Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into the realities of living in Latin America, covering water safety, DIY filtration systems, and the legal landscape for expats. He shares personal experiences, recommendations, and insights on navigating life as an expat in the region.
Johnny begins by addressing common concerns expats have about water quality, emphasizing that even in places where water is supposedly safe, there are hidden risks such as plasticizers leaching into water from plastic containers and bacteria buildup in water coolers and ice machines. He warns about the dangers of relying on hotel or office water coolers and ice machines, citing examples like raw chicken in hotel ice machines as a breeding ground for bacteria. Johnny also discusses the importance of water purifiers and shares his DIY filter system, which includes a ceramic and carbon block filter, and explains its longevity and maintenance.
He then moves on to discuss the features and costs of various portable water purifiers, highlighting the fragility of ceramic filters and the importance of a solid carbon block filter. Johnny recommends a specific model, the Catedin, which is highly rated and durable, though it can be expensive. He also mentions a newer, more convenient model that looks like a water bottle and is more affordable. He concludes by advising listeners to always have water on hand, both at home and in their cars.
Johnny continues by discussing the importance of using glass bottles for water instead of buying bottled water, highlighting the cost-effectiveness and environmental benefits of making your own water at home. He also warns about the potential contamination of glasses used in certain regions, especially in the third world, where glasses are often washed with tap water that may not be safe. Johnny further explains that most bottled water brands are owned by large corporations like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and that buying bottled water supports these corporations. He also shares advice on navigating cultural norms in Latin America, such as avoiding drinking from glasses due to the risk of contamination and how to handle potentially unsafe food and drinks at social gatherings.
He addresses an email from Robert outlining a strategy for establishing oneself in Latin America on a shoestring budget, which involves using a visitor's visa, starting a business, and eventually applying for residency and citizenship.
In the next segment, Johnny discusses the challenges expats face when seeking legal help in Latin America. He emphasizes the importance of finding a local lawyer between the ages of 30 and 45 who speaks English, as opposed to lawyers who advertise in English, who often charge double. He also highlights the prevalence of 'sleazebag' lawyers who exploit the fears of expats regarding the IRS and other U.S. legal issues, even though such fears are often unfounded. Johnny explains that while there are legal consequences for serious crimes, civil judgments or tax issues from the U.S. do not typically affect expats in Latin America unless they return to the U.S. He concludes by noting that such schemes are more common in tourist areas with a high concentration of expats, and less so in less populated regions.
He then discusses the exploitation of legal loopholes by expats in Latin America, particularly focusing on the use of lawyers to manipulate legal systems for financial gain. He highlights the fear of U.S. government intervention among expats, which leads them to believe they can be deported at will, but clarifies that this is not the case. He also explains how expats can legally start businesses, incorporate, and take advantage of low tax rates and lenient tax laws in countries like Belize. Johnny emphasizes that expats can maintain residency without leaving the country by using legal services to renew their visas.
In the next segment, Johnny discusses various methods of obtaining residency and citizenship in Latin America, emphasizing cost-effective and legally gray approaches. He explains that paying a small amount of money can result in automatic stamping of passports and registration in the system, effectively bypassing the need for formal procedures. He also outlines the option of forming an SA Corporation, which can be used to secure residency and eventually citizenship without significant financial investment. Johnny contrasts this with traditional methods, such as demonstrating foreign income or making local investments, which are more costly and time-consuming. He also mentions that marrying a local is the easiest way to obtain residency and citizenship, though it is a drastic step for some expats.
Finally, the episode concludes with Johnny Mueller thanking the audience and providing contact information for The Expat Files. He says 'See you next time.' and concludes with the Spanish phrase 'Nos vemos.'
