July 2007
Before I begin with some instructional help, I must give you the following advice:

You are in a foreign country!  You are a guest here!  Their laws are not stupid or odd…they are just different.  Think of the difficulties of moving here as just a game.  Their game!  Their rules.  If you want to play it will be much easier if you play by their rules and not try to impress some governmental official or quasi-governmental person with your outstanding knowledge about the way things should be, or the way things are in the States.

Be kind, be considerate, be patient, and people will be helpful.  Some of the things necessary to do are a pain in the butt but you have to do them.  Why challenge their way of doing things….it will NOT endear you to the local people when you suggest that there is an easier way, a better way, or a faster way, or the American way.  It will only tend to make them less helpful.

Imagine, if the shoe were on the other foot - you are trying to enter the United States as a resident alien…it is a huge pain.  American ways are far more difficult than are Panamanian ways.  If you are a foreigner trying to immigrate to the States, you can count on a 5-7 year wait unless you are a foreigner opening a business.  Then there is a huge amount of paperwork and the fees are huge.  Trust me, their ways are easier, just play by their rules, and you’ll not have difficulty.  Things never go perfectly smoothly but if you keep the foregoing in mind and follow the suggestions hereafter, you’ll get here with the minimum of problems.

Once in, and you have your pensionado visa this is the easiest place in the world to get along.  Trust me, I’ve been everywhere in the world and I can assure you you’ll love it if you understand what you are doing.

I believe it is essential you get a pensionado visa.  It will make you essentially a citizen with all the rights any other citizen has except voting.  It also gives you discounts on everything from air-fares, food, dentist bills, drugs and everything you can think of.  Nearly as important is the fact that you are entitled to be treated like an honored retired citizen.  You don’t have to keep your passport with you at all times….your pensionado card will suffice for everything except opening your bank accounts.  It is worth the effort. 

In order to get your pensionado visa you need to do some things.  You need a (I suggest a color copy..scan it into your computer and print it out) copy of your passport.  You will need a copy of your police report; you accomplish this by going to your local police department in your country of residence) and asking for one.  In our former home in the states they charged us $10 per person.  You will need a copy of your birth certificate and if married a copy of your marriage certificate.  Some one told me you now need a health certificate.  I suspect that is because of the pervasiveness of HIV/AIDS throughout the world.  You only need to see your physician and have him give you a letter saying you are in good overall health and are HIV/AIDS negative.  I seem to recall that we got a local health certificate from a local doctor here in Panama.  It would be wise if you took a look at International Living Panama Visa page..just google it and you’ll get the info you need. 

You need an attorney here in Panama for this effort.  I would strongly suggest you get one in Panama City rather than here in Boquete because of the fact that there are many less than scrupulous attorneys here (just like in the States) that will charge you based on the fact that they can get  essentially any amount they want to charge you because you are a foreigner rather than what is a reasonable and fair price.  Competition is good.  You should not pay more than $700 for the first person and $500 for the second if they are done at the same time.  So, for a couple more than $1200 is not reasonable. 

I will give you the name of an attorney that is well connected and knows this procedure so well that she “can do it with her eyes closed.”  She speaks English and is very helpful.  Her name is Myra Lamboglia: email her at mayra1378@hotmail.com.  If you tell her that Casey Koehler from Boquete sent you she will be receptive.  She has had clients that don’t listen to her and don’t do as she says and tell her how silly the requirements are.  She doesn’t like that.  This is her country and her country’s rules and she knows the laws.  Do the things she says, how she says, and when she says, and you’ll have no difficulty. You will have to pay her $600 down on her accepting the job and the balance of the $1200 on completion of your visas (for two).

When you have collected the documents I just described you will have to have them “apostilled.”  That means basically, notarized, BUT, by their consulate in Coral Gables, Florida.  Don’t send them to their Miami consulate.  The Coral Gables branch is very efficient and very fast and if you send them in a Fedex envelope with a self addressed Fedex envelope enclosed along with $15/page you should get your documents back in 3-4 days at most.  Include a letter that says “my attorney suggested I forward these documents to you for apostillation”,  would you please be kind enough to do so and return them to me in the enclosed self addressed Fedex envelope as soon as possible? Thank you!”  You can get the address for the Coral Gables Panamanian cousulate by calling information and asking whoever answers for the address and asking to whom you should address your request.  Remember, do not send to the Miami branch!  It will take a month or more if you do so, and may not get done at all.

