Episode Summary
In this episode, Johnny Mueller discusses the challenges expats face when ordering goods from the U.S. via mail forwarding services in Latin America. He explains how customs and taxes can be a problem when items exceed the tax-free limit of $200-$300, and shares strategies to avoid these costs, such as breaking orders into smaller shipments or negotiating with sellers. He also warns about the risks of misrepresenting the value of items to customs and suggests using Photoshop to alter invoices if needed.
Johnny also explores methods to reduce import duties and customs fees when ordering goods from China, particularly through platforms like Alibaba. He explains that marking the invoice as 'sample' or 'samples' can help avoid heavy taxes, as it's a common practice in the manufacturing industry. He shares his personal experience of ordering a portable solar energy system through Alibaba, where the salesperson helped adjust the invoice to avoid high customs fees. Johnny notes that while this practice may be considered tax evasion, it's common among expats and often goes unnoticed by customs authorities, especially in regions like Latin America where tax enforcement is lax.
The podcast segment also discusses the challenges of importing goods, particularly cars and vitamins, through customs at the U.S.-Mexico border. Johnny explains that while customs officials may not criminally charge individuals, they often demand bribes or additional fees. He addresses a listener's issue with shipping vitamins from the U.S. to Guatemala, noting that Amazon packages typically receive preferential treatment, and vitamins should not be restricted. Johnny suggests that the problem may be due to the package being mislabeled as medicine and recommends using Amazon boxes or breaking the order into smaller shipments to avoid issues.
Johnny then discusses the challenges of importing prescription medications from online pharmacies to Latin America, highlighting how even though these drugs are easily available in local drugstores without a prescription, they can be held up in customs when imported. He shares a personal anecdote about his experience with sumitriptin, a medication for migraines, which he ordered online and had to deal with customs issues. He explains how the cost of proprietary medications is significantly higher in Latin America compared to generic versions available online and suggests ways to avoid customs issues, such as shipping the medication through a third-party location like Chicago and disguising the package to avoid detection.
The segment expands on the broader theme of government corruption and tax evasion in Latin America, noting that the system is so corrupt that everyone, including government officials, engages in some form of tax evasion. Johnny explains how value-added taxes (VAT) and fuel taxes are used to fund government operations despite the widespread tax evasion. He also highlights how property taxes in Latin America are extremely low, with examples given of how much less they are compared to the United States.
Finally, Johnny discusses the financial dynamics of countries in Latin America, highlighting how governments often rely on taxes and international loans to fund their operations. He explains that countries like Argentina, Ecuador, and Mexico frequently become insolvent and default on their debts, often leading to the creation of new forms of currency and the rise of corrupt regimes. Johnny addresses an email from Mark, a long-time listener from Chicago, who is considering moving his money to a bank that operates in both Chicago and Guatemala. He advises Mark against having a bank with a US branch in Latin America, explaining that US authorities can easily freeze such accounts, making it difficult to access funds. He emphasizes the importance of selecting a stable, local bank in Latin America and consulting with a local lawyer for guidance. Finally, Johnny promotes his upcoming seminar, encouraging listeners to attend and apply for residency in Guatemala.