Topics
Water quality in Latin America, DIY water filtration systems, Bacteria buildup in water coolers and ice machines, Expatriate experiences in Latin America, Water Purifiers, Portable Water Filters, Travel Essentials, Emergency Preparedness, Water and health, Environmental impact of bottled water, Cultural norms in Latin America, Legal and residency strategies in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:31 Water Purifiers and Concerns About Water Quality 00:01:17 Plasticizers in Water and Bacteria in Water Coolers 00:03:18 DIY Water Filter System and Its Longevity 00:04:45 Ceramic Filters and Their Fragility 00:05:01 Carbon Block Filters and Their Importance 00:05:49 Recommended Portable Water Purifier: Catedin 00:07:28 Recent Developments in Portable Water Filters 00:08:58 Conclusion and Recommendations 00:09:16 The Cost-Effectiveness of Making Your Own Water at Home 00:09:21 The Environmental Impact of Bottled Water 00:09:25 The Corporate Ownership of Bottled Water Brands 00:09:29 The Contamination Risk of Glasses in Certain Regions 00:09:38 The Environmental Impact of Plastic Waste 00:09:47 The Corporate Ownership of Bottled Water Brands 00:09:53 The Corporate Ownership of Bottled Water Brands 00:09:59 The Contamination Risk of Glasses in Certain Regions 00:13:55 Getting Residency in Latin America 00:13:59 Finding a Local Lawyer 00:14:03 Avoiding Exploitative Lawyers 00:14:07 The Role of the Yellow Pages 00:14:09 Internet Access in Latin America 00:14:13 Advertising in Latin America 00:14:18 The Lag Time in Legal Services 00:14:25 Choosing the Right Lawyer 00:18:43 The Exploitation of Legal Systems by Lawyers 00:19:15 Fear of U.S. Government Intervention Among Expats 00:19:48 Legal Business Opportunities for Expats 00:21:21 Tax Leniency and Write-offs in Latin America 00:22:34 Visa Renewal Without Leaving the Country 00:22:58 The Cost-Effective Way to Get Your Visitors Visa Renewed Without Leaving the Country 00:24:31 Alternative Methods for Obtaining Residency and Citizenship 00:27:49 Contact Information Reminder 00:27:52 Reiteration of Website URL 00:27:55 Farewell and Closing Remarks
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. You know I'm always getting asked questions about water purifiers because that's a main concern down here in Latin America. In fact anywhere in the third world. In fact anywhere in the first world. And I don't care if they say you can drink the water or not or when you go in your hotel room there's a sticker on the mirror that says yes our water is clean tested and safe
[00:48] I don't believe it. Even those traditional water coolers, forget that. The water reservoir on top used to be made out of glass. But now they're made out of some crappy plastic. I've seen how the delivery trucks stack those things outside and they often end up sitting in direct sunlight for hours. And no matter how pure that water is inside those plastic tanks and I doubt if it's that pure then it's inevitable you have plasticizers and silanes leeching into that water. Nice huh? I mean even up in the states the delivery trucks that carry those 5 gallon plastic jugs they're usually in the open air on racks and exposed to sunlight as the truck drives around the city to make deliveries. So if you're having that stuff delivered at your home or office forget about it. Your kidneys and liver are all loaded up with plasticizers by now whether you know it or
[01:37] not. Oh and by the way I just saw a report on your typical office water cooler and I'm talking about the first world now. Turns out those are huge breeding grounds for bacteria especially the ones that plug into the wall therefore they have a red button for hot water, a blue button for cold water and a clear button for room temperature water. You've seen those I'm sure they're everywhere. Turns out all the tubing inside those machines well they never get cleaned and they harbor a lot of terrible bacteria. Yuck. And worse yet are those restaurant and hotel motel ice machines you know the ones that are on every floor. They have the same kind of problems inside the twists and turns of the tubing that really never get cleaned. A big breeding ground for bacteria. And think of this all you people who have ice makers in your refrigerators at home you
[02:26] know what I'm talking about on the outside of your refrigerator door you can get either ice or cold water on demand. Well that's got loads of coiled tubing in it too in the door. Have you cleaned your tubing in the last five years? Did you even know you had to? Do they have instructions in the manual that tell you how to do it? No no and no. And whoever reads the manuals anyway. Oh and not to mention when you're talking about hotel ice machines do you ever notice how people just stick their hands in there and grab ice. Bury food and cokes and beers and things in there just to cool them down for a little while. One time I was in a hotel in Brazil and I looked in the ice machine and there was a raw chicken in there cooling down. Talk about a salmonella factory. Anyway what I mean to say is that you need a water purifier in your house and you need
[03:15] one to take on vacation with you too a portable job. Now a long time ago in one of my earlier shows I told you how I rigged up my own filter for my house. It's a double canister filter, one's a ceramic job and one's a carbon block filter which goes to a little goose neck faucet on my sink for unlimited supply of drinking water. Anyway I've got that available if you guys want to see the plan just shoot me an email and I'll send it out to you. And technically that system's good for about 5 to 10 thousand gallons of water. That's a lifetime practically for one person. Because you know if you drink a gallon of water a day and you should, but most people don't, that means a thousand gallons will last you about three years. And ten thousand gallons? About 30 years, imagine that. Now in that first stage of that filter, in the first canister, is a ceramic filter.