Once these babies are back in your hands, you simply put them in a FedEx (notice I said FedEx, mail service is notoriously unreliable) to Mayra Lamboglia….requesting her to begin and enclosing a bank check for half the total amount required.  Her current address is Calle 50 #117 Planta Baja  San Francisco, Panama City, Republic of Panama.

It would be a good idea for you to check with her via email that her address hasn’t changed.  People do change their offices.  Ask her when she thinks she will be ready for you to take the next step.  Follow her directions.  She knows what she is doing.  You will have to show up in person to get your card.  We had to bring the documents personally, make a trip to the immigration office and do some other things while there.  Then when things were complete we had to return to get our final cards…this only took 15 minutes.

Corporation or Foundation
Don’t bother with forming a corporation unless you will be starting a business on arrival.  My strong suggestion is that you form a foundation to protect your assets.  (They changed the laws here about a year and a half ago.  Corporate officers and directors are now responsible for the 
debts of the corporation should the corporation go bankrupt!)  Who needs that? 

Foundations protect your assets from prying eyes from anywhere, including the IRS, they protect your assets in the event you should have a terrible accident and, for instance, run over a child, from lawsuits.  It is an indispensable tool for you and Myra can get that done too.  She charges $900 for the process and it’ll take 60-90 days.  Once again, she requires 50% down and the balance on completion.  I should let you know here that I do not get a kick back from Myra for sending you to her.  I know her, respect her and her abilities and she was very helpful to us.  No one was here to help us find out any of this stuff and I just feel I should help anyone that needs it.  Since I am so routinely asked I decided to save myself saying the same stuff over and over and reduce all this to writing.

Back to the foundation.  You should open any bank cd’s (certificate of Deposit) and at least one savings account in the name of the foundation.  We have another bank account in our names in which we keep about $5000.  That is just for anything that might be needed.  When that account needs replenishing we just transfer money from our foundation checking account to our personal checking account.  This way there is never much money to attack should anything happen.  Additionally, we did not put our car in the foundation.  Maybe we should have but we didn’t.  We have only our land, cd’s and one checking account that’s it.

Moving Household Goods
You are currently allowed $10,000 dollars of used household goods tax free if you have your pensionado visa.  If you have new goods you will be liable for sales taxes on them.  We packed all new appliances in the front of the container and they were therefore essentially invisible to the customs officers as long as the container remains unopened until it arrives in David.  If you are a little lazy and don’t watch and direct your packers where to put anything new then you are in for a headache -  delays for sometimes as much as two weeks, fines and a general pain.  Here is the secret.  Hire your container company and have the shipper schedule the destination for delivery to Boquete via David.  There is a customs office in David (the third largest city of 300,000 souls).  They will not unload the whole container there -  only the first 10-20 feet.  Delivery to Boquete via David will cost you an extra $900 or so more than to Colon.  If you hire Panama Packers a firm that operates in the States thinking it will make your move easier….it is a huge mistake.  They (Panama Packers) will unload your furniture in Colon in front of a customs officer and your broker and reload it onto a moving van for transport to Boquete.  Panama Packers then charge you an 'extra moving fee' of about $900. It only costs about $200 to do this move but they will rack you with the fee.  It is very important that the container company delivers the container to David, you go through customs there and then have it delivered to your home in Boquete.  I had friends that had to pay an extra $300 to move the goods to Boquete from David.  I have friends that had their goods unloaded in Colon with some new stuff in it…they had to pay $2000 under the table rather than $5000 in duties and fees on new stuff they imported.  Don’t bring long guns -  if you want to bring a hand gun email me and I will tell you how to go about it.