Topics
Customs and taxes for expats in Latin America, Strategies to avoid customs fees, Mail forwarding services and their challenges, Negotiating with sellers to avoid customs issues, Customs and import duties, Alibaba and Chinese manufacturing, Tax evasion and expat strategies, Communication challenges with international sellers, Customs and border regulations, Importing goods, Shipping vitamins and supplements, Bribery and customs practices
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:32 Email of Concern for Expats Using Mail Forwarding Services 00:00:58 Tax-Free Window for Imported Goods in Latin America 00:02:50 Hacks to Avoid Customs Fees on Expensive Orders 00:05:35 Marking the Invoice as 'Sample' to Avoid Customs Fees 00:06:23 The Magic Word: 'Sample' or 'Samples' 00:07:44 Alibaba as the Chinese Version of Amazon 00:09:40 Is It Illegal to Mark the Invoice as 'Sample'? 00:11:03 Customs and Car Imports: The Blue Book Value Issue 00:11:35 Vitamins and Customs: The Mislabeled Medicine Problem 00:16:36 Customs Issues with Prescription Medications 00:17:16 Boots on the Ground Example 00:17:22 Personal Experience with Customs Issues 00:19:33 Tax Evasion and Government Corruption 00:20:59 Value-Added Tax (VAT) in Latin America 00:22:05 Financial Dynamics of Latin American Countries 00:23:43 Advice for Mark on Banking in Latin America 00:26:59 Promotion of Upcoming Seminar and Residency Applications 00:27:44 Announcement of Upcoming Seminar 00:27:50 Benefits of Attending the Seminar 00:27:54 How to Join the Waiting List
Transcript
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 out to play and now I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat 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 today Let's start with an email of concern for everyone on a plan B who comes down here to live and who is receiving packages from Various companies up in the states Amazon eBay over stock comm whatever then Receiving them through one of those mail forwarding services located Miami
[00:48] You know when you start using one of those services, there's always some bugs to be worked out And of course governments always want their piece their taxes through the at one hour customs Though luckily as you longtime listeners know I mentioned that most Latin countries Have a two or three hundred dollar tax-free window when you order stuff In other words, if you order something from Amazon or anywhere that's under two or three hundred bucks Depending on the country the item never even ends up in customs It goes straight through from the Miami forwarding box all the way through to that Forwarding companies pickup office in whatever country or city you're in So governments do want their pound of flesh after you've ordered something over two or three hundred bucks But you can play tricks with them too. For example the other day
[01:35] I ordered a security camera system from the US, you know, the latest and greatest 4k system Those are eight megapixel cameras ultra high definition can't get any better than that The thing is the security company up in the States is having a huge Black Friday sale and for 24 hours Everything was half price with free ground shipping So I bought an eight camera system get this for around 500 bucks Normally a system like that well over a grand because it comes with the DVD recorder all the software for tetra-byte hard disk So you can continuously record with those cameras for something like a week or so And of course, they got that great app So wherever you are in the world, you can look at your cameras in real time or check the recording And that's just great for monitoring a house or a business, you know
[02:23] So anyway, I ordered this thing and it was five hundred and some bucks Which as you know is over the $200 tax free limit in the country. I'm in anyway So naturally it's gonna get stuck in customs and I'm gonna have to pay something like a 30 percent duty That always seems to be a way it works out Even when they tell you it's 10 or 15 or 20 percent somehow They tack on a lot of junk and you end up paying around 30 It used to happen to me quite a bit and I say used to happen But that was then and this is now there are some hacks to get around that and in the case of the camera system It was easy. I just told the guy when I ordered it to put on the shipping invoice that it was 195 bucks And you know what? Sometimes they'll go along with that but this guy wouldn't because it's a big outfit and he said the warehouse prepares those things And he's got no control over that and they'll send along the correct paid amount on the shipping invoice meaning I was so well, right?
[03:15] Wrong. You got to have a plan B You know sometimes a plan C and my plan B went something like this. There's eight cameras hard drive digital recorder cables and such I told them break it into three separate orders First order with four cameras second order of the other four cameras and one with the digital recorder hard-driving cables So then I had three orders each one of them slightly under 200 bucks And you see because it was a Black Friday sale all ground shipping was free So no matter how many orders you broke it into they'd ship it to wherever in my case my Miami forwarding service So then it lands in Miami and then a couple days later It ends up at their office in whatever Latin country you're in and in this case with the surveillance camera system Each package is under 200 bucks. So it doesn't end up in customs and therefore you pay no taxes or duties just shipping
[04:06] Though sometimes that can hit you pretty hard because it's by weight So for example, if your box weighs 10 pounds and it costs five dollars a pound, that's 50 bucks So as it turns out with big outfits like eBay Sears target overstock comm and Amazon Which is the biggest you'll never get a salesperson or anyone to change the shipping invoice to get it under that two or three Hundred dollar tax-free limit but with smaller outfits, especially mom and pop outfits All you have to do is get on the phone or chat with one of the salesmen and say hey look I got this $200 customs limit problem And more often than not they'll say why not though They may not ever have stretched the rules like that before doesn't hurt to ask and it works at least some of the time Think about it. It's no skin off their backs. Really. They still get the order and they're dough and that's the point, right?