[04:02] And that thing costs about 30 or 35 bucks but it'll last forever. As long as you take it out once a year and you take one of those kitchen scouring pads, not a metal one but one of those plastic ones, you know the green plastic scotch bright ones. And you just lightly scrub the outside of that filter down until you can see the clear white ceramic again. Then it's good for another year. And basically you can keep doing that indefinitely forever. And of course every time you scrub it down a little bit you're removing a microscopic layer of the ceramic. But the thing is, the actual ceramic element's about a quarter to a half inch thick. And I'm telling you, you could probably scrub that thing once a year. And it'll last a hundred years. The only problem with those ceramic filters is that they're kind of fragile.
[04:49] I mean after all, it's like a ceramic pot. If you drop it on the ground or bump it against the countertop, you could crack it and it's all over with. But a new one will only cost you 25 to 35 bucks so it's no big deal. Now the next stage in the purifier, the second canister, contains a carbon block filter. A solid carbon block. Not one of those granulated carbon jobs. You know, the kind you can actually squeeze and feel those little charcoal bits floating around in there. You don't want that kind of filter. You want a carbon filter that's a solid piece. And that's the filter that you change every year. Just toss it. And those things run about 15 to 20 dollars. Small price to pay for a year of very pure water. So anyway, if you want the full details on that, just send me an email and I'll send
[05:36] you my detailed diagrams. So anyway, you still need a nice portable water purifier when you're on the road. And that means when you're in the car, in a hotel, or camping, or hiking, or any time you're away from home for a while. Now as for me, I bought the best portable filter that you could get, the highest rated one, the Catedin, which runs about 350 dollars. But you can probably get it for around 250. Now you can get all kinds of filters for a lot cheaper than that. But let me just tell you, this is the one that everyone says is the best, including consumer reports and all that. It's as solid as a rock made out of metal and graphite, and indestructible really. And it comes with its own little carrying case. It's one of those pump style do-it-yourself deals where you shove a hose into the water supply and the clean water comes out the other end.
[06:23] And you just can't break this thing, which is cool when you're traveling, right? However if you pay 250 to 350 dollars for something, it's awful tempting to people who might want to steal it, because it looks like a pretty nice piece of equipment. And it's Swiss made so it is aesthetically nice. Which I think is actually one of its downfalls, because it looks too nice. Exactly something that a crook would want to steal. Now you know, Expat Eddie has one of these too. He's had it for four or five years and of course it's still going strong. And he's dropped his on the ground a million times. It's even gone down a flight of stairs or two. His girlfriend's little cousin even ran it over at the beach with an ATV. And now it's pretty roughed up. Which is actually a good thing because it doesn't look like anything you'd want to steal, but it still works. So in this case I guess Eddie's got the right idea.
[07:09] But the best thing about that little water purifier and that particular model is that it too is guaranteed for 10,000 gallons. Imagine that. That means it would last about 30 years for an individual user if all the water he drank was just from that unit. Come on. And that's if you pumped out a gallon a day, which nobody ever does. But you know there's been a recent development in those little portable water filters. The same company, Katedin, just started putting out an ultra light series of products. Which look just like kind of a water bottle you carry around hiking with you. All you do is unscrew the top of the unit. Put your questionable or untested water into the thing. Screw the top back on and squeeze the bottle because it's flexible plastic. And ultra pure water comes out the spout at the top.
