Well I thought I was well prepared. I was not. I somehow missed a whole bunch of steps. 1- I need a new birth certificate dated within 6 months, even though that is somewhat ridiculous. 2- Both my BC and my police record need to be stamped by: a notary, the Secretary of State, and a Costa Rican consulate. 3- Everything then needs to be translated into Spanish. 4- All documents finally go to "la Casa Amarilla" where I am then allowed to APPLY for a visa.
Now the thing is I wanted my mom to bring down the documents with her because mail here is so unreliable and I don't want to go through this WHOLE THING again because some tico lost my stuff. My mom and her boyfriend are coming to visit on November 22. A VERY short two and a half weeks from today. Really even less than that since this weekend and next weekend she's going on trips and won't be around. And all of the above stuff needs to happen.
My gracious, wonderful mom has agreed to take on the responsibility of getting all this stupid stuff done for me. I feel so bad that she has to do all of it, and even worse that I just found out about all this stuff NOW.
So today I made a bunch of phone calls to find out exactly what it was that has to happen. I then wrote my mom a very detailed email on everything that needs to be done. All but one step can be done in person and therefore can be taken care of the day of. So she should be able to get my new BC, police report notarized and both forms authenticated by the Sec of State all in one long day. Then I've asked her to overnight the docs to the CR consulate which is in Atlanta, because who knows how long they're going to take. And hopefully those will be back in her hands before November 22 when she boards an early plane to Costa Rica.
UUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!! I totally broke down yesterday because of all this stress. I was irritated at my SO because he has no idea what's going on. I just felt like if both of us had been looking up info on the visa, one of us would have noticed everything I missed. Because he doesn't do much traveling or anything, he has just kind of left it up to me to figure things out. But I'm trying to get this visa so I can live with HIM in HIS country. So he has promised to help and be more active from here on out.
I've also been blowing money out my ass trying to get a job here. Let's exclude all the ridiculous fees for getting documents "authenticated" and everything else that goes along with a visa. I have spent $125 in just taxi fare going to all my interviews in the past two weeks. And just TO them. I have always taken a random bus back in the direction of home and then walked a few kilometers because the taxi rides there are so damn expensive.
I am so stressed that all of this won't get done in time. And if it doesn't? I don't even know how to get those papers down here. I don't know a reliable location to have them mailed. Maybe we could send them to my SO's work. Who knows...
Anyway, I have no useful advice, but i do wish you all the best speed so your mum gets it all in time.
Ps, I still owe you a postcard. Have not forgotten.
I Went through a similar situation while applying to Universities in the US and also while trying to change my visa Status. It all was a pain in the A$$. I hated the ridiculous fees I had to paid for every single document/authentication/translation,etc and how expensive it was to get a single paper mailed from my city in Colombia to Chicago.. Grrr!
Nevermind... things are way more ridiculous here in Spain regarding issues like yours, or when renovating your ID (every year you must do it and of course pay a fee) not to mention that if you are planning to travel outside the European Union while your ID is being renovated (it takes them at least a month to give you a new one) you must ask for a special "permission" to re enter the country with an expired ID; another fee to the list! - happened to me this summer- Ahhhh and what makes it worst are the endless lines first standing outside the building until they give you a turn to get inside, then wait another 30+ mins inside until it is time to hand your documents to (in most cases) extremely impolite workers... It really pisses me off and in more than one occasion thoughts like what Zephii mentioned crossed my mind... specially because I just can't stand the way people do business here in Spain, or at least here in Barcelona.
Anyways, good luck with everything; I will keep my fingers crossed for you!
P.S: Post mail service in South America (Colombia, in my case) sucks BIG time, so perhaps is kind of the same in Costa Rica?.. don't worry, is not that you are giving out the wrong address; is that they are very incompetents so changes are your mail is simply getting lost and they of course don't give a damn!