[04:57] Oh, and if you're thinking that the people at customs or the aduana who are checking those things aren't really stupid Well, some of them are they're all corrupt and of course you could push the limit and stretch things too far They just might catch it. For example, if you're sending a camera system through that's worth over a thousand bucks and it's marked 195 bucks because it's all in one box They might hold it up and say give us proof send us the original invoice. It looks like it's worth a lot more than that Well, that's happened to me too And normally you just use a little Photoshop sleight of hand send them the original invoice with a couple of numbers changed It's all by email and internet and you know, as long as you've got some official backup paperwork It normally goes through just fine Just did that lately with a TV from Amazon The other part of this little hack is if the thing seems to be really expensive and you want to keep the shipping
[05:43] Invoice under 200 bucks or 300 depending on what country you're in You just tell the outfit you bought it from to mark on the package Sample or if it's a lot of items samples because often in many clothes Manufacturers will tell you this they are sending boxes of samples all the time when they're doing a big run of 5,000 10,000 jeans blouses t-shirts, whatever They'll first run 10 or 20 samples before they do the whole order Then they'll send off that box of samples to whatever customer made the order To get their approval to run the rest of that big order and it seems that I've seen it happen myself As long as the invoice is marked a sample, you don't get nailed with heavy customs or import fees It seems like the magic word in this case is sample or samples And I'll tell you those Chinese folks at Alibaba know that trick
[06:31] Well, in fact, those guys will bend all kinds of rules for you So you don't have to pay taxes or to minimize your import duties But when you make your order you have to ask in fact, that's what I did about a half year ago Now when I ordered my portable solar energy system I ordered it direct from the manufacturer through Alibaba where I first located the company Now in that case, I asked the salesperson a Chinese guy who I was chatting with Oh, and the thing is I know the guy didn't speak English or Spanish. He was using Google Translate That's what most of these reps on Alibaba do they'll speak to you in English do the whole deal in English But they're using Google Translate or some kind of translator and they'll do it all through what's up Why because unlike the cost of a regular phone call halfway around the world
[07:18] What's up is free because it's over the internet and Wi-Fi Though there is a small percentage of Alibaba salespeople Maybe five percent will actually speak to you on what's up instead of just texting back and forth all the time But look out their English can be pretty atrocious So be advised you might think it's great when some Chinese salesperson a rep says they speak English But in the end you just might find that texting is a hell of a lot easier by the way That's why Alibaba which is almost as big as Amazon, you know, it's the Chinese version of Amazon The weird thing is it's practically unknown and unheard of here in Latin America Why because all the transactions are done in English or more precisely the Google Translate version of Chinese English But Latinos trying to order in Spanish forget about it
[08:05] The fact is I've had quite a few Latinos asked me how they can get on Alibaba when they see with the deals I like they're almost always way below Amazon prices for the same products But naturally the shipping costs are more because stuff comes directly from China for many items It's well worth it. Although there are a few more hoops to jump through but remember China's where everything originates anyway So when you order from Amazon, they're getting it from China and storing it in their warehouses in the States So there's middlemen to pay all along the way And if you know how to order through Alibaba there are as mentioned more hoops to jump through But you know with every order you actually get to chat or talk to someone a real person on Alibaba You always do that to finalize your order Unlike Amazon where you place your order directly and there's no human interaction involved
[08:51] So anyway, I ordered my portable solar system about half year ago direct from the manufacturer in China through Alibaba That's how I got the contact in the first place If you've ever visited the Alibaba site, you'll see that it's kind of the general registry for all the manufacturers in China It's amazing. Alibaba's got every Chinese manufacturer on their site So anyway, I ordered that portable solar power unit and they gladly changed the shipping invoice number for me So that the solar panels came in under 200 bucks and there were two 200 watt suitcase panels The actual price slightly over 400 bucks So naturally they would have got stuck in customs and I'd have to pay 30 percent duty and all that and when I told The Chinese salesman in the chat of that little predicament Well, he gladly did what was necessary to make the customer happy
