#813 – Plan B for Expats: Residency, Health Insurance, and Legal Navigation in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you expat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started All right You know, I'm always mentioning as far as your plan B goes if you're coming down to get residency in any Latin country things change rapidly So you got to jump on it now while getting your paperwork filed and doing the waiting game is relatively easy

[00:46] Because you know, the dirty little secret is the US does not want you to leave the barn You're the lemming right the one to get milked up in the States Of course, I don't think you milk lemmings. It's cows and sheep, right or goats. Whatever Anyway, that dirty little secret is the US government does not want you to leave especially with your assets Unless of course you have your assets in a bank in a foreign country that has a branch in the US then they can take Them or lock them up at will with a phone call, but you knew that already, right? Anyway, the point is you got to act on getting your residency now before the US government forces Latin governments to slam the doors completely You know in some land countries, you have to make huge investments to get your residency started a couple of hundred grand in some cases Whereas in some land countries, they're still way behind that curve, but that's changing fast

[01:36] Well, here's something else when you come down and get that plan B activated, you know, you're gonna want to get health insurance, right? I mean, it's so damn cheap here in Latin America in its first world all the way If you know what you're doing and by the way, I've written a hundred plus page health care report That pretty much spells it all out for you Hey, I've investigated it all I've done the legwork and I'm continuously doing so if there's one thing I know is how to get first world health care here in Latin America at third world prices That is a quarter to a fifth even a sixth of what you pay up in the states So how do you get my hundred page health care report? Well, if you're coming down to my expat insider seminar, you get it for free In fact, if you come to the seminar, I'm gonna give you 70 different reports. Yeah, seven zero Probably half of those reports. I've written myself or have had some part in putting together and believe me

[02:26] Some of those reports are very confidential. You're not gonna find them on the internet Anyway, as far as kicking that plan B of yours into gear when you come down Obviously, you're gonna want to take advantage of that great cheap first world health care insurance at third world prices But you'll find if you want to hook up with one of those insurance companies that's owned and operated by a big bank I think it was the last show or the one before it right spoke a lot about that. Remember anyway to get on a bank health insurance plan first you'll have to get a bank account there right and Your lawyer will help you do that because you'll need a co-signer or a fee or not exactly a co-signer He's not on the hook for your charges or anything on that account. You see a so-called Theodore It's just kind of a very trusted local reference. Once again, you'll hear that word a lot Theodore and

[03:15] Contrary to popular gringo belief He doesn't have signing privileges on your counter power of attorney unless you give it to him The point is if you're gonna live here in Latin America, you're gonna need one In other words, you can't just walk into a bank even if you have your residency and say hey, I want to open a bank account Soon enough you'll find as you fill out the paperwork and it'll all be in Spanish So you have to be with someone who speaks Spanish because there's something like a 95% chance You won't and even if you do this probably a 99% chance You can't read or understand the forms well enough to suss them out Anyway, there'll be a spot for your Theodore name address phone number occupation and your relation to that person that works And your Theodore will be your lawyer or some

[04:01] Respected person an accountant to priest whatever that has an account at that bank generally And it has to be someone who's got a steady reliable job, too So gringos, it just can't be your deadbeat surfer boy or for you gringos your girlfriend Who's selling tortillas out in the plaza? The question is how you gonna find that person if you're not hooked up with a law firm or a lawyer by the way lawyers Are the best most well-accepted fee adores of all? So how do you get a lawyer to sign that kind of paperwork for you? I mean look you can't just walk into a lawyer's office and say hey I'm thinking about being a client of yours. Can you be my Theodore on a bank account? He's gonna say yeah I can do that, of course But I'm not gonna do it for someone who just waltzes in off the street unless he actually does some business with me

[04:47] So if you're just in there kind of testing the waters and shopping around for lawyers, he's not gonna be your Theodore Same thing if you're gonna rent an apartment, you'll need a Theodore again That person's not responsible for paying your rent if you default or you skip the country or anything It's just that he's gonna be a local professional reference that it can vouch for your character So when it comes to renting an apartment nine times out of ten You'll need a Theodore and you'll always need one if you're writing up a contract though Oddly enough some landlords will rent to a gringo month to month It's part of your gringo advantage, but that's not usually the case But I've seen it happen on occasion Of course if you're gonna rent an apartment and you've got six months or years with a cash in your hot sweaty hands I'm sure if you say you don't have a Theodore, he's just gonna take the cash and say no problem

