Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller discusses the evolving landscape of passport security, including the introduction of RFID chips and the privacy concerns they raise. He also delves into the new entry requirements for Nicaragua, the practicality of immigration policies for US citizens, and the experiences of expats living in Latin America. From passport tracking to visa overstays, Johnny provides an honest and insightful look at life as an expat in the region.
Johnny begins by introducing The Expat Files as a show that provides an honest perspective on living in Latin America, contrasting it with the idealized versions presented in travel magazines. He then reads an email from a listener named Barry, who is planning to move to Nicaragua with his wife. Barry shares that there are new entry requirements for Nicaragua, which include having a valid US passport for the entire duration of the stay. Johnny comments on the importance of having a valid passport, noting that US passport laws are changing, and that the new regulations are part of a broader effort to track US citizens more closely. He also discusses the upcoming upgrade to US passports with more sophisticated RFID chips, which could pose privacy concerns if not properly managed.
The discussion continues with Johnny exploring the privacy concerns associated with RFID chips in passports, warning that governments can access personal information without consent. He advises expats to get a new passport with the old technology to avoid being tracked. He also provides information on how to obtain a new passport even if it's not expired, and highlights the risks of RFID chips being hacked, citing a 2009 incident where someone used cheap equipment to read passport data from a distance.
In another segment, Johnny discusses the RFID chips in US passports and the security concerns they pose. He mentions that while there are products available to block RFID signals, such as RFID blocking wallets, tampering with the chip is illegal in the US. Johnny also highlights the irony that even if the chip is damaged, the passport remains valid. He references Chris Padgett's experience in San Francisco, where he was able to skim passports from a distance, suggesting that the government's claim about the limited range of RFID readers is questionable. Johnny then shifts to a story about Expat Eddy, who discovered an RFID chip in his passport and, after accidentally damaging it in a microwave, decided to destroy the passport further by running it over with his car to avoid legal issues. Eddy's approach reflects a broader skepticism toward government surveillance and a desire for privacy.
Johnny also touches on the process of obtaining a new passport, the ability to read RFID chips in passports, and the legal implications of such actions. He critiques the requirements for US citizens visiting Nicaragua, highlighting the irony that these requirements mirror those imposed by the US on its own citizens. Johnny argues that these requirements are more of a formality than an actual enforcement measure.
In another segment, Johnny discusses the ease of entry for US tourists in Latin America, particularly in Costa Rica and Panama. He highlights that border officials often do not check credit card validity at airports, and that while some countries may ask for return tickets, it's usually a scam to get a small fee from tourists. He also mentions the inconsistency of border control across Latin America, with some borders being very lax. Additionally, he talks about visa overstaying and how it's not a big deal, with fines being relatively low and officials not being strict about it. Johnny concludes by emphasizing that Latin American countries love US tourists and that entry requirements are more of a formality than a strict rule.
Finally, Johnny discusses the challenges expats face with visa overstays, using the example of an expat who overstayed his 90-day visa in Honduras for over three years and paid $800 in fines. He highlights the leniency of the authorities, who only collected the fine without treating the expat as a criminal. The expat continues to return on a 90-day visa, paying a daily fine of $2 instead of pursuing residency. Johnny questions whether this situation is worth worrying about, noting the expat's lack of concern.
Topics
Introduction to The Expat Files, New entry requirements for Nicaragua, Changes in US passport laws, Privacy concerns with RFID chips in passports, Government surveillance and tracking, Passport security and replacement, Technological risks and hacking, Personal data and government access, RFID chips in passports, Privacy and surveillance concerns, Legal implications of tampering with passports, Expat Eddy's approach to privacy and security
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:07 New Entry Requirements for Nicaragua 00:00:08 Changes in US Passport Laws 00:00:13 Privacy Concerns with RFID Chips 00:05:12 Get a new passport to protect your privacy 00:05:48 The risks of RFID chips in passports 00:08:46 Demonstration of RFID hacking 00:11:15 The Problem with RFID Chips in Passports 00:11:21 Unauthorized Data Access in Passports 00:14:51 Eddy's Microwave Mishap 00:15:58 Silencing Your RFID Chip in Your Passport 00:17:15 The Government Lie About Passport Scanning 00:21:40 Latin America's Desire to Attract Tourists 00:21:54 Economic Incentives for Foreigners 00:22:07 Perceptions of Backpackers and Tourists 00:22:14 Scams at Borders 00:23:01 Kickbacks from Immigration Officials 00:23:13 Inconsistent Border Control 00:23:37 Professionalism at International Airports 00:24:30 Visa Overstaying and Fines 00:26:38 An Expat's Visa Overstay in Honduras 00:27:13 Is This Situation Worth Worrying About?
