www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I have spoken with several ticas in general about vacations in the US. Also, only a few being "pro's". Mostly just regular civilians.

I don't know if they aren't as crafty with paperwork or if I am missing something. But they all tell me it is difficult to get one. Could it be a nice way of saying "I don't care to go" ?

What is the trick here to getting it done? Specific information?

The trick is money in the bank, having decent amount of time on the job, owning a car, and owning a home. The US wants to be sure they will return home. Also not being involved in the sex business is a must. If the feds find that one out they are toast. There are travel agencys that will help but you have to buy their packaged tour and she will need to go with them if they get her a visa. Once they get a visa and return home I understand the next one will be easier. On the other side of the coin the more declines they get the harder it is to obtain a visa.

It is extremely difficult to get a tourist visa in any 3rd world country. The poorer the country, the harder it gets. The reasons are pretty straight-forward. The US gov't believes that people from poor countries want to come to the US and stay illegally to live the American dream. And that's true for the most part. What these people don't know and sometimes realize once they get here is that the "American dream" is pretty much dead. It's a different world, but still heaven compared to where they are coming from.

To get back on topic, the only (vague) requirement is that "the applicant must demonstrate strong ties to their home country". However, nobody (including the gov't) can tell you exactly what they are looking for. It is totally subjective based on the immigration official that interviews the applicant. Most people say that things they look for is: money in the bank (with history of regular deposits-can't deposit $10k a week before the interview), a steady good job, real estate ownership.

But again, it's all subjective. I have known professional people with all of the things I listed get denied, and I have known full-time working girls get visas on their first try.

It's a broken system. To answer the OP, yes, it is very hard to get a tourist visa to the US from CR. Approval rate is under 10%. And I think most of the chicas would love to visit the US.

I heard from a Tica I friended from LACupid that she tried 3 X & was charged $250 each time & was turned down each time. She also said that The US Consulate frowns upon Ticas of working age getting visas, meaning 18yo -50 yo or so. Again, having assets & $ in the bank help. Not having this is almost a certain denial. She told me of cases where the Mother, Father, grandparents & brothers & little sisters got Visas but the 18+ yo sister Ticas got turned down.

CostaReeker

$250? Did she ask you to send her any since she spent so much? (Btw- it's $160/application).

And yes, it seems that women (especially single) in that age range are finding it harder to get a visa. The thought is that they will find an American sucker to marry them and they can adjust their status to be able to stay.

I was recalling from memory so that means I was more than likely incorrect. Maybe she was adding taxis & lunch & lost wages from having to go to the interview. Anyway, expensive for them & cost prohibitive after 2 or 3 attempts. She did not ask me for money. When I was down there at the Consulate a year or so ago, getting a temp. passport after leaving mine in the taxi, I saw a couple of tatted up chicas holding newborns with old geezers in tow. Yes , old as in older than me, like 70+ y.o. Not hard to figure out what they were trying to do, just hard to believe the old geezers were the father.

CostaReeker

oh yea, u can hear/see some funny shit at the consulate. When my wife and I were there for her fiancée visa interview, the couple in front of us was a mi 20's Tica and a 60+ something gringo. Then she got asked the question what is your fiancée's last name? Oh oh. She turned to him and asked him. (People waiting are all in close quarters, so they can pretty much hear it all, so everybody had a good laugh.)

The really funny part is that when my girl went to pick up her passport (visa) the following tuesday, that chica was there picking hers up also.

Last year, we needed to go for something and while waiting enjoyed a few couples being interviewed. One guy with his older Tica (and her teen daughter) were interviewed. Typical ugly American. Kept yelling and saying how he was a veteran and served in the war. The more they asked, the higher he yelled. And he had no idea about the forms he sent, when or where he sent them, and they ended up granting his woman a visa but not her daughter because he botched up the paperwork and the daughter was still being processed. She broke down in tears and he kept yelling.