[05:36] In fact if you want to see a proper daddy or landlords eyes bug out Show him a wad of cash and say you're gonna pay six months through a year ahead I'll tell you what gringo you just made a best friend for life Chances are you'll be godfather to his next kid, too Now remember I started out today's blathering is with some good reasons why you really have to go for your temporary or permanent Residency in the Latin American country and why it's time to get on it now before the opportunity slips away Now the thing is when it comes to health care insurance It's really best to be a resident to take advantage of all those great plans And that's the same thing in most cases when you're opening a bank account Sure, there are some banks that'll open accounts if you're not a resident But I'd say about three-quarters of all banks in Latin America will not because it's just too

[06:24] Complicated to fill out all that fat gun gatka paperwork for the US government However, if you're a resident, they know you're permanently in the country and you're gonna be doing a lot of banking business In other words, they're gonna make some money with you because they know if you're not a resident You're probably not gonna do much business with them because you'll be back in Cleveland most of the time However, this situation changes if you're living on or very near the gringo tourist trail Costa Rica Cancun Rio, whatever In places like that where tourism brings in all the dough most banks there We'll let you open an account without being a resident because that's the nature of their business making money off of wire transfers Local funny money to dollar and back conversions and direct deposits But that's not the case when you're off the gringo tourist trail, which is around 95% of Latin America

[07:13] So by all means try to get your residency in your Latin country of choice That way you'll be able to open an account at any bank Of course, you'll need that via door a professional reference and you'll have that because as I've mentioned so many times You'd be nuts not to hook up with a lawyer when you first get down to the country of your choice At least walk in to a lawyer's office that you've done your homework, of course introduce yourself Have a little sit down tell them your situation and tell them what you need now and what you'll be needing in the future You'll need them to help you with a rental contract Utility hookup buying a car smartphone service internet health insurance Maybe a car mechanic plumber certain professionals tell them you'd like to have an overview of the good the bad the ugly neighborhoods in town

[08:00] Everyone's got their own wish list, but you get the idea. That's right Your lawyer can help you and give you referrals on all that stuff and more. Oh, and this is important Of course, you're gonna need a lawyer if you get in a car accident You want to call him and your insurance broker and you'll need one too if you get pulled over at one of those police stops and you don't seem to be getting anywhere with your paperwork or a $20 bribe So again by all means try to go for your temporary or permanent residency as soon as you can because the laws are changing and they Never get easier only tougher and that's because the US puts pressure on Latin countries in fact all third world countries clandestinely of course behind closed doors and If a third world country doesn't comply with uncle scam They just threaten to cut off some of those billions of dollars and aid and handouts

[08:49] Which is part of the skim all high-end fat-ass Latin government officials Absolutely count on for their princely lifestyles. How can I say that? How do I know about that stuff because I know some embassy people and they talk when they're drunk and for some reason They're drunk a lot people like to talk and open up to me Of course a lot of that stuff's off the record, but let me tell you The overall plan by US big brother is to make it so hard for people to get permanent or temporary Residency in a third world country that most people who give it a half-assed try They just run into so many obstacles They throw in the towel because it does take some perseverance and diligence Which is all the more reason to get your plan be started right away, which includes getting your paperwork for residency That should be your first step

[09:35] All right, let me give you a very recent example on how Latin countries are getting tougher on their residency requirements By the way, most of those new little annoying changes are unannounced And you don't find out till you're going through the process and say hey, wait a minute You mean I gotta get that stupid piece of paperwork, too. Why don't you tell me about that in the first place? Well, that's because most of the time they don't publicize it some bureaucratic dickhead Just makes the change and you have to do it. For example, let's take Guatemala which has as you longtime listeners know Residency requirements that are quite lenient compared to a lot of other Latin American countries In fact, it's right up there at the top is one of the cheapest and easiest ones to get at least for now Of course as with all Latin residency programs

[10:21] It seems like some of the steps go at a snail's pace But that aside and it's true for most all Latin countries the Guatemala residency program especially the temporary residency program is just a snap as long as you have a Guatemalan lawyer helping you out and You have a nice clean police report or good conduct report from the state But things change in tiny little steps making things a bit more difficult every time for example I just heard of a case where a person going for Guatemalan residency was rejected because his good conduct report his police report Was not clean Though he'd never been convicted of a felony he had a misdemeanor Which not so long ago wouldn't have stopped him from getting residency, but now it will That means if you've got a DUI or some kind of fairly serious traffic violation and it shows up in your police report