[07:55] Now I gotta say, I highly recommend this product. I've never seen it before until one of the persons in my seminar brought one along. It's very cool. And I'm jealous. Because it's much more convenient than my $300 unit where you have a pump and a hose. It only costs about $60 and you can get about 25 gallons of water out of it before you have to change the filter, which runs about 25 bucks. And even though the cost of the filter means it's about a dollar a gallon for the water. Think about what a great travel item this is and something to have in your emergency kit at home. I mean, what if disaster strikes you and you don't have electricity for a month? No problem. You got water because this thing will last one person exactly a month. Actually I think everyone should have one of these. And they're called the Katedin, K-A-T-A-D-Y-N, my bottle.
[08:42] My bottle. Very easy. And had these my bottle things existed a few years ago, I would have bought one of those instead of that much more expensive endurance series Katedin model that I got. And if you're interested, mine's called the Katedin Pocket Purifier. But it's expensive. So that's my take on water purifiers for now. And what I suggest you do is always load up on some pure water at your house and stick a gallon jug and a couple of regular sized bottles in the trunk of your card. They can be plastic bottles as long as they never hit the sunlight. And then inside your car on the driver's side or the passenger's side where they have the cup holder, always have a glass or stainless steel bottle of water there. And when you run out, you just get a fresh bottle out of the trunk and refill it. Come on, aren't you tired of paying a buck to a buck and a half for a bottle of Evian
[09:29] water? When you can make your own at home which is ten times more pure for less than a cent. Besides every time you buy a bottle of water you got to throw the damn thing away so you got more plastic in the garbage. Not a good thing. And did you know that most bottle water companies, all the regular name brands, are owned by big conglomerates like Coca-Cola and Pepsi? Here you think you're doing yourself a favor by buying bottled water and you're feeding the big corporate machine. Oh and by the way, just to repeat that warning, if you're traveling in the third world, and well even in the first world, don't drink any water or beverages out of a glass because they wash the glasses in straight tap water. And by the way, I don't get that we call drinking vessels glasses because most of them are plastic these days. Anyway, after a glass is washed and it dries, there's always a tiny film on it, especially
[10:18] when the municipal water supply is contaminated, like down here in the third world. And you reconstitute that grunge when you pour anything liquid back into it, like water. Or soda or beer. In fact, all you have to do is take a little tap water, hold it up to the light in a clear glass and you'll see what I mean. And of course, skip the plastic bottles again. Get everything you can in glass and when you take the top off, wipe it off with a Kleenex and you'll see there's usually a little dirt and trace amounts of scum left behind because the cap is only tight fitting close to the very top, so when they pop the cap off or unscrew it, unless it's been delivered and produced very recently, it's been sitting outside or in a back room somewhere, exposed to dust, rain, insects, critters and the elements. Well, let's just say you don't want to press your lips against that stuff if you don't
[11:06] have to. And I know you might say, sure, you eat a pound of dirt a year, but down here in Latin America, remember, we're on the metric system, so we probably eat a kilo. So what are you doing? You're invited to somebody's house in Latin America and they serve dinner to you and they only have glasses. And by the way, when you do eat dinner at Latin American houses, they often don't have bottled anything. What they have is a pitcher full of some local homemade soft drink, like tamarindo, Rosa de jamaica, or lemonada, lemonade. These guys are cash-poor, so it's a way to save money, you know, mix your own instead of buying a jug of Coca-Cola. Now, what happens if you know they have crappy municipal water and that's what they're washing their dishes in, not to mention their forks and knives and everything else?