[09:40] So now some of you are wondering is that illegal? Can you get in trouble for that? It's a tax evasion Well, I guess if you're living up in the States and you've placed an order like that The hammer could come down if someone figured it out But remember I'm ordering things from China or Amazon and they end up here in Latin America And you know here in Latin America where your tax dollar goes for absolutely nothing Let me ask you this as expiratio. He says is it a crime to steal from a thief? Good question, huh? Now, of course, I'm not advocating you do anything illegal I'm just telling you what a lot of smart expats end up doing after they've been nailed a few dozen times with some really high import Taxes and truthfully the worst that could happen if you have someone mark down the shipping receipt
[10:25] And it doesn't really reflect what you're paid for it Well, your shipment will be delayed a bit and the adwana the customs guys will assign a value to it And you'll end up paying some taxes. So has that ever happened to me or anyone else? I know that's pulled a hack like that Absolutely not at least up to now I've never ever heard of a case where customs have questioned the value of something and assigned a higher price That can only really happen if you don't have an official looking receipt or you're bringing a car in and you've somehow doctored the invoice down to a ridiculously low number because cars are such big items to import and Governments can extort so much taxes when you bring one through well They just like you have access to the present-day blue book value of any car So if you driver ship a car through and it's worth ten thousand bucks
[11:11] You've got an invoice that says four or three the customs guys won't buy that but you're not gonna get in trouble They're not gonna criminally charge you. They're just gonna make you pay the tax. There's no way you'll ever end up in court They just want their money. That's why especially at the Mexican US border There's an awful lot of bribery going down when people bring cars through it used to be though I don't know if it's happening much like this anymore When you'd bring a car from the states through to Mexico if it was worth in the blue book Let's say 20,000 bucks and you had a receipt from a car dealer or auction that said five or ten thousand bucks They're very well could be a little bit of a Mexican standoff when you're dealing with customs Often nothing that a hundred bucks under the table couldn't solve if you know what I mean I've seen that kind of stuff go down many times, especially at land border stops
[11:58] Those immigration and customs guys are eminently bribable Especially when you're trying to bring boxes full of stuff through a border You don't have receipts and the customs guys are trying to establish a value Depends how busy or how neglected the border stop is too and how close it is to Easter or Christmas Because you know that's vacation time and everyone's short of dough and those border cops They need to buy presents for the kids and stuff and sometimes they'll come right out and tell you that It's happened to me more than once which brings us to this email from Frank a longtime listener Who's living in Antigua, Guatemala? In fact, I think he's been living there now five or six years He says Johnny. I've got a package of vitamins from Vitacost.com that I ordered through a shipper that I've used once or twice before that would be a Miami-based shipper
[12:47] Were they forward the goods? It's called quick box USA calm So I used them a few times with no problems suddenly now They're telling me that because the package is marked medicine I have to have it broken into two separate packages with an added fee Decide-step import regulations about the amount of medicine that I can bring in at one time Then Frank says according to a certain fake book expat group all of that may be true I don't really know right now I've sent a reply to the email company at quick box asking why the sudden change and I sent him an email copy for The second time of the package inventory to show that it's all vitamins and no medicine. I asked my lawyer about that He said he doesn't really know what's happening there But he did say that if you're a pensionnado resident and are registered that way with the government tax office in Guatemala
[13:39] SAT it's called they will sometimes waive the annual package and weight restrictions because people under the pensionnado status have special Dispensations. So anyway, Johnny just need your opinion on that, please. All right, Frank I think I have some news on that front news that every expat gonna be wanna be and people of the plan be If for example, you're ordering anything through Amazon, I'm mentioning Amazon again Why because it's number one with Latinos for buying things online and having them shipped through these Miami freight forwarders Turns out when an Amazon box comes through it's marked all over the place Amazon right an Amazon Prime and all that It really doesn't matter what you've got inside an Amazon box It gets preferential treatment as long as it's not an apparatus that's loaded with lithium batteries or some kind of chemical