Am I missing something obvious here? Why not fly your Chica to Juárez and get her to walk across? Obama will probably give her a drivers license and some spending money. Why bother with the time and expense of a proper visa application?

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The most dangerous adversaries are the ones that come with a smile instead of a sword

Tourist visas aren't easy...my wife has been denied twice. Ilv4play hit the nail on the head with his post on what they look for. My wife had a signed letter from a U.S. Federal Judge who she would have been staying with guaranteeing she would return to CR and the Embassy here wouldn't even bother to read it. They looked her up in the computer, ask 3 questions and denied her. All the letters meant nothing as they were never even seen. I wasn't even going...as my letter they never read stated.


Bingo...why would anyone bother doing it legally anymore?

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The only thing that matters is happiness in all it forms...

This only works for drug dealers and rapists, according to SOMEONE WHO KNOWS!!

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

Indeed. And if they make it to a 'sanctuary city' (i.e. San Francisco) they most certainly would be 'home free'

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

Because, if she does survive the experience, her panties will wind up on some coyote's "rape tree."

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"I'm not one those pathetic lietuenant colonels working a silly civilian job, working out two hours a day trying to reclaim a body they lost 20 years ago and four hours a night completing War College by correspondence in a sad attempt at colonel. Tyler Durden told us [i]'Self improvement is masturbation[/i].' My mid-life crisis is going to involve a new sports car, or the zoftig redhead with daddy issues in accounting, or better yet, racking up frequent flyer miles going to Pattaya."

Exactly... And the entire topic of why do it legally is absurd... Perhaps people like me who are in Escazú waiting on Visa paperwork want to be able to do things like have my wife covered under my health insurance, obtain a driver's license, be able to obtain her citizenship etc. She is an amazing mother to my daughter and hopefully we will have more of our own. She has never been about money, and is the most fiercely loyal woman I have ever met. I have met the entire family, we are all very close and they all treat not only me but my daughter with nothing but love , respect, and genuine caring... What everyone here fails to take into consideration just like I did when I first came down here was that most of the woman don't want to be outas.. they were made to by either novios or circumstances, hell some made to by their parents even... This doesn't make them bad people... I have since realized that what I thought I knew I did not.. I didn't even know what I didn't know... After for the first time in my life and my daughter's actually having a real living family of more than just us and my dying parents... But a whole family of all very honest and caring people that accepted us whole heatedly ... That when I came down here initially thinking everyone was trying to get over on the dumb American. That after learning and becoming fluent in Spanish and spending so much time with truly genuine and good hearted people, even someone I consider one if the best friends I have ever had in my life who happens to be a puta... That it wasn't then that were in the wrong.. it was me... For coming down here to I don't know what.. in my mind maybe try to Phuck the whole world, even though I knew I was looking for a wife, I went about it by taking advantage of women in bad situations and to be honest with you all when I think about who I was before I am ashamed of that person .. All I can tell you and this is from someone that has been accepted over here and has been with my wife long enough to truly know how good she is and how bad I was... Do not let the people on here who have been jaded by women that were not responsive to them as they were only trying to buy the woman and not show them respect.... The people here are amazing, the potential for true happiness is here, the women are everything you hoped for, when you find the right one she will die for you and will show you exactly what you have been missing in your life. I started out coming for my teeth, continued coming for many reasons, I stay now just under half a year in CR and the rest in US... If you have a good heart and let it show here you would be amazed at what you will be shown in return. For me I went from being a full time single dad and business owner to a family man

Congrats to you Dr, but your post is quite condescending!

CostaReeker

I think he is not able to express himself. He seems to want to say that he has discovered the warmth of the women and strong family ties that exist unlike in the US where you and your wife are on your own.
He also seems to have discovered that the brain washed ideas he had that pu**s are evil people who are predators of gringos was not necessarily true.
I give him the benefit of the doubt that he meant to point out our evil ways.

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Softbob

There is nothing either good or bad
but thinking makes it so.
HAMLET