[11:52] Well, I'll tell you what, there's really no way around that. You're going to have to grin and bear it. And the worst thing for me is they've always got these cold salad things at these family get-togethers, you know, three bean salad kind of things with hearts of palms and stuff like that. And you just know that if they wash those vegetables at all, they were washed in municipal water. Eged. And because you're the visiting gringo or gringo, they're going to pile that stuff on your plate and expect you to eat it. And when no one's looking, you can always feed it to the dog, but that's not always going to work. My advice, always pile up on the hot cook stuff so there's no room on your plate for the cold stuff. Just crowd it out, you know? Just remember whatever you put on your plate, you better eat because you'll risk offending the lady of the house. Enough said about that. Well, now I'd like to read an email that I think will be of some interest to you people
[12:38] who want to go down to Latin America and establish yourself on a shoestring. So let me get started with this. It says, hi, Johnny. Would it be all right if I run past you my understanding of a viable path for establishing oneself in Latin America on a shoestring? Here's my plan. Number one, go there on a visitor's visa and have a look around. Number two, having found a nice area, get a lawyer there. Number three, start a business. This is legal because one doesn't need to be a permanent resident in order to start a business. Number four, leave and come back in every three to 12 months in order to periodically renew the visitor's visa. This process can go on indefinitely. Number five, if one wants to get a second passport, then after a year or two, apply
[13:28] for a permanent residency by demonstrating either a foreign income of $800 coming into your account in the country per month or making an investment locally of $50,000 or more. Number seven, after another three years, apply for citizenship. And the email is signed, Robert. You know, I think I missed number six in that one, but it doesn't matter. Let's go through these. Number one, by all means, go there on a visitor's visa and have a look around because you'll get at least 90 days by just walking in with your U.S. passport. Number two, having found a nice area, get a lawyer there. Of course, you've got to get a lawyer and you shouldn't get one from a giant firm that's in the Yellow Pages or on the Internet. And by the way, the Yellow Pages is still a huge thing down here because only about
[14:13] between 5% and 15% of Latin Americans have consistent, decent Internet. So, still, the main means of advertising are billboards, television, radio, newspapers, and the Yellow Pages, not the Internet, not yet anyway. It's all about that lag time thing we talk about here. So your best bet is to find a young lawyer between maybe 30 and 45 years old. And don't fall for those lawyer ads that say English spoken here and definitely don't get a lawyer whose ad is in English because then you'll pay double the going rate because he is fishing for gringo clients. Just know this, lawyers between 30 and 45 years old all throughout Latin America will speak English. And if they don't speak it very well, someone in their office will.
[15:00] And remember, where gringos are, the prices are double. And I know that from down in Costa Rica where lawyers will often call up their gringo clients and pile on extra charges even after they've given you a flat rate. In fact, I know one lawyer down in Costa Rica who told me this on the slide. He has a short list of about 10 gringo clients who he knows he can call up and tap for some additional money every time he's short on funds himself. Because you see, he's got about 10 gringo clients that he knows have been in trouble up in the first world, whether it's for taxes or divorce settlements or back support payments or civil judgments or bankruptcies or whatever. And they've all sat down and explained this stuff to their Costa Rican lawyer in confidentiality, of course, lawyer-client privilege. Now get this, this is how sneaky those lawyers are when you're in a gringo-ized place like
[15:49] Costa Rica and Panama, by the way. He told me that he's got a few gringo clients that are afraid to go back to the United States. Because as soon as they hit US soil in an airport, the IRS or someone is going to meet him there with a summons. Now this lawyer is sneaky. He told me that he's mentioned to these guys that he's got a friend working inside the American Embassy in Costa Rica. And all he's got to do is give him a call on the sly and ask him to check the embassy files, the incoming memos, to see which gringo's names may have come up on the embassy feces list or if their name has come up in any way regarding Interpol, let's say, for example. Now the thing is, this lawyer told me he really doesn't have anybody in the embassy that can do any such thing. But these gringos always fall for it. And once or twice a year, he calls up those gringos and says, hey, I think it's time we
[16:37] pay my friend in the embassy a couple hundred bucks and he'll check all the records just to see if your name pops up. You know, to try to see if anyone's looking for you or trying to keep tabs on you. So you get the scam here? It boils down to the fact that there are some sleazebag lawyers in those gringo-saturated areas who are playing certain gringos for fools, just because gringos are so afraid of the IRS. And they assume that the legal system in the U.S. has very long tentacles all the way down to Latin America. Well, here's the facts. If you have any civil judgments against you up in the first world or warrants against you from a civil court case, no one can do a thing about it down here in the third world, only when you get back to the states. And unless you've got a heavy criminal charge against you, like kidnapping, murder, grand
[17:22] theft or rape, no one can ever pick you up down here in Latin America, nor are they authorized to. The local police or authorities don't act on civil or tax charges issued from another country. So, down here in the tourist areas, there are a lot of sleazy lawyers and a lot of stupid gringos. But you know what? If you're off the tourist trail, there are so few gringos that a scheme like that would never even cross the mind of a lawyer. Even a sleazebag lawyer off the tourist trail couldn't concoct a scheme like that when he's only got a small handful of gringo clients, if any. Oh, and by the way, this sleazebag lawyer in Costa Rica that told me all this stuff also mentioned another trick they commonly pull. When they know the gringo is in trouble up in the first world with judgments or bankruptcies or the IRS or ex-wives or whatever.
