny, of course, will come with us.

We're so excited about this great adventure and a new chapter in our lives.

Police Reports

Yippee! Two weeks ago we went and got our RCMP police reports - a requirement for pensionado status. It's painless and fast - fingerprinting, photo, pay the fee and the following week the reports arrive. That's assuming you haven't been naughty in your past and it has now caught up with you.

In the Lower Mainland of B.C., we use Commissionaires Canada and their office is in Surrey.

As far as Immigration in Costa Rica is concerned, these police reports have a life span of six months and no more so this is the document that you leave until the last. I then scanned our police reports, birth certificates and marriage certificate and e-mailed them to Antonio Arreaga-Valdes, the Consulado General de Costa Rica in North Vancouver. He is looking them over and if all seems okay, he'll prepare a letter that we need and we'll then bring the original documents to him for his stamp of approval.

Then I'll be heaving a big sigh of relief - because then I can make our airline reservations and we'll be on our way. The original approved documents come with us and we will give them to our Costa Rican lawyer when we arrive there.

So I'm hoping to hear soon that we can go and meet with the very helpful and charming Consulado General de Costa Rica.

One of the most sensible things we did during this process was to get ourselves a Costa Rican lawyer. We are using Romulo Pacheco. Originally I thought I could do all the process myself but I came to realize I could not - so don't waste your time trying to do this.