Residency Renewal

The first of this month my Costa Rica Cédula was scheduled to expire, so I went ahead and applied for a renewal back in August. I found the process to be pretty straight forward. Once the renewal is approved, the Ministry of Migration issues a new cédula (government issued identity card) and sends it to the local Post Office for pickup. It was supposed to take a month to get the new one, but in my case, it only took 15 days. This time I was again granted permanent residency for two years. If anyone is about to go through the renewal process, I have documented all the requirements at this link: How to renew your residency

I sat down a couple of months ago to review all of the documents showing my original residency in Costa Rica from way back in the 60s and 70s. I also reviewed all my passports showing entries and exits from Costa Rica for the past 40+ years. It turns out that I now have accumulated well over the 7 years required to apply for citizenship in Costa Rica. I am seriously considering this next step, and I have started to gather all the information needed to apply. I’ll keep you posted on my decision.