The last two times we flew into the airport here and went through the immigration line, the agents have pointed out that our 3-month temporary residency cards were about to expire (8/19/14.) Going to the immigration office to pick up our new cards was tricky this summer. They tell you that you can start checking to see if the new cards are available within a month of their expiration. Unfortunately, we were in the states from July 18-31 and then were only home one day (August 1 and the offices were closed for vacation) before leaving for Costa Rica.
So, we decided that today was the day to see if they were ready. If they weren't ready, we would still have a week for them to get them ready before our other ones expired. We left after the morning rush hour and were sure to take our passports and other documentation; we drove directly to the location and . . . . . it had moved. The building was repainted and the parking lot was empty--no sign on the door telling us where the new office was.
Where it used to be:
It took more than an hour and various phone calls to pin down the new location. Turned out that it was within walking distance of the former location, but, of course, we didn't know that at the time.
Where it was today:
By now, it was noon--thankfully, they stay open during lunch, albeit there are fewer employees available to help. Even though there was only one person ahead of us, it still took over an hour. My guess is that they printed up our cards and paperwork while we were waiting.
Good news is that we walked out of the office about 1:15 p.m. with our 9-month "permanent" cards that are good until June 26, 2015.
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