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:03] Hi everybody, I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America. The show that tells you what it's really like to live, work, play and or retire in Latin America. I tell it just like it is, not the version they give you in those glossy travel magazines or the picture they paint for you in those international traveler websites where they're only trying to sell you something. What's it really like for expats living in Latin America? Well if you stick around a while you'll find out. So let's get started. Now I'd like to read you a late breaking email from my friend Barry who plans with his wife on expatting it off to Nicaragua. So let me read you this email. It says Hi Johnny, apparently there are some new requirements on entry to Nicaragua. We'd only intended to buy a one way ticket via airlines to Nicaragua, then if we decided
[00:51] to leave in the future we'd purchase a one way round trip ticket to the US. Here's the new requirement. And I think he must have got this from the Nicaraguan embassy website. And I'm going to read this for you here because it applies to pretty much all 20 Latin American countries. They have only a little bit of variation between their exit and entry requirements on their websites. But let me read you the one that Barry gave me because the wording is pretty common amongst all of them. So here goes. Entry exit requirements. You must have a valid US passport to enter Nicaragua. Although there is a bilateral agreement that waives the six month passport validity requirement, US citizens should ensure that their passports are valid for the entire length of their projected stay in the country before traveling.
[01:39] Okay let me stop for a second and comment on that. You should know by now that you can't get into another country if your US passport is about to expire. By that they generally mean less than six months from the expiration date. And by the way while we're on that point I recommend that everybody now go out and get yourself a new US passport. Because you see the US passport laws are changing all the time. And you know right now you can still get a US passport that lasts 10 years. But I understand they're going to change that pretty soon and it's only going to be good for five. And why do you think they want to do that? So you can't get lost and duck out of the system for 10 years like a lot of us have done. So in the future you'll only be able to get off the radar for five years and then you'll
[02:24] have to come out of hiding and check in. It's just a better way of keeping track of US citizens. A tighter noose around our necks. Because in the end all they really want to do is milk us like a tax cow. To do that more efficiently they'll have to know exactly where we are and what we're doing at all times. At first glance renewing your passport every five years doesn't sound that terrible does it? So you're thinking so what? What's wrong with that? Besides the fact that the fees are always going up and you'll be paying them twice instead of once every 10 years. Well the fact is you see your US passport now has an RFID chip in it and you've had one embedded in your passport if you got it after 2007. Now back then when they first designed this feature the RFID chip technology was not very sophisticated and they're using the same chips today in the US passports.
[03:13] And they hold a very limited amount of information. Only 64 kilobytes. But guess what? Now I hear that in the next year or two the US passport service is going to be upgrading to a very sophisticated active not passive RFID chip. One that actually transmits information instead of like the one they have in passports now which can only be read like a barcode. So you might be wondering now what kind of information is stored on the chip that you have in your present passport? Well it's the same data that's on the data page of your passport. And there's a biometric identifier, basically a digital image in the form of your passport photograph too. And that's so in the future they can use facial recognition software at ports of entry.
[04:00] Sounds a bit scary doesn't it? There goes the last remnants of your anonymity if you thought you had it. Well when you're outside the US you certainly have it if you're adequately prepared like so many of us expats are. But when you're inside the states, forget about it. Now supposedly the US government says that you can only read that RFID chip if you actually open up the passport. So supposedly you're in control. If you keep your passport closed, no one can read that chip from any distance. Which means the passport cover of the book itself is a shield against skimming. Anyway that's what the US passport service claims on their website. Now the question is, have you heard of skimming? Well let's like in that Tom Cruise movie the minority report where everywhere he walked
[04:49] sensors were picking up his digital signatures and displaying them on plasma TVs everywhere. Remember that? That's what skimming is. When you walk through a public place, other people, corporations and governments capture your data. Basically it's just invasion of privacy and eavesdropping without your permission. And that's what big brother and your government wants to do to you 24-7. And they're doing it right now. That's why my advice to you is, go out and get yourself a new passport right away. It's your last chance to get a 10 year extension with the old technology. Because right now there's no biometric information on that little RFID chip. Just what's printed in your passport now and your photo. Nothing more. But in a couple of years with that new RFID chip, you're going to be a walking transmitter.
