Visa Extension

It's already been almost 3 months since we moved here! All we can say, is that time moves real fast, although not sure we've accomplished much... Well, since our 3 months here drew to an end, it means that it was time to get an extension to our visas. You don't need to apply for a visa when you come to Nicaragua (from USA). When you enter with your passport, you can stay here for 3 months (90 days) as a tourist. After those 90 days you have to either go to another country that stamps your passports, or get a visa extension from a "migration" office.

We'd heard stories that having migracion stamp your extension isn't too complicated, and we needed to go shopping in Managua anyway. There are Migracion offices closer to us, like in Granada and Rivas, but they take your passport and you have to come back to get it in 3 days (or more, who knows). So, we called our friend Bladimyr for a ride. He's got a company with some other drivers and they are pretty cheap, helpful, and a lot of them know English. Bladimyr couldn't make it himself, so he sent Camillo, who spoke great English and was ready to take us where we needed to go.

Now, I decided, in my infinite wisdom, of course, to take the route less traveled; go to Multicentro Las Americas Mall for the renewal. That location wasn't much talked about, so I figured it would be faster than other, more popular locations. First we had to take copies of our passports. We had heard stories about copies costing $1 per page, so we decided to go to a photo shop away from the migracion office. It paid off: the copies only cost 2 cordobas a page (8 cents). Next we went to the migracion office. A guard on the door let us in, after we showed and somehow kinda explained what we were there for. He told us which line to go to, and get the forms. The forms cost $5 each (we needed 2).

(Pic from Wikipedia)

Our lawyer had said the forms were easy to fill out. Bollocks! We called our trusty Camillo to come help us out, and he translated the things needed. Altho, the form seemed to be the same for applying a Nicaraguan passport, cedula or whatever, and the extension. So we probably filled out a lot of unnecessary information anyways. Like I don't think they need to know the names of my Mom and Dad, but oh well...

Next, us and Camillo went to queue up again, this time to the other line. It didn't take too long to get to the officer, and with Camillo's excellent help, we were able to get everything done. Here's the kick tho. Now I don't know if they just didn't know things, regulations had changed, or they decided to get some pocket money, but we had to pay 500 cordobas for each month we wanted to extend our stay. Because we wanted 3 extra months, we had to pay up 3,000 cordobas (for 2 people)  in total (ca. $120). That's not what I heard. In addition to this travesty, we also forfeited the 7 days we had left on the passport, also different from what I had heard. Needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper. At least it was quick. We got to the mall at around 10, and were out and done with everything by 11.30.

So, a visa run to Costra Rica would've been cheaper, especially when Chuck ended up buying a specifically built computer for $1,000 and we went to PriceSmart too, to spend even more of our money. You can't do that in Costa Rica border camps! When we got home, we let our neighbor's dog in the house, that was for the last time ever! He peed over some of the stuff we bought from PriceSmart!! Hosing them down might've been easier if the water was on... luckily we had spare water in bottles, and we were able to clean the packages.

In any case, next time we actually have to leave the country, but that will be to Finland in July.