Although the law was passed 6 months ago, even 6 months isn’t enough time for even half of the 400,000 expired licenses to be renewed (at 1000 a day). Even if the 400,000 number is high, the San Jose Cosevi office isn’t ready to deal with the number of people who need to renew. As far as having other offices, yes there are, but taking a bus to another office and hoping to get in line in time seems rather iffy. As far as going to BCR, I don’t think that works for expired licenses. I do know that there are no lines (other than the usual) at BCR, but those at Cosevi are enormous. I will try to verify this at BCR if I can.

If drivers with expired licenses should have seen this coming, then lawmakers should have known the number of expired licenses and the processing capacity for expired licenses and seen the logjam coming.

I have a CR license too, and it wasn’t bad. But they gave me preferential treatment as a foreigner. There were long lines back then (in January) well before the new law went into effect. My bottom line take on the situation is that the government either did not see the problem or didn’t care. Neither speaks well of the government.

1. The law was passed more than 6 months ago in September of last year and was very well publicized. It is hard to find much sympathy for individuals who have had 6 months to either renew a license or obtain a new one.
2. While the estimated number of those without valid licenses is reported as 400,000; it is reasonable to assume some of those may have died, moved out of CR, have given up driving or drive very, very infrequently.
3. CR citizens (and I believe legal residents of CR) can renew their drivers licenses at branches of Banco de Costa Rica.
4. The Cosevi office in La Uruca, while the main office, is not the only Cosevi office. I believe there are other Cosevi offices in San Ramon, Limon and Punterenas and possibly others (I may not have the exact listing of branch offices correct).
5. It seems to me that it is reasonable for a country to have a law requiring that all drivers need to have a valid and up to date drivers license. As one who does have a CR license (mine was renewed two years ago and does not expire until 2013) I want other drivers to have a current and valid license. And, by the way, when I renewed mine in La Uruca it took less than an hour.

However, I do agree that the new traffic fine of about $160 is too high; I believe the old fine was 2,000 colones (or about $3.50). Hopefully the amount will be reduced by legislative action soon. I also believe that the CR government could have done a much better job of increasing publicity about the amount of the fine in the last few months.

Finally, since this newsletter is aimed primarily at expats or potential expats it may be useful to point out that visitors and immigrants can drive in CR on a valid drivers license from another country for 90 days without having to have a CR drivers license.