[05:37] And the government without your permission can put all the information it wants into that chip. All your medical, tax and personal information if they want to and you can bet they will. Which could include military records, VA records, court records, psychiatric records, school records, health and medical records, anything they want. And who are you to tell them they can't? Now we don't want that, do we? But how can you fight back? Well there's one way, get a new passport that'll buy you 10 years with the old technology. But wait a minute, now you're thinking, yeah I really should get a new passport but I can't because mine won't expire for 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 years. And the US Passport Agency will not issue a new one unless you're 6 months or less from
[06:25] the expiration date. Well that's true but guess what? Even if your passport has a long way to go before it expires, you can still get a brand new one. If your passport has been stolen, you lost it. It went through the laundromat or the dog ate it. What I'm saying is you can get a new passport if your old one has been punctured, mutilated or damaged in any number of a thousand ways. Now I'm not suggesting you do any of these things of course. That would be completely dishonest, un-American and in fact unpatriotic. Who me? But anyway, we look at both sides of the coin here so park that under your hat for future reference. The fact that passports, like people, have accidents. So what I'm saying is if you get a brand new passport right now, or very soon, that'll
[07:14] buy you about 10 years more of privacy breathing space. Unless of course you like being cataloged, filed, probed and monitored a thousand times a day. Because that's exactly what Big Brother intends to do with these new RFID chips that they're planning to put in the next generation of passports. But the inevitable question does come up. Will someone be able to read or access the information on my chip without my knowledge? And of course, the US passport agency says absolutely not. That said, consider this news story which was widely reported in 2009. Well probably not widely enough reported so that you've ever heard it, but listen to this. Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrix antenna and a Motorola card reader, he'd bought
[08:02] on eBay for $190. Chris Padgett cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective. To read the ID cards and RFID chips of strangers wirelessly without ever leaving his car. It took him 20 minutes to strike hackers gold. Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected then downloaded to his laptop the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians electronic US passport cards embedded with radio frequency ID chips, RFID tags. Within an hour, he'd skimmed the identifiers of four more of the new microchip passport cards from a distance of 20 feet. Chris Padgett's experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates have feared for years.
[08:51] That those RFID coupled with other technologies could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent at all. Now check this out. If you want to see a video of this guy actually capturing data from passport cards, just check out this YouTube video. It's called cloning passport card RFIDs in bulk for less than 250 bucks. Now he's talking about cloning your data. How about that? And he shows on that video that he can capture your RFID data from your passport within one and a half minutes. And he shows a random example of this, capturing the RFID data in real time of a person walking by in 63 seconds on the video.
[09:38] Now here's the thing. Like I said before, your passport RFID chip is supposed to be unreadable unless you actually open the passport cover. The cover itself is supposed to be a shield for electromagnetic radiation. However, you can check on the internet and YouTube for multiple cases of passport RFID chips being read with very simple cheap equipment by just cracking open a passport a fraction of an inch. And with a little bit more sophisticated equipment, it's not necessary to crack open that passport at all. The chip can be read either way, passport open or not, depending on the sophistication of your reading equipment. So what to do about that? Well, you could wrap your passport in tin foil. That'll block electromagnetic radiation.
[10:26] But if you're caught with that, you'll look like some tin foil hat wearing alien conspiracy nut. Not to disparage people who believe in aliens, illegal or otherwise. But one could take this thing too far. Now if you want to completely block anyone from reading your passport, one solution would be to buy one of these RFID blocking wallet or pouches. They actually sell these things. Imagine that. There's enough people concerned about it that there's products out there already. And you could buy them in three different colors no less. So folks, we're not crazy, are we? Anyway, they're lined with metallic fabric. And they completely eliminate the possibility of your data being accessed. Of course, you'll still have to whip it out when you reach customs or border control checkpoints.