[11:11] You ain't gonna get residency in Guatemala nor in most all other Latin countries either Now I don't know how serious a traffic violation has to be to end up on your police good conduct report But there have been cases then I guess it would be a police bad conduct report, right? I suppose if you leave the scene of an accident It's a hit-and-run or you had a gun in the car without the proper paperwork or even an ounce of weed in your glove compartment Who knows if that stuff ends up on your police report? It's not considered a clean report and then you're screwed for getting residency But you know, there are workarounds for that. Let me tell you one right now You just go to an adjacent county or state where you have friends or relatives You just go down to the nearest sheriff's department there

[11:58] Of course, they'll ask you for your address and you'll put the address down where you happen to be staying Not exactly a lie, is it and guess what you'll get a clean good conduct report from that County Remember in Guatemala and just a few other Latin American countries All you need is a sheriff's report from the local county But as mentioned things are getting tougher slowly But surely all Latin countries are turning to the FBI report Otherwise known as your rap sheet That means in time I'd say within the next one to three years all Latin countries will require an FBI Background check and that's nationwide not to mention you'll have to give up your fingerprints That's how they do an FBI report

[12:44] The only good thing about an FBI report is you can do it all by mail However, for example, suppose you're living in Panama, you've been down there a long time And finally you get tired of leaving the country every six months get your passport stamped because that's what you have to do If you don't have residency, you only got a 90-day tourist visa and you say, okay, I'm gonna apply for residency That means you have to get an FBI report However, if you go to the FBI website and download the PDF that tells you how to do it You'll find they will not send the results to a foreign country That means you have to have a US address could be your mom's house or whatever and when she gets it Hopefully it'll be clean. She'll FedEx it or UPS it to you in Panama and you can take it from there But what if you're in Panama don't have any immediate relatives in the states that you could have your report shipped to

[13:35] Or what if you have relatives in the states, but you're on the outs with them And they don't want anything to do with you because you left a good old big brother US of a and gave the finger To uncle scam and are now the black sheep of the family living in Panama that happens You know, in fact, just because you're related to someone by blood doesn't make you family with them. It just makes you related Hey, I personally have a lot of blood relatives up in the states that are time vampires liars parasites hangers-on Gossips snakey untrustworthy and just plain jerks. In other words, that was reason One thousand two hundred and forty six why I got the hell out of Dodge a long time ago Hey, not to say I haven't got some excellent relatives But I've got fifty six first cousins on my mother's side alone, which means statistically speaking

[14:21] I've got a lot of ass wipes in my family and something like two point one seven psychopaths statistically speaking, too And I'm thinking of one of them right now the other one. Well, I don't know could be me you think Hmm Let a good level-headed people too, but they're no fun to talk about are they anyway The point is it's getting tougher and tougher to fulfill the requirements for residency in Latin American countries For example, here's a question in an email from mr. B says, hey, Johnny I understand the new regs in Guatemala state that if you have temporary residency and are moving to permanent Residency after two year period you have to get some additional paperwork from the states and have it apostilled. That's new

[15:06] It wasn't like that before in other words I have to get a new sheriff's good conduct report from where I used to live Hardly makes sense because I don't live there anymore. How could I have a record of any kind? So Johnny he says do you know a way to get that sheriff's report and get it apostle without having to go back to the States and do it. All right. Thanks for that. Mr. B. You're right Obviously those malignant government fatheads never thought that one through. Why would you need a police report from a place? You don't live anymore The what a waste of time and the money for the plane flight, etc Well, the good news is if you've got a relative they can go down to the County Sheriff's Department and pick up a police or so Called good conduct report for you Fact is I've known a few gringos who had their moms dads brothers and sisters do that for him

[15:54] Of course can't do that with a friend. You got to have the same name They just won't give out that information to someone that's not a close relative The fact is one gringo told me he went through that process and they wouldn't even give it to his mom So he just wrote up a little letter in a form of an email saying he was down in Costa Rica Yeah, and he really was and he was applying for an English teaching job at a school and they required a good conduct report From his hometown. He mailed that off to his mom His mom printed out that email took it down to the sheriff's department They asked no questions that time and gave her his good conduct report It was as easy as that And the fact is if you are in Latin America applying for a call center or a teaching job They will require a good conduct report. That's more or less a routine matter