[18:10] Now get this, and this is really sleazy, but I know what happens. The lawyer will call up his gringo client and say, guess what? A friend of mine down at the embassy, the US embassy, saw that your name came across the desk. And of course, when the gringo hears that news, he kind of freaks out. Because you see, a lot of these gringos have already established themselves in Costa Rica. Maybe they're even married to a Costa Rican, they've got a business, and they're doing pretty well for themselves. At least they've got a stable lifestyle. So now when they hear the news that there's some kind of inquiry going down at the embassy, they just freak out. But you see, the sleazebag lawyer's got it planned that way. He tells the gringo, look, I think if we pay my friend in the embassy $500 or $1,000, he might be able to make that go away. You know, make the paperwork disappear.
[18:56] And of course, at that point, the gringo's willing to do anything. He'll fork that dough over in a second, and he'll be glad about it. And now the lawyer's got him on the hook because he can pull the same thing a year or two down the line and get another $500 or $1,000. And his so-called inside contact in the embassy doesn't even exist. So the bottom line is this, some gringos by nature are so afraid of their government, even the ones that have left the US for good, that they believe the US can just send an order down to the police in a country and have you picked up and deported at will. Well let me assure you, it doesn't happen that way. In fact, it's just the opposite. Local law enforcement in these third world countries, they do not like to cooperate with Uncle Sam and his big brother Tactics. And in fact, most of the police down here kind of resent the fact that the US can even
[19:42] put pressure on him like that. He kind of screws with the locals idea of sovereignty, if you know what I mean. So bottom line, if you're one of the millions of gringos down here, who has some kind of civil or tax problem up in the first world, you don't have to look over your shoulder. But you should worry if you have to change planes in Miami. So remember that. Okay, so let's move on to Rob's next point. He says, after finding a lawyer, number three, you start a business. And this is legal because one doesn't need to be a permanent resident in order to start a business. Well Robert, that's absolutely true. In fact, that's exactly what the Latin country you're in wants you to do. They won't give you a work permit to work for a company down here as an employee, because then you might be stealing a job from one of the locals. But they will allow you to open as many businesses as you want.
[20:29] Because you're going to hire locals. It's obvious. You start a business, you got to hire somebody. Now it's always a great idea to incorporate right away. That way you've shifted the liability onto the corporation and not yourself. And if your business ever gets sued, which they almost never do down here, anyway, you're not liable. The corporation is. And it's called an SA corporation down here. The SA stands for society dot anonymous, anonymous corporation. Well as soon as you have that in order, you can go down to the bank. And with that corporation, open up a business account, a checking account, and get credit cards and debit cards too. So how do you make your money if you're not an employee? Well you own the business, right? So any profits that accrue are yours. It's your business. It's your SA corporation. It's your bank account. And of course you'll have to pay local taxes on that.
[21:17] But down here in Latin America, especially Central America, your accountant and your lawyer can work that down to below 5%. Imagine that. I'm telling you, Latin America is the land of the write-offs. You can write off everything down here. And it's totally legal. You don't have to fish around for receipts that are particularly related to business. You can write off any kind of personal receipts you want too. Trips? Personal things like clothing, furniture, and appliances? Food? Dinners? It doesn't matter. It does not have to be business related. You automatically get to write it off. You know how up in the United States if you own a business, the IRS is very picky and they'll often disallow deductions. Many times up in the first world when the IRS audits you on a past tax return, that's what they'll nail you on. Disallowed deductions.
[22:03] And you'll pay big, along with interest and penalties. But down here in Latin America, there are no such audits because everything is allowed. All your deductions. In fact, people buy, trade, sell, and give away receipts just so they can get all those deductions. There's actually a kind of a gray market in receipts that goes down every time taxes are due. And that's why businesses rarely pay more than 5% tax down here. And if you incorporate in Belize, there's no corporate tax at all so you don't even need receipts. Okay, let's go to Robert's point number 4. He says, then I leave and come back every 3 to 12 months in order to periodically renew my visitor's visa. This process can go on indefinitely. Yes, Robert, that's exactly what you do. But you don't have to go out of the country.
