In the adoption world, Gotcha Day is the day we gotcha, the day we brought our new baby home. I get all teary remembering our two Gotcha Days. Yesterday, December 10th was Mo’s 16th Gotcha Day. To celebrate, Jen made cookies and brought them over. Hey, Jen, we ate every single one immediately, every delicious morsel!!!!
Serendipitously, yesterday was also Gotcha Day to pick up our cedulas [SAY-do-lahce, Costa Rica’s ID cards]. The cedulas that confirm our legal status as rentistas. We’ve had the appointment for weeks now: 9am at the Immigration Assistant Service’s (IAS and not its real name) office. We were told to come a little early.
If you’ve ever owned a business, you’ve had the Customer For Whom You Can Do Nothing Right (CFWYCDNR). It’s a nightmare situation: no matter how many times you’ve done a thing, for this customer that thing is always totally screwed up. The simplest thing will never go right. It’s uncanny. Ridiculous. If you’ve ever owned a business, you are shaking your head in recognition.
We are IAS’ CFWYCDNR. Everything we’ve done with them has been difficult, fraught with ill-will and screwed up. The difference between you and me and IAS is that IAS doesn’t attempt to make it right. In fact, IAS makes it clear we are the CFH: Customer From Hell. Even though we are paying CFHs. I’m like totally sick of this attitude. For instance.
We arrived at the office at 8:30am. We told the receptionist why we were there. She made a call, told us the attorney would be in shortly. Great. We sat.
During the hour we waited, two employees chatted us up as they passed by, congratulating us on gettin’ legal. El Presidente of IAS, who I’ve met and had lunch with, rushed by us several times without saying hello or nodding in our direction. I thought that was pretty rude, but what do I really care? Nada. I mention it so you know it’s not like people didn’t know we were waiting. And waiting and waiting. About which I did care.
By 9:30, we’d waited long enough. We got up, asked the receptionist to please reschedule the appointment and left the building. Serendipitously, our ex-attorney was walking up as we were walking out. We get a questioning look.
I said, "We’ve been waiting an hour…."
He interrupts me: "Your appointment was at 8am."
Me: "I was told 9."
Attorney: "It was at 8." Not, "Oh, gee, we’ve had a miscommunication, so sorry you’ve been waiting all this time, someone should have called me, let’s get you down there, yada yada yada…" None of that. Just: "Your appointment was at 8."
I asked why no one called us? How could we have sat there in the waiting room for an hour and no one thought to call the attorney? Are all expats this late? Apparently the assistant had been down at migración holding our place in line since 7:30am… Didn’t he wonder why we hadn’t shown up? Why didn’t he call? This is met with a shrug. This attorney is not accepting any responsibility. Our appointment was at 8 and we were late. Our problem. End of story.
You know, our dentist calls us the day before dental appointments to remind us. She speaks no English, yet we’ve never missed an appointment or gotten the time wrong.
In fact, December 10th was actually our second cedula appointment. Our first appointment last September slid by without us even being notified. I was perfectly lovely about it then. I am not lovely now.
Since the assistant was already there, we decided to go to migración. The attorney says great, expect to be there between one and six hours. We stare back in stunned silence. SIX hours? As in SEIS? We get a nod yes, no smile.
You know, it would have been nice to know that in preparing for the day… but, ok. This is Costa Rican bureaucracy; to expect anything less would be madness on our part. We remind ourselves inefficiency is part of the reason we love it here and head to the car.
The attorney stops us and asks if we’ve forked over paid the $1,300 migración holds for plane fare in case you get deported. We said yes. El Presidente is with us by now and says no, that is never paid up front. Since we do not have our receipts with us and IAS does not have a record of this payment on file, there is nothing to do but reschedule and leave. Completely annoyed.
This payment SNAFU happened before with IAS. When we first signed up, back in February ’06, we paid 1/2 the IAS fee in cash. BIG MISTAKE, but we didn’t have debit cards yet and were still carrying around wads of cash. Hal and I both clearly remember counting out the cash. But in the early days of our adventure, we must’ve lost the receipt. IAS, who still handles their receipts the sweet old-fashioned hand-printed carbon-copy triplicate way, did not find a receipt either. With no other choice, we paid that first half again. I mean, they’d already submitted the mounds of paperwork to migración…
And here we are again, distinctly remembering paying – with a credit card – the deportation deposit, and IAS doesn’t have a record of it. We’ll have to go home and sift through our drawer full of receipts to find the proof.
But not today. Maybe not ever. We are completely over this kind of service.
You know, maybe we haven’t paid that deportation fee yet, even though we both remember doing so. Maybe we were just told about it. Every time we went to the office to take care of some paperwork, we were informed of a new fee, a new law, a new requirement. This is not their "fault" of course. Hey, maybe we really are old and confused. Hal could be.
The thing is, I’m a paying customer in a new country with a new language hiring the very people who promised to help smooth the way. Instead, I get stonewalled, taken advantage of, haphazardly helped, then blamed when things don’t go as planned. Who needs that?
But, whatever! I’m looking on the bright side: it was a Gotcha Day and nothing can ruin a Gotcha Day
Is the IASD a private law office helping out with the immigration papers or is it actually the government office?
I’ve also have never been informed of the deportation deposit.
Thanks.
Sorry you had such a bad time with IAS. However, I just realized I need to thank you for putting in those pronunciation keys–I really appreciate those. Like SAY-do-lah. I had been wondering if it was SED-oo-lah, or sed-OO-lah, or something else. (I’m studying Spanish, self-paced, with a fairly lousy textbook, and even lousier self-pacing, so every little bit helps!)