[16:40] So it's not out of the ordinary now as mr. B asked in his email What about getting it a pastel or as some people say apostilled which means certified by the state you got the report in? And if it's an FBI report certified by the US State Department, well, you can do all that by mail, too How do you do that? Well, you go to your particular states state department Just do a search for that on the internet. There'll be a state website Let's say it's Minnesota and if you look at the services provided in the drop-down menu, you'll have one that says certifying an apostilling of Documents and you click on that one and you're all set In fact, every state will let you download a PDF document that explains it all and you print it out fill it in

[17:26] Send it off to the state then you can get that document back in probably two weeks So in mr. B's case that means you'll have to have some relative go to the sheriff's department in the county He came from in states pick up his good conduct report again It can't help but be clean because he isn't there anymore. The Then document in hand have that person that relative or family member Download that PDF document. I was telling you about from his state's state department Which by the way is kind of confusing because it's different from the US State Department We're talking about each state having their own so-called State Department I know it sounds crazy and redundant and it is but that's how those malignant government bureaucracies operate

[18:12] Anyway, your family member will then download and print out that PDF document I was talking about and send it up to the state and then they'll get the documents back and when they get them They'll FedEx somewhere UPS MTU and Guatemala Then of course you hand that stuff off to your lawyer and he does the rest by the way, mr B who's been living in Guatemala a couple of years now He's our expert on teaching English as a foreign language online to Chinese kids Remember the show that I did explaining all that now to refresh your memory on that He's the guy who's making 18 plus dollars an hour teaching those kids It's an excellent way for new green grinkle expats living here in Latin America to make some money on the side And nope, you don't even need a college degree It's a great ground floor Opportunity to make some money when you first get down if you need to have a job and mr

[19:01] B as our expert fact he spoke at my last expat insiders seminar gave the highlights on just how to do it In fact, he was such a hit at the last summer I'm gonna invite him again to the January seminar to which she'll add just a little more water to the fire hose for you Seminar attendees Oh and speaking of the seminar, like I said, it's about a month away from kicking off You still got plenty of time to sign up even enough time to get your paperwork together To start your temporary or permanent residency that is killed two birds with one stone come to the seminar and start your residency process So for all the info and details just go to www The new expat.com and click on Johnny's seminar link and don't forget one very important point the seminar starts on Saturday

[19:47] January 5th, but you must arrive in Guatemala and check in to our very first hotel on the Friday before that's January 4th, by the way, that night is also included in the price of your seminar So once again, you must arrive by Friday, January 4th or earlier a lot of people come a day or two or even a couple of weeks earlier to do some of their own exploring or Hook up with Jen from the expat concierge service to investigate some of the things on their own bucket lists whether it's physicians dentists insurance rentals buying a vehicle land home care nurses Yeah, I said nurses hospitals business opportunities, whatever. Oh and that live-in nurses thing, man. What a deal, huh? I say screw nursing homes come down here to Latin America rent an apartment for five hundred bucks a month pay a live-in nurse

[20:40] 500 bucks a month now, isn't that a thousand times better and more humane than dumping grandma or even yourself into a smelly old doped-out situation in a heartless US nursing home So for around six grand a year you get a 24-7 live-in nurse one-on-one Whereas up in the states it would cost you ten times as much for just a year in a putrid nursing home Of course, we'll go over all that in great detail at the seminar Oh and here's something you'll want to know about that real estate bubble is starting to pop and that's a bubble that exists throughout Latin America and most evident in the medium and large cities and of course on the gringo tourist trail Which brings me to this article right out of a Panama City newspaper that points this out precisely Entitled and this says it all

[21:27] Real estate market in Panama deflates and I'll translate and give you some excerpts here It says the high supply of apartments and houses in residential areas Has pushed down prices in upper middle class and high-end residential area then it says we're even in 2013 the two and three-bedroom Apartments in Panama City's most desirable areas were rented at prices above two and three thousand US dollars a month Remember Panama uses the US dollar man I would never pay that for an apartment never in Latin America two and three thousand bucks a month two and three bedroom You got to be nuts. But then it says in 2018 according to Martis Fananciero dot-com website prices of real estate have plummeted by an average of