[14:27] They deem hazardous like cleaning fluids or degreasers paints certain toxic liquid cleaning products And even if it is a restricted product They'll get through might take another week or so and you might have to pay a five dollar surcharge that's happened to me But no big deal seems like if it's in an Amazon box It almost always gets through a okay without ever hitting the adwana unless of course again It's over the two or three hundred dollar limit and even then your Miami mail forwarding service will take care of the charges And when you pick it up, you just have to reimburse them and another thing Frank's right if it's vitamins or supplements There are supposed to be no restrictions Meaning supposedly there's no limit to the amount of stuff you can order off Amazon eBay or whatever and have it shipped through your Miami Mailbox and brought into your country. However, it seems in Frank's case
[15:15] He somehow got nicked what he's saying is the adwana thought it was prescription medicine, which prompted the email now when it comes to Prescription medicine. Sometimes it will get stuck in the adwana That's the customs office and you'll have to go down there yourself with the prescription to get it released Although I only know of one person that's ever happened to besides yours truly me Anyway, from what Frank says, I'm assuming Frank's Miami mail service That's quickboxusa.com has figured a workaround by breaking up the order into two separate packages though It does seem strange but bottom line Frank, it shouldn't have happened because vitamins and supplements aren't supposed to get held up Funny thing Frank. I've ordered from vitacross through Amazon and never had that trouble at all Then again as mentioned if you order products through Amazon
[16:02] It comes in Amazon boxes and that stuff almost always sidesteps customs as long as it's under two or three hundred bucks By the way, here's a hack that some people use concerning prescription medicines They have the mail order pharmacy send the product to someone in the states mother brother sister Then they stick it in a little Amazon box Ha ha seal it up and send it to the mail forwarder in Miami Isn't that sneaky and the people I know who do this none of them is reported ever being snagged in customs However, if you use one of those online pharmacies and are actually getting prescription medicines They'll send it to your Miami box except the bill of lading the shipping order will say prescription medicine or it'll have the name of the drug on it and Ironically enough even though you can get all that stuff in your Latin American country without a prescription at any drugstore
[16:51] That same prescription medicine if you buy it from an online pharmacy could get held up in customs It's happened to me now I know what you're thinking if you buy that stuff all day long in Latin America without a prescription Why get it online? Well down here if it's a generic medicine is super cheap But if it's proprietary and you have to buy the name brand It's gonna be expensive because it's got to be imported from the first world oddly enough It seems proprietary medicines are always a lot cheaper online. All right, how about a boots on the ground example? Here's what happened to me a while back. I got caught up in a little catch-22 myself now I'm not on any regular prescription medication However, I take the occasional sumitriptin tablet for migraine headaches I get a migraine every week or two
[17:37] So I take a sumitriptin tab about every week or two and normally just want to work like a charm now The proprietary name for that stuff is imitrix and it's very expensive some like 20 bucks a pill But they've got online pharmacies in Canada India United Kingdom Australia And other places that sell that stuff as a generic for one to two bucks a pill Now down here in Latin America, there's almost zero demand for that drug sumitriptin So the pharmacies don't carry the generics only the proprietary imitrix So once not long ago, I ordered a big quantity of that stuff online enough I figured class me years something like 200 pills and wouldn't you know what they got stuck in Guatemala customs because they were a Medicine. Yep. I shipped it through my Miami mailbox
[18:24] I got an email from him saying I had to go down to custom and show my prescription Which is a big pain in the ass You got to go down to the big city to the traffic snarled overly congested government district Takes about four hours to do anything when you go through a government building You join the sweaty masses take a number you wait and you wait and I finally got the stuff But I wouldn't have got it if I didn't have a prescription. So then how could I have avoided all that? Glad you asked that question Well if I would have had that stuff shipped to let's say my mother's place in Chicago and she stuck it in a tiny Amazon box removed the packing slip description information, etc Maybe throw in a couple of cookies and a pound cake as mothers like to do I doubt there'd have been any problems at all