[11:12] But when you're out and about at least, your data will be secure. But the real troubling thing about it is that your data is on that chip in your passport in the first place. And you did not give permission to anyone, including your government, to put it there. Now here's an important thing to know. I should mention that tampering with the RFID chip in your passport is a crime in the US. But since when did that stop anyone from trying to foil Big Brother? There are tons of articles and posts telling you how to disable the chip. The most popular method, believe it or not, involves smacking it with a hammer. But I like Expat Eddy's solution best. Oh, and before I tell you that, it's interesting to note the fact that if a passport's RFID
[11:59] chip is somehow damaged or destroyed, the passport itself is not void or invalid at all. Again, you can see this from the State Department's website. And here's how the US government states it exactly. The chip in the passport is just one of the main security features of our new passport. If the chip fails, the passport remains a valid travel document until its expiration date. And it goes on to say, you will continue to be processed by the Port of Entry Officer as if you had a valid passport without a chip. Oh, and get this, on that State Department website it also says that RFID readers have an operating range of only a few feet. Obvious lies because Chris Padgett, in that article I mentioned, skimmed passports in
[12:50] San Francisco at a distance of 20 feet. And he had cheap, basically, Radio Shack equipment. You know, the more I read about this stuff, the more I don't ever want to step foot back in the States. I'm sorry. But that's another story. Anyway, you remember a few shows back when I talked about how Expat Eddy just hates being on surveillance cameras, and that even though down here in the 3rd world there aren't many cameras at all, however you do see them in some of the usual places like elevators and shopping malls, and in first world hotels and first world franchises, and sometimes in parking lots. It's the price you pay when first world companies land here, though I can certainly prove that half of those cameras or more don't work at all and some of them never worked from the
[13:35] get-go. You know, it's about that lack of maintenance thing down here, which in a backhanded way can actually be a good thing for us Expats. Anyway, I mentioned that Eddy carries a little roll of those yellow happy face stickers that he bought at Hallmark. And every time he's in an elevator or drives out of a parking lot that has a surveillance camera, he slaps a little sticker on it. Which always makes me laugh, because sometimes when I'm driving around certain towns in Latin America, especially in San Salvador, I can tell when Eddy's been there. Anyway, Eddy, a true blue big brother hater, like he says, he loves his country but hates his government. Anyway, when Eddy found out there was an RFID chip in US passports, he didn't quite believe it at first because he didn't find the little chip in his own passport, it's pretty well
[14:23] hidden I guess, in the inside pages. He immediately went down to the El Salvador airport where he's got a buddy in immigration control and he asked the guy to scan his passport and sure enough, up came Eddy's data. Then Eddy went to the cafeteria, had himself a cup of coffee, went back to his buddy and asked him to scan it again. And that time, the guy could not read Eddy's data. But now Eddy knows exactly where that little RFID chip was embedded in his passport. Because there's a little scorch burn mark there. You see, as Eddy explains it, somehow when he was in the cafeteria fiddling with his passport, it ended up in the microwave oven for 10 seconds at maximum power. Now kids, don't try this at home, even though as Eddy says, 5 seconds is plenty and won't
[15:10] leave a burn mark. And when I ask Eddy if he wasn't worried the next time he travels on that passport, it's that some first world immigration officer is going to nab him for tampering with that chip since tampering with it is against the law. That's when Eddy whipped out his passport and showed me that the book was in pretty ragtag condition already. Because you see, he was a little worried about that burn mark too. So you know what he did? He ran over it a few times with his car. Now it's in such rough shape that you can't even see the burn for the skid marks. So anyway, Eddy's passport has quite a few years before it expires, so his plan was to get a new 10 year one anyway, before the high-tech upgrade. And his old passport is mutilated quite enough to qualify for a new one.
