The car ordeal started when the dealer we bought it from said they would buy it back, but then proceeded to back out of the deal a few weeks before we were leaving. Our other option was selling it to anyone who would buy it (without the title) or shipping it. We decided shipping was probably our best option.
Stop 1: A few weeks before leaving, Jake tried to get ahead by finding the Police Department (Division of Stolen Vehicles). He started at the local police office, near Honeywell in San Antonio. After explaining that we were looking for car export paperwork, Jake realized that neither of the men at the police office front desk spoke English. Kind of scary...after a 5 minute wait, they brought out an officer who could speak English. He spoke with the men at the front desk in Spanish and told Jake where to go on Ramey base to find the division of stolen vehicles.
Stop 2: The police office across from the Coast Guard on Ramey base. After going in what appeared to be the main entrance, Jake was told to go around back and up the stairs. This office area looked like an apartment kitchen, with some desks in a living room and a few bedrooms converted into offices. Once again, Jake explained that he was trying to get vehicle export paperwork, but this was not the correct place either. They told him that he needed to go to the other side of the base (on the opposite side of the airport runway).
Stop 3: We had driven by this location a few times before so Jake knew right where to go. The sign out front said that it was the department of stolen vehicles, so Jake knew he was in the right spot. There was no one in line when he walked in and explained what he was there to do. The man at the front desk looked at the bill of sale, and said "that car is not going anywhere without a title in your name." UGH! The man did explain things quite well and said that we needed all of the other paperwork prior to coming back there to get the certificate from them. We now knew that our primary objective the last two weeks needed to be getting the title.
After many phone calls, Jake was able to get the dealer to go to the Puerto Rican DMV which is called DTOP or CESCO...not sure what the different divisions are. The told us on the Friday two weeks before we were leaving, that it would be done on Monday. On Monday, Jake waited all day for confirmation that the title was complete so that we could drive down to the dealer. Finally he called, and was told that the woman he had been working with was out for the day and would be back Tuesday and she is the only person in the title department. So, Tuesday, we once again were promised that the title would be there by 3:30 pm. At 4, after not hearing anything, Jake called again and was told that it needed to be printed and that she was 99% sure it would be at the dealer on Wednesday. Wednesday went by slowly...waiting for confirmation, but at the end of the day, Jake got an email saying the title was not ready, and that she recommended he come down in person to try to get it out of DTOP.
Stop 4: So, Jake took Thursday morning off, and drove the 1 hour down to Mayaguez and after a few wrong turns finally ended up in the CESCO parking lot. He went in and tried to communicate with the people. The guard didn't speak English, but pointed to an area that had a few different lines. After walking around a bit and feeling completely out of place, Jake got in line at the front desk. The first lady referred him to the man next to her. More waiting. When he became available, he pointed to a little office in the corner near the bathrooms. Jake went in there, and found a log book to write his name down in and wait some more. The lady there spoke pretty good English and after some begging and pleading, she told him to go to a different office and ask for a specific person. So, back to the other side of DTOP and into an office, asking for the person by name. Again, a log book and more waiting. Then two people came out and brought Jake back to their office. One was for translating :) and the other was in charge of the titles. He gave them his information and they said the title was done! Yay! But, wait, they couldn't release it without dealer authorization. A few phone calls and more waiting fixed that. 10 seconds after getting the dealer to say ok, the title was pulled off the top of a stack several feet high that probably had 100 cases in it. Amazing! Jake had the title in his hand, except his name was spelled Wienman and the address was wrong. Don't worry they said, just write down the information correctly on this piece of paper. A few key strokes later, a brand new title and license were printing out before his eyes. Success!!!! The whole process took about an hour. And nothing like being down to the wire on timing.
Stop 5: Now that we had the title, we could continue with doing the paperwork needed to ship the car. We were so busy our last week in Puerto Rico that Jake asked a coworker to come with and he was glad he did. We had to get the paperwork less than 5 days before shipping. The first form was to show that there were no fines on the vehicle. Jake and his coworker went inside, talked to the guard and got in a line with about 3 people ahead of them. When it was finally our turn, the lady said we needed stamps (special DTOP stamps to pay for it), and the $10 auto export voucher from the internal revenue. We needed to walk across to a different building to get those. On our way over, we realized that the internal revenue office was still closed and there were probably 20 people already in line waiting. UGH! Jake's coworker darted into a shop...Jake followed and once inside found shoes and touristy things - it was kind of a general gift shop. The owner and Jake's coworker were talking in Spanish, and the owner went behind the front display case and pulled out a metal clipboard case. When he opened it up, it looked like he had several of anything anyone would need from the internal revenue. Jake's coworker turned to Jake and said $18. The voucher was $10 and the stamps were $3. So for an additional $5 we wouldn't have to wait in line. It was a no brainer. Jake might have paid double that! When they were leaving, Jake asked him how he knew to go in that store and he pointed to a small sign in the window that said they had those items, but in Spanish of course.
