Life in Costa Rica: Collect PCC on behalf of someone
Moving to a different country comes with challenges and rewards. And when you don’t know the language, challenges get compounded. This post is to help collect the Police Clearance Certificate on behalf of someone in Costa Rica.
Police Clearance Certificate == Certificado de antecedentes penales in Spanish.
These are the steps
- If you need it for yourself, you can directly go to Edificio Anexo A — Poder Judicial, show your Cedula and they issue it to you directly. Check Google Maps for timings. No charges are levied.
2. On behalf of someone:
a. If you are to collect it on behalf of someone who is not in Costa Rica, that person has to reach out to Costa Rican embassy in the country he is in seeking this certificate and let them also know one authorized person who can collect it on that person’s behalf. They usually ask for a few details like that person’s Name, Family details, Passport#, Duration in Costa Rica, etc., and identification details of the authorized person.
b. They will reach out to Poder Judicial and let them know the requirement. Once the document is available they will let the requestor know. As of 13th Jan 2020, all these international requests are journaled manually in a notebook. This is important because when I went to collect my friend’s PCC they informed me that they do not have any request for him. After 3 iterations of searching the register, they found it.
c. Collecting it does not take more than a couple of minutes. There are a few counters and things move fast.
d. More often than not, folks are required to get the document apostilled. We need to go Casa Amarilla.
It is almost 1 km from Podre Judicial and note that the timings of both these services will be different. So, plan to collect PCC early in the morning from Edificio Anexo A and then plan to visit Casa Amarilla. There are many entrances and you need to go to the appropriate entrance for the apostille section. Bike parking is available.
Apostille == Apostilla in Spanish.
As of 13th Jan 2020, Casa Amarilla opens at 9 AM and expect a lot of folks waiting there since 7 AM. In my case, Edificio Anexo A opens at 7.30 AM, So, I collected it and reached Casa Amarilla around 7.50 AM and had to wait in Line till 9.15 AM. We need to buy a stamp, kind of a ticket to get our documents apostilled. The counter is available inside. For me, it was around 600 CRC. They ask for which country is the apostille needed and check if you have everything and the process took around 15 minutes from the time they checked my docs.
Once done, verify your details and get back to Pura Vida :)
Disclaimer: This is solely based on my experience and is intended to help someone. Any process/timings/details can change and I don’t intend to update my blog post when it does.
