For years, my husband and I talked about moving to Panama. We drooled over photos of lush tropical hideaways, deserted beaches and dreamy, cool mountaintops covered in flowers. Countless articles and guides — online and in print — told us about cheap real estate and very-easy immigration visas. It seemed so simple to us, so we eventually visited and decided to take the next step.
We’ve been working on residency in Panama in preparation for our permanent move in about a year. My lawyer just contacted me yesterday with news that we need to return for the second to last stage of our application process.
I was taking a walk with my elderly neighbor, Mary, the other day. She has had her house on the market for over a year now and is puzzled why it’s not selling. We happened to walk by the home of another neighbor who has had her house on the market for several months as well. She was gardening outside and stopped us to say hello. To my amusement, the conversation went something like this:
I can remember fondly the days when the word “bubble” was rarely used in reference to anything but chewing gum and soap. My husband and I had a sizeable chunk of money in tech stocks and we were raking it in without lifting a finger. It was the “new economy” where tech stocks were going to moon – no matter that the underlying businesses weren’t even making profits in some cases.
The actress, Susan Sarandon, is talking about leaving the U.S. permanently if John McCain should win the presidency in November.
She told the Telegraph in an interview:
So there we were, wanting to change our lives in some extreme way, yet still relying on a 9-5 job, paying on a mortgage, having babies and feeling quite trapped settled.
With so many people desiring to grab a piece of the “Second Costa Rica”, I guess Panama can now become a little pickier about who can stay. It looks like with the passing of the new immigration law at the beginning of 2008, they want you to be a little wealthier in order to grace their beaches with your permanent presence.
1. Culture: I consider the compatibility of a culture one of my top priorities. For us, we gravitated toward Latin America because my husband is Hispanic, we love the language, we’re Catholic and we already dance salsa at home. In other words, we feel quite comfortable in that setting. How a society socializes and interacts, how they eat, sleep, worship, and how open they are to immigrants can really determine how happy you will be.
For years Congress has attempted in some fashion or another to get rid of the ex-pat tax exemption or inflict new exit taxes on those leaving the U.S. to live abroad.
It seems we have a global food crisis. Of course, I won’t worry too much as long as Cadbury’s milk chocolate with fruit and nuts stays at 2-for-$1 at my local cheap grocery. Mmmm. We First-Worlders aren’t living off of tiny portions of rice and beans, so maybe it’s not hitting us as hard as it is in Haiti. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to store some extra pantry items away. There are plenty of businesses that specialize in emergency food supplies and food kits. Better safe than sorry.