Costa Rica Police Report

Because I lived in Costa Rica within the last 10 years, one of the documents I need here in France is a Costa Rican police report. I'd done this before for my Costa Rican residence, so I knew how to get one while living there. But, when I looked at the justice department website, it said I had to go in person to order it 🙁 Well, that put me into a spin, until I thought to ask on one of my French forums. Someone pointed me to the Costa Rican embassy in Singapore! This at least gave me a path - I supply a lot of info to the embassy, and they order the report. Then I have to have someone in Costa Rica pick it up and send it to me.

Armed with the knowledge of this possibility, I asked for help from friends (gonna try with a little help from my friends 🎶🎶). Linda in Costa Rica agreed to pick it up and send it, and Marie-Claire helped me write to the Costa Rican embassy in France to get their process and requirements (naturally, each embassy does things differently, and the embassy in France has no helpful webpage on this process). We also wrote to the French embassy in Costa Rica, who confirmed that they didn't have to add anything to the process.

Sure enough, the embassy in France had different requirements - I emailed them my full name and old cédula (residence permit) number, as well as a copy of both sides. I included Linda's name and cédula number, so that they could identify her as my trusted, authorized representative to pick up my report.

All seemed to be going well; the report would be ready in a week! Well, when Linda attempted to retrieve the report, they said that they couldn't use my cédula because it had expired; instead, they needed my current passport. I quickly emailed it directly to them, and they said for Linda to return after lunch. Then (!), after lunch, they said to come back the next morning! Well, at least after that, it was smooth sailing...

A couple of weeks later, here it is! And it even says that I've been good 🙂

Thank goodness for friends!