[22:14] 80% in 2018 then it says unfortunately in the medium term it does not seem the supply of residential real estate will decrease in fact development projects in the works and under construction will Overshadow any supply and demand equilibrium then we have this article an interview of a guy named Aldo Stagnadio He's the president of the Panamanian Association of real estate agents and promoters He says the fall in rental and purchase prices is happening because surprise surprise There's definitely an oversupply he says and demand has not grown by the same magnitude not even close He says there's going to be some sort of a price war and that's where the public can benefit and this will hopefully he says Reactivate the residential and commercial real estate market, but he also said surprise surprise

[23:03] This has never happened before the value of real estate has never been on a downward trend only upward Yeah, right, isn't that typical real estate talk? What a bunch of dopes Come on. How long have we been predicting this eight years now? Then the article goes out to say the times when Panama real estate projects were selling fast are already in the past And then it says and this is really bad news for the builders, but not for us gringos and expats It's estimated that it will take seven years to fill or commercialize through the usual channels the oversupply of units currently existing in the real estate market and That seven-year figure is if no other units come online in that time

[23:49] Which is a pipe dream because there are hundreds of projects on the drawing board and in construction right now that are not counted as Viable units for rent or sale. All right me Johnny again. So what's that mean? Well, Someone's just popped the bubble just a matter of how fast the air escapes now All right, you want more it says in Panama? 83% of the houses and apartments for sale or rent range in the price from a hundred fifty thousand dollars to two million Meanwhile eighty percent of the clients who approach realtors want to buy a property that's priced below a hundred fifty thousand So there's a terrible mismatch between buyers and sellers since as its article starkly points out Builders and developers are in denial and continue to build at the high end as one Panama remax realtor

[24:37] The developers that are building housing units on the high end 150,000 to 2 million and that's the price range that developers were once calling their profit sweet spot have been targeting wealthy Asians Americans and Europeans Predicting there would be ever increasing numbers of such buyers But the high-end market has weakened considerably and as for wealthy Latins that can afford to spend that kind of money Most already have the luxury houses and apartments of their dreams And he says at the high end of the market where you spend three hundred thousand dollars or more on a condo or a house People almost never buy them as investments to put on the rental market They prefer to live in the luxury units and invest in lower-cost units that are much easier to rent

[25:23] And finally it says the proof in the pudding is that as of November 2018 The Panama City Board of Realtors reports that the inventory of unoccupied apartments in Panama City alone amounts to approximately 7,800 units Wow that makes Panama City truly a renter's market by the way the title of that article Panama's real estate market is Saturated all right me Johnny here again You know Panama's kind of the bellwether for whatever happens in the real estate business in all of Latin America So what we've got here is the first domino to fall in that big real estate hyper inflated bubble However, there's one thing you should know it's a little different than the real estate market up in the states For example, if you have a luxury apartment in Chicago, and it's unoccupied you can't sell it

[26:13] It's not renting Eventually the owner keeps dropping the rental price lower and lower till he gets someone in because as soon as winter comes You got to keep the heat on you got to keep it maintained in such or else the pipes will freeze the place will Go right downhill will have water damage the whole works So when there's a housing glut or a financial crisis real estate prices in the states will drop rather rapidly across the board You saw that in 2008 in 2009 and the fact that up in the states real estate is heavily leveraged However in Latin America banks don't make those kind of crazy loans You got to put a lot of money down and there's no frost or freezing So owners will try to maintain their rental prices in vacant properties for a much longer time Because they're so much cheaper to maintain while empty. There's no furnace so no electric or gas bills

[27:00] No freezing of pipes. So no water damage. Hey, I've seen vacant luxury even moderate apartments sit for two years Unoccupied till the owner finally figured out he was never gonna get a person in there to rent unless he dropped He's asking price 30 40 even 50 percent So that's the difference when you have a big oversupply of units up in the states versus Latin America The Latin owners can hold out a lot longer before they finally drop their prices, but they will and they are oh And you guys and gals come into my expat insiders seminar. You're gonna find out how to take advantage of all that You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B, you can schedule a one-on-one phone call with me But first download my free plan B questionnaire at www.thenewexpat.com

[27:47] Better yet if you want to get your plan B going from right up there in the states Just sign up for my 9-hour expat essentials course Get the perfect plan B blueprint by going to the expatfinals.com slash Academy