Somehow I missed writing a post about our legal and visa status in Nicaragua. When we decided to come here, we did not request residency status (a long, cumbersome legal process) since we did not know how long we'd be here and whether it would be worth it. Instead, we have done what most expats here in Nicaragua do--we get a renewal of our tourist visa every 90 days. This renewal can be done a couple of different ways:
--once a year you can go to Managua and fill out paperwork and request up to an additional 90 days. It requires waiting in a long line and paying approximately $20 per each additional month. Raul will be doing this for the first time in the next couple of days for our final visa renewal, and from what we've heard its generally easy, aside from the waiting.
--you can leave Nicaragua and re-enter the country, paying approximately $10 total for an additional 90 days. This is the option many folks here in Granada use since Costa Rica is only about 1.5 hours away. In theory, you go through Nicaragua immigration, exiting the country, walk across the border to Costa Rica, enter and get a Costa Rican visa, and then turn right around, exit Costa Rica, and walk back into Nicaragua, getting a new 90 tourist visa. Apparently in the past, it was truly this easy, but now Nicaragua is trying to be a bit stricter in monitoring who is coming in and out (i.e. pedophiles and drug smugglers), requiring a bit more evidence of reason for staying longer. Also, now that Nicaragua is a tourist hot spot, it provides more opportunities for very poor, unscrupulous border agents and others to try to make some extra money by hassling tourists or inventing regulations that do not exist.
We've renewed our visas through a mix of ways. Since we had some unexpected trips back to the US, that triggered new visas. Also, once we flew to El Salvador and that triggered a new visa, though it shouldn't have, leading us to believe that a bus trip there would also trigger a new visa. As we were buying our bus tickets to go to El Salvador to celebrate Isabel's birthday, the agent informed us that Raul's visa was past due and that Isabel and my visas would expire while in El Salvador, and that they might not let us cross the border. This led to some serious confusion and scrambling on our part. As I had researched and was aware of (but thrown off of because of the plane trip to El Salvador), 4 of the Central American countries (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua) have an agreement that says that a visa from any one of those countries transfers to the other 3. This means that they do not give you a new visa when crossing one of those borders. While the airport doesn't seem to adhere to this, apparently, the buses and land borders do. So, we rented a car and went down to the Costa Rica border to walk across and get our visas.
Immediately when we got there, the "coyotes" were all over us, telling us that they will help us secure new visas without problems, they have friends on both sides, etc. From all the other blogs I read, I knew that we did not need their help and they we literally could walk across and back, but Raul was less confident so the guys followed us, sensing his hesitancy. When we walked into the immigration area, the guard at the entrance knew what we were doing and told us we had to stay in Costa Rica for at least one day before coming back in to Nicaragua. We did not say anything and knew this was not true because Nicaragua has no such law about being out of the country for any time before renewing a visa (Costa Rica requires three days out).
It took forever to get out of Nicaragua because Raul was a couple of days past on his visa. Generally, no big deal, pay the fine and move on. However, in this case, there were problem people in front of us, taking forever. Then Raul paid his fine, but the receipt prints out in another building and we had to wait for someone to bring it over. We finally got out and I finally very firmly said "no way are we paying you $25/person to help us get a visa in Costa Rica and we don't need any help," getting rid of some of the coyote guys. We got the Costa Rica visa no problem, ate an outrageously expensive lunch of chicken, beans and rice on the Costa Rican side of the border, and then one of the coyote friends pops up in the Costa Rican cafeteria, saying he will help get us back into Nicaragua with no problems for $15. For some reason, Raul consented. We left Costa Rica, went to the counter for our Nicaragua visas and got hassled a bit, asking why we needed to come back in for 90 more days. Luckily we had brought a letter from the NGO we are volunteering with, so the agent didn't seem to care too much and gave us 90 more days. So much for the $15 helping us avoid hassle and getting through easy. Then, on the way out, our friend at the entrance/exit started harassing us, saying "I told you to stay away for at least a day." By then, my patience was gone and we started to argue--we already had our visas so there was nothing he could do really and he just wanted to some $$$. Raul's coyote friend whispered something to him (probably, I'll give you some of our take) and we got through. The whole ordeal was stressful, taxing and exhausting. We vowed never to do that again. We decided to stop at the beach town of San Juan del Sur on the way back to have a drink and relax on the beach for a while to calm down. This is me relaxing:
For some reason, we didn't take any pictures at the border. Probably the stress and annoyance we were experiencing. Anyway, next time visas came up for renewal, we decided to spend several days in Costa Rica, traveling there on the Ticabus, avoiding having to get out and deal with the border crossing ourselves (the bus attendants take your passport and do everything for you; you just have to get out and let them look at your luggage). Much more pleasant and easier experience.