Back to the DTOP, but this time we knew which office to go to. There was no one in line. We filled out a piece of paper and waited. About 5 minutes later, they came back out with the two pieces of paper showing that there were no fines on the vehicle and that we were in the clear to export. The whole process took less than 30 minutes...Thanks to Carlos!!!!
Stop 6: Back to the police department division of stolen vehicles. Jake dropped off Carlos at work, because he had already dry ran this place and knew they spoke English, and thought the inspection might take more time. However, this time the person at the front desk didn't speak English and Jake had to call Carlos to ask him to translate. The officer reviewed the information a bit and then asked Jake to sit outside and wait. There were a few white plastic chairs spread out about 50 feet away from the building near the fence that surrounds the building. Now Jake knew why those people were there waiting (he had wondered why in the past).
The first officer told him that it would be about a 30 minute wait. It was over an hour before they called his middle name. Puerto Ricans have multiple last names here, so it isn't uncommon to be called by your middle name if it is written down. Jake was asked to pull his car around back where the inspection would be done and then they asked him to leave it and go back out front and wait. It should only be a 10 min wait this time, they told him. After about 35 min, they called his name and he went back with the officer while they did his inspection. The whole thing took about 10 min. After that, they went inside and the rest of the paperwork took them another 10 min. The whole thing took about 2 hours from start to finish. It felt great to have all of the paperwork in order to ship the car on Monday, two whole days before we were planning on going to the ship yard.
After we wrapped up our last two days of work, and finished closing up and packing up our place, we left very early Wednesday morning to drive the car and our stuff to San Juan. It was about a two hour drive. We went straight to rent a car and then went for the export car wash.
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| After spending $75 on a car wash- just a few potholes... |
This was probably the cleanest the car has been since we've owned it. The car wash took about 2 hours...we picked up Subway while we were waiting, and then headed over to the shipyard as soon as it was finished. The shipyard is closed from 11am to 1pm and it was noon, but we wanted to get a number as soon as possible. It took some work to find the place we needed to be, but once we did, we realized it was going to be a long afternoon.
It was already 2pm, and they hadn't called 1 number yet. We were number 9 and they were still on 96. Someone told us they were clearing the backlog from the morning. By this point, Jake was already certain that the car was not getting shipped before we had to catch our flight 24 hours later. Then they called the first number and it took 4 numbers before they found someone that was there. We asked a few people around us questions, and soon we were all speaking in English. It turned out that most of the people there were already living in the states or were moving there. We felt like this was the most English interaction we have had outside of work since we moved to Puerto Rico. Everyone was nice and as the hours passed by, we would cheer once they finally called a number.
Having that support group made the 4 hour wait bearable.
We finally got our number called and went up to the desk. Jake handed over all of the paperwork we had worked so hard to get, and they made a few copies and told us the instructions on how to bring the car back. By this point we were used to waiting, so we figured we still had a solid hour of waiting to go. Jake had to go the security officer and get an orange vest to take the car back into the shipping yard. Once there, they came out and did an inspection of the car which went very fast. The drop off part probably only took 15 minutes. The other people must not have had their paperwork in order because it took us less than 20 minutes once our number had been called and other people had been there for hours back and forth from the shipyard and the main desk.
It was kind of surreal after it was all over. We drove to the Condado area in San Juan and checked into our hotel. Jake was relieved that the shipping process was over and that we could now focus on flying and setting up our lives all over again in Clearwater.
Fast forward 2 weeks, and the car arrived in Jacksonville over the long Fourth of July weekend. We were informed the week after the fourth that the car was cleared through customs and that it would be released to the driver later in the week. The car was supposed be delivered Monday, but Jake got a call from the driver on Friday saying he was an hour away. At last, the car had made it!
All in all, we think we made the right decision. We wish we could have sold it in Puerto Rico, but it prevented us from dumping more money into another vehicle, or having to drive or ship KC's car from MN right away. We would probably recommend looking into leasing a newer vehicle if you are moving to Puerto Rico and don't know how long you are going to be stay, or pay someone to help ship your car to prevent the painful process. It was nice not having to go through the process of buying a car in Florida.