[22:51] In fact, if you have the right lawyer, all you have to do is hand him your passport when your visa's up, whether it's 90 or 120 days or whatever. You give him 50 bucks or so and guess what? You don't have to go out of the country at all. Automatically and mysteriously, the very next day usually, you have all the necessary stamps on your passport and you're registered in the system. Now I don't exactly know how that happens. All I configure is that there's someone at the border or at the airport who needs a little extra cash. Well in fact, you know, they all need a little extra cash and that's why they call it the third world and that's what you call greasing the wheels of the system. So you can either be penny wise and pound foolish, go across the border, get a skanky hotel in the adjacent country for a day and then come on back through, pay both countries
[23:39] entrance and exit fee for foreigners, which is like 10 to 15 bucks, each way. But that way you're wasting a few days and spending money on hotels and stuff. A trip like that just to get your visitors visa renewed could end up costing you a few hundred bucks, right? Plus a wasted day or two. Or you can do it the other way. You get it? Now I'm not advocating anything actually illegal here because the stamps are real and you're registered in the system. However, it is a gray area now, isn't it? But then again, I do know a lot of stupid gringos who've been down here six, even seven years who still do it the old fashioned way. They waste a few days every 90 days and they go across the border, get a sleazebag hotel and come on back through the next day. Obviously they have the wrong lawyer, don't they? Or they don't have one at all.
[24:25] But yes, you can keep doing this forever indefinitely. I know people who've done it for over 10 years now, no problem. Okay, let's go to his next point. He says if one wants to get a second passport, then after a year or two, apply for permanent residency by demonstrating either a foreign income of $800 or make a local investment of 50 grand or so. Well guess what? You don't have to do that. In most Latin American countries, except maybe Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile and Panama again, those four countries that are trying to be first world, guess what? You don't have to make that kind of investment at all. No investment is necessary. All you have to do is, like I mentioned before, get yourself incorporated an SA Corporation, which runs about $1,500 initially for the startup.
[25:11] And to keep it running and active, about another $800 to $1,000 a year. Because your accountant will have to file corporate taxes quarterly, even if your corporation has no monetary movement at all. For example, if it only owns property, let's say, like a house or a car, then it's just a static corporation with no monetary movement, but you still have to file taxes. And you can't do that because the tax forms are all in Spanish. So once you get an SA Corporation for the initial $1,500, let's say, then you just have to keep feeding it about $800 to $1,000 a year. But the advantage to that is, once you open a bank account with that and get your credit cards, then your lawyer can file for your temporary residence because now you are a stable business owner. You're a solid part of the business community and you're going to supply jobs, whether you
[26:01] know it or not. Anyway, so your lawyer then files for temporary residency, which lasts anywhere from a year to two years. And after that, if you're in good standing and you didn't commit any crimes and you didn't run over any pedestrians while drunk driving, then you'll become a permanent resident. Then after about three years, you'll be able to get your citizenship and your passport. However, if you want to do it the other way, you know, by demonstrating that you've got foreign income of $800 or more a month, or if you invest in a local business or a house for $50,000 or more, then of course, you will get your temporary residency and then permanent and then the passport too. However, you don't have to go through that, though a lot of people do because they think it's the only way. Again, you have to have a good lawyer, right? And if you're in a busy gringo area like Costa Rica and Panama, your lawyer is going to milk
[26:49] you every step along the way. And sure, you'll get your residency and your citizenship and all that eventually, but you're going to pay double for it, double of what you'd have paid if you were in a non tourist area. However, the easiest way to get permanent residency is just to marry a local because then you're eligible right away. Then you can get your passport and citizenship in about three years after that, though some people say that would be a pretty drastic step to take. Once you've met some of the beautiful Latin women down here, you might change your mind about never wanting to tie the knot. Ask expat Eddie, he's done it a couple times. So anyway, Robert, I hope that answers some of your questions about coming down here and living and even getting your citizenship and passport on the cheap. You've been listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America, coming to you each
[27:42] week from somewhere south of the border. And don't forget, you can email me on anything at all about Latin America, The Expat Files at gmail.com. Once again, The Expat Files at gmail.com. See you next time. Nos vemos.