Bringing Your Car
Unless, you are in love with your car, and just must have it..then I suggest you sell your car in the States.  Rent a car for a couple of weeks before you arrive here if necessary.  Then buy an Asian 4wd.  Asian because, they are very popular here and easy to get parts and repairs done. 

Here is the skinny on bringing your car.  We did this.  I probably would not do it again but so you know what you are up against here is what happens. 

We were fortunate to be only a few hours driving time from Cape Canaveral.  There is a container company there by the name of Cartainer.  They transship cars throughout Central and South America. They only charged $425 for shipment from Florida to Colon.  However, you must hire a broker to get your car released (about $250) then once your car is here you must pick it up in Colon.  Picking it up is no big deal but it is a little over $100 air fare (if you have your pensionado visa) to go to Panama City then have your broker drive you to Colon (about 1 hour 30 minutes).  It is not that far just too much traffic. 

Then you have to drive it up to Boquete.  No big deal, but it is VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU ALLOW 6 HOURS AND DO NOT DRIVE THE INTERAMERICAN HIGHWAY AT NIGHT!  IT IS VERY DANGEROUS.  SO, I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND YOU START THIS TRIP AFTER 1:00 P.M.

Once your car is in Boquete, the paper work begins.  You will not get your official papers to register your car from the government for about 90 days….or more.  Meantime you are allowed 30 days permit to drive!  Sounds kind of silly, you don’t get the papers for 90 days or more and are allowed to drive for only 30 days.  But the police don’t bother you and as long as you have your permit they won’t ticket you for not having your car registered.  Once you get your papers, it takes about a day and a half to get your car registered.  Then you have to wait about 2 weeks to get your tag.  None of which will be a big deal but it can become a pain in the butt. 

Additionally, you will have to pay sales tax on your vehicle, no duty, but sales tax.  This is not controlled by your receipt of sale or anything you can do.  The customs people decide how much your car is worth and you will pay tax accordingly.  You have no say and proof of purchase has no influence.  You should assume about 10% of the sticker price - on the U.S. sticker price that is.  We brought a Hyundai Santa Fe, one year old with 13,000 miles on it and had the bill of sale from the dealer showing we paid $20,000.  They taxed us at the sticker price from the
states $2530.  It just so happened that was 10% of the sticker price.  We have friends that brought a 6 year old Lexus SUV with more than 100,000 miles and they still had to pay about $2500.

If you buy a car here your dealer will do all that stuff for you.  If you have your pensionado visas already it will make it go very nicely.  We have a friend who just bought a Toyota Prado turbo-diesel 4wd SUV, only a 2 door and the rear hatch.  Pretty much loaded from Panama City for $20,000.  That is cheaper than you could bring it in.  You cannot make a good deal on a car in David.  They just won’t deal.  But you can make a deal in Panama City.  It is worth buying there.

I recommend a 4wd, especially an automatic (where you don’t have to get out and adjust the hubs) only because it is an interesting country to explore and there are many places where you will need the power.

Living Here
Once here and settled in you will find it a really lovely experience.  I admit I fell in love with the weather, the people, and the country in general.  No one cares what you do, no one bothers you.  Be prepared to be ignored, and left alone.  Panamanians don’t care if you have money or not…they assume you do because you are a gringo.  However, that doesn’t effect the way they treat you.  If you are a nice person, they’ll help you, if you act arrogant they’ll ignore you, or when you ask for something to be done they’ll say manana and that doesn’t mean tomorrow.  It means not today and maybe not at all. 

Don’t get me wrong, there is a culture here that is not hurried. Manana, sometimes does mean later and most things don’t happen on a timely basis.  We have learned that the best thing to do is just don’t plan too many things to be done too quickly.  We just plan to get one or two things done on any particular “mission.”

/ continued on next page

Driving the Pan-American Highway to Mexico and Central America - Driving the Pan-American Highway to Mexico and Central America  - The Only Guide Book on the Subject - Exclusive - This Updated Version - 2004 - of Driving the Pan-American Highway that is available on this website is an EscapeArtist.com exclusive available only here and only in eBook - The updated eBook version of this guide is the must have guide for anyone who is thinking of driving through Mexico to Central America."