…Chuck
I am right there with you. We have had our own immigration nightmare to deal with (& this is with paying top dollar to an organization that specializes in processing residencies). In a nutshell, Migracion approved my children for residency in October 2006, then misplaced my file & refused to proceed with the residency approval for me & my husband. We received a nice list of reasons why – my fave being “the file is not where it should be”, which worked for a while. Several months, actually. Once we stopped buying it & sat at Migracion for 8 hours with our 4 children under age 10 (1 had a stomach flu & vomited on & off all day), they accused my husband of having a flag with Interpol & rescheduled our appt for a week later. After we contacted the US Embassy, who then put us in touch with the head of Interpol from Costa Rica, Migracion quickly dropped the Interpol excuse since it was bogus & simply bounced us week after week – 9 appts in 9 weeks. Did I mention we live half an hour south of Jaco? In August, my attorney filed a lawsuit on our behalf with the Supreme Court. She said it was the only way to get Migracion to pay attention to us at that point. Migracion never responded to the suit, which means we automatically won. We finally got our residency declaration, almost an entire year after our children received theirs. But guess what? They didn’t issue my childrens’ names on our declaration. So it is still screwed up. Plus, we had to wait for our files to go back to Migracion before we could get our cedulas. Last time we called to find out when we could have our cedulas, we were told Migracion didn’t have the plastic to laminate them. So now we’re keeping fingers crossed that we might get cedulas in January, which is 1 year & 3 months since the children were approved for residency! So, if misery enjoys company, you have a best friend to sit with down at Migracion!
After reading Saratica’s story and Jessica’s comment, I’m wondering what the reason for this sort of behavior could be? Possible reasons that come to mind are: general bureaucratic incompetence, hoping for a bribe to grease the wheels, anti-gringo passive aggression…. I’m sure there are others. What say those of you who are actually on the ground in CR?
…Chuck (thinking of someday moving to CR and soaking this all in for future reference)
I’m a little confused? With Jessica’s story, it seems that it was the government immigration department (migracion) that was a headache, but in Saratica’s blog, it seems to be a middle party?
But she also mentioned an attorney (at migracion?) that gave them a 6 hour window. Or was this the attorney for IASD.
Kindly clarify, thanks.
You had asked me awhile back “why did I wait so long to get my residency” –
your post kinda explains. No accountablity here in Costa Rica. I had a good attorney and jumped through all the right hoops but when I got my paperwork from the Consulant of Costa Rica in Miami, they stamped everything (they’re stamp crazy there too) but DIDN’T SIGN THE DAMN PAPER. I had to wait almost a year for them to send back the paperwork for that signature. I am sooo dreading renewing my cedula already.
Also remember they print receipts with disappearing ink. Over time, the sheet will turn to white and your record is GONE. If it’s important, get a copy of better yet, scan to your computer. I bought a scanner and never hooked it up yet. I’d better take my own advice, huh?
Hang in there. They just don’t know your like a bulldog with a bone!
Anonymous: migración has its own troubles and the six hour window is pretty standard from what I’ve heard. A couple of expats here have called me and shared their experience. But the six hours waiting to do anything should not surprise me – I’ve been here too long for that!!! It takes at least two hours to open a bank account and that’s even when you have another account at the same bank. So carry a novel with you everywhere…
Teri – I do remember your advice about receipts and we have a scanner so scan the important ones. I think you can renew your cedula other places, like a bank, that you don’t have to go to migración… but I’m not positive about that. I have to get mine the first time around!
Chuck, I don’t really think it’s anything particularly hostile. Except the “this is the way we do it here” mentality. In Key West, we had a bumper sticker that said “We don’t care how you do it up North.” And they didn’t. I think it’s more the same here. Some specific hostilities from specific people, but otherwise they just do it differently. Everything takes time, at least double if not triple, what it takes everywhere else…
I have a good time with my pronunciations! Glad they are helping. When you say it just right, it’s very satisfying!!!
Hi Jessica, I spoke with Paul this morning and he’s convinced me to call the El Presidente guy and make my case. I also found out I may have to pay about $200 in fines for missing those appointments! Argh. Talk about adding insult to injury. Sorry to hear your story – I guess it should make me feel a little better that we don’t have the Interpol thing added in there… I will keep the blog updated…
At this point, we have no idea what the official date is for receiving our residency (which would affect our renewals, if they ever move beyond mass renewals via the newspaper!). In theory, it should date to when the kids received theirs. Our attorney argued in our lawsuit that the intent was to approve the whole family in October 2006. The resolution for me & my husband does not have that date on it; however, it also doesn’t mention we have 4 dependent children so that is obviously going to need to be revised. Do keep us updated & I will do the same!
The official date also affects that cd in the bank… so I’m curious about that. Have not spoken to The Man, but expect to later today. See you!
Willow and Mo share the same Gotcha Day. We celebrated by watching the movie of our China trip.
Robert
How lovely! See? Fate brought our families together…
You’re learning that “Pura Vida” really means, “We don’t give a shit.”
I know an expat who had to file for residency FIVE times, because each time, immigration lost their papers.
It’s a cultural issue. No accountability, not consequences, no pride in doing a job well done.
You think that the living in Costa Rica is cheaper, but it’s not. You pay in other ways. Ways that will leave you spiritually and emotionally broken.
So… what’s Bogota like?
What a mess! Didnt you mention in another blog that you were using the services of ARCR in order to obtain your residency? They charge a lot of money for this, what is their role if not to prevent you from this madness?