[15:56] So in the end it worked out for him. Oh and by the way, there is a really funny and cool YouTube video called, Silencing your RFID chip in your passport. Check it out, it's only about a minute long. And they say of course for legal purposes they have to point out that it's a simulated demonstration. But as you can see, it's real. Anyway, they say that doing this actually could be breaking the law. Oh well. But I guarantee you this. I'm sure every single day of your life in the US, you break at least 10 or 15 laws you never even knew existed. And I can prove it, but I'll save that for another show. Oh and by the way, on the same subject, I just got an email from Eddy saying that Chris Padgett guy, the guy scanning those RFID chips in San Francisco, he just put together a
[16:42] new system for 2500 bucks that lets him read passport RFID chips at 200 feet. And he says, if he spent a little bit more money and had better conditions, he could read those RFID chips at 1000 feet. Now he did a live demonstration of this at a recent US spy gadget convention in Las Vegas. And needless to say, he was the hit of the show. And you can't be sure of one thing, Big Brother was there watching. So there you have the reality, an actual demonstration of reading those chips at 200 feet. And the really big government lie, that passports can only be scanned from a few feet away. But let's get back to Barry's email about Nicaragua. In those official Nicaraguan exit and entry requirements, Nicaraguan immigration officials
[17:31] also state this. They state that US citizen visitors must have an onward or return ticket and evidence of sufficient funds to support themselves during their stay in Nicaragua. Now here's my comment. Now the only reason why Latin countries state this in writing at all, is because that's what the US requires of their citizens when they try to visit the US. It's just them repeating exactly what the US requires. Because you see, for a Nicaraguan to get a visa to the United States, he's got to go down to the US embassy in Nicaragua for one thing and apply. Sometimes he even needs to have an interview with the US ambassador or one of the staff. And then he's got to produce a credit card with at least a $2,000 limit on it, not a
[18:19] debit card, to prove that he's got enough funds to support himself during his stay in the US. Because obviously the vast majority of Latin visitors to the states are illegal immigrants without a dime to their name. They're poor and dead broke, so they're coming to the states to try to make money. And when US citizens visit a Latin country, like Nicaragua for example, we do not go down there dead broke looking to take jobs from them. Nearly 100% of gringos leave the country for Latin America as tourists, visitors, retirees, investors or members of charities and do-gooder groups like the Mormons or Habitat for Humanity or Doctors Without Borders looking to do good deeds. The fact is, those entry and exit requirements that I just read are pretty much a total joke
[19:07] and basically a big laugh to us expats. And in fact, I don't know of a single gringle who's ever been asked to prove he's got the money to support himself. That's just simply ridiculous. Just being able to afford the plane flight alone is proof enough you have the dough, because 95% of Nicaraguans and Latins themselves could never afford a plane ticket to anywhere. And as far as having to show officials a return plane ticket, only airlines themselves observe those rules. I guarantee you that Central American countries don't ask a thing about return tickets, except in a very few oddball cases like Panama and Costa Rica, which I'll get to in a second. And actually I've been told by an airline pilot that several US airlines and some Latin
[19:53] American ones too, use that return ticket thing as a ruse to rip travelers off for an extra couple of hundred bucks, making them buy that return ticket. And then if it's not used and you want a refund, they'll charge you a hefty cancellation fee. It's happened to a number of expat friends of mine, though not in Nicaragua, but Costa Rica and Panama. And here's another thing, if you're in Nicaragua and anybody does ask you about a return ticket when you're at the airport, which I don't think is ever going to happen, anyway, if they did, all you gotta do is say that you're gonna stay in Nicaragua for X amount of time, and then you're gonna get on the Tica bus and ride to Costa Rica or Panama or Honduras or whatever, because you see the Tica bus is a well-known bus line that travels every
[20:41] day from Mexico all the way down to Panama and back, through all the big cities in the Central American countries. So if you tell them that, they'll have no recourse but to let you in, because obviously you won't need a return ticket then, since you'll be riding that Tica bus for who knows how long, and to who knows how many countries throughout Central America. And as for those other immigration requirements like showing proof of funds, well that's never happened to me, nor anyone I've ever spoken to, and I've been down here a long time and I know a lot of expats, but if that ever was to happen to you, all you've gotta do is pull out a credit card, and I'll bet you a bottle of Dom that they'll just look at it, smile at you and let you pass, and they'll never ever check with the issuing company.
[21:28] And in fact, they wouldn't have a way to do it at the airport anyway, because only retailers and banks can check if your credit card is active and in good standing, not some guy yet airport immigration. And let me make the point that every country in Latin America wants to be like Costa Rica, tourism is the number one goal that every one of these countries has. And with today's economy, officials all over Latin America will bend over backwards to let any foreigner in who's got two nickels to rub together. But you know, sometimes I do get the feeling that if you're a scruffy, hippy looking type backpacker, they just might ask you for a return ticket because they really don't want your kind in the country because hippies and backpackers don't spend money, and all restaurants and hotel owners know that.
[22:14] And Eddie says backpackers steal those little pats of butter, napkins and ketchup too. But remember, if you're ever asked for a return ticket, just say you're traveling to whatever country is adjacent to the one you're in by bus. And maybe you should bone up a tiny bit on your geography and know what the next city is that the bus stops at. Now I have heard of a couple little scams going on in Panama and Costa Rica, where if you cross the land border in one of those countries, they might ask you for a return ticket. And if you don't have one, an immigration official will personally walk you one block over to the bus station and get you to spend 5 or 10 bucks on an open ticket out of the country. Which of course, you'll probably never use, it's just a way for immigration officials
[23:01] and the bus people to get a little kickback from stupid tourists. So even in the worst case, you'll only be out 5 or 10 bucks. And here's another thing to keep in mind, Latin American border control officials are not exactly consistent from country to country or border to border. In fact, I've driven through some Latin American borders where there's no one on duty at all. And I remember a couple of times during the rainy season where the border crossing guard just ran out, lifted the gate up, waved everyone through and ran back into the safety of the border patrol house. And that's how loose it is at some of these borders. But when you're flying into a country's international airports, they try to maintain a veneer that's a little bit more professional. In fact, one time I remember going through one of the Belize land borders and I was the
[23:49] only one in this giant immigration room. And there was nobody there. I could have walked right through, drove right through for that matter. And I was going to do it because I had to be on my way, it was getting dark. And then I heard a toilet flush and a lone immigration guy came out of the bathroom all disheveled, sweaty and sick looking, stamped my passport without even looking at it and sent me on my way. Like I said, nothing is consistent in Latin America. That's why they call it the third world. And that's why you gotta love it here too. Now another thing about these Nicaraguan entry and exit requirements that Barry was talking about, it says here, while your entry stamp for standard tourist visits is typically valid for 30 to 90 days, illegal presence only begins to accumulate after 90 days.
[24:37] Visitors remaining more than the authorized period must obtain an extension from Nicaraguan immigration. Failure to do so may delay your departure until a fine of approximately $2 per day is paid. Now let me point out something here, Latin American officials really do like it when you overstay your visit because then that little $2 a day fine begins to add up. And contrary to what you might think, they do not at all look at you like a dirt bag if you overstay your welcome. In fact, you're not overstaying your welcome because you're spending money there. So in Nicaragua it's about $2 a day if you overstay your visa, but some countries only fine you $1 a day. So for example, if you decide to spend another month or two in a country because you've found
[25:24] something cool or interesting to do that you hadn't counted on in the first place, sometimes it's better to pay that $1 or $2 a day fine that you've accumulated and sometimes it's better before your visa expires to go across the border to an adjacent country and buy a $10 or $15 tourist card for that country and then walk right back into that first country and pay their $10 tourist card fee and now you've got another 90 days. It's something that you have to decide. Just remember if you overstay your visa, it's no big deal at all, you're not a dirt bag, no one gives you the evil eye and you just pay a little fine and they smile when you hand over the dough. So the bottom line is Latin Americans just love US tourists and no matter what those official entry and exit requirements say, although they look formal, they're not etched
[26:13] in stone and the only one of those rules they actually take a hard line with is that your US passport must be valid for the length of your projected stay in the country and you're never going to run into that problem anyway because when you buy your airline ticket, your airline carrier is going to check out your passport to see how long it's valid and they won't even let you buy a ticket if your passport's at all close to its expiration date. And by the way, just one more thing. I happen to know an expat personally who had to fly back to the states from Honduras and he'd overstayed his 90 day visa so long that he had to pay $800 in some change in fines when he left the country, which in his case meant that he'd overstayed his 90 day visa by over 3 years. And did they treat him like a criminal when he tried to leave the country?
[27:01] No, they just smiled when they took his money and now he's back again in Honduras on another 90 day visa. And he's done it again, he's overstayed his visa and this time it's 7 months and counting. So you tell me, is it something to lose sleep over? He certainly isn't worried about it, though you might be asking why he doesn't get his temporary or permanent residency in Honduras since he likes it there so much. He says someday he'll get around to it, but right now it's cheaper just to pay the $2 a day fine. Once again, the expat files at gmail.com.
[27:55] See you next time. Nos vemos.