[19:10] And even if my mail forwarding service would have called and said hey, we need an invoice on this Well, guess what? It's Photoshop to the rescue now if all this sounds underhanded and sneaky This is Latin America you know we're practically all government officials including the cops are on the take or Are at least willing to forgive and forget look the other way for what you might call a tip a gratuity Really chicken feed driveway chicken feed and unfortunately or fortunately, that's the system down here You can bucket but you won't get very far You have to kind of play along and truthfully there isn't a single business here in Latin America or individual for that matter who isn't doing some kind of sleight of hand to avoid paying taxes or Minimizing them to some ridiculously low level and the fact is everyone knows you get absolutely
[19:58] Nothing for your tax dollar here though Some people might say look at the infrastructure at least they built roads and bridges and such Even if they've done a horse job Someone's building them with tax dollars, right? Well, not so fast, especially when you consider just like up in the states in Europe They've got a hefty fuel tax at the pump And I mean hefty because gas and diesel prices are higher here than they are in the first world That means in many cases you're paying more for tax when you buy a gallon than you do for the value of the gas itself You know when you look back at the statutes in the states when gas taxes were first and post You'll see the whole idea was for that money to be specifically used for infrastructure projects and road maintenance Another big government lie. It's all talked those taxes go into the general fund and are not earmarked for infrastructure
[20:48] Projects nor is that the case in Latin America? So believe it or not down here in Latin America Everyone is getting over on the government somehow because they know it's so utterly corrupt and useless By the way, that's why all Latin countries have a VAT tax. They call it EVA EVA It's that value-added tax that you pay for every time you buy a product Unless of course you're buying it for cash on the street from one of the millions of little vendors who's selling stuff off the books Yep, you got to love that about Latin America Well, you've got a probably a third of all people working off the books because they just can't stand Paying even a nickel of their income to the government But when you're buying stuff in a legitimate store restaurant or any place that hands out those receipts called fact turas You're paying that EVA included in the bill whether you know it or not. That's that extra 10 to
[21:38] 24% depending on the country that each business who gives out those receipts or fact turas has to turn over to the government every month and the reason why that EVA exists is because Everyone cheats on their income taxes and that the EVA and the fuel taxes are the two main ways government funds It's pathetic malignant crook itself Besides the fact that Latinos hardly pay any income tax at all. Their property taxes are ridiculously low You got to love that for example in a house that's worth let's say 300,000 bucks in the states, so pay probably around a hundred dollars a year property tax So governments make big money from the EVA the value-added tax the gas tax and through Gigantic IMF and World Bank loans that they can never possibly pay back
[22:25] Which is why countries like Argentina Ecuador Mexico and others routinely become insolvent and go bankrupt Every 10 years or so then they default on their debts Create a brand new kind of funny money with a new set of smiling sociopathic Genocidal dictators on it then with the new corrupt government promising to be good little payers if they just get another huge IMF loan China comes in buys up all the mining rights then they have a big international meeting photo op They suck up to the US and they're off to the races again, which brings us to another pertinent email this time It's from Mark. He says. Hi Johnny. I'm a lifelong North sider from Chicago. Hey, I've been there Thanks so much for your podcast. He says you restarted my dreams I was thinking of starting to move my money to a bank that does business in both Chicago and Guatemala believe it or not
[23:16] Then he says I can change my dollars to a strictly local bank when I get down there I'm about two years away from doing all that and getting my plan be done Then he says I'll be coming down to your later seminar in 2020 He's talking about the one coming up this July that is if the world doesn't implode financially or otherwise by then by the way If you've noticed all the seminars, I've done for the past nine years have been in July and January Anyway, he says Johnny have any ideas for me about banks? Well mark I think you're not a longtime listener right or you would have heard me say many times that it's a great idea In fact mandatory to have a bank in Latin America But it's a terrible idea to have a bank in Latin America that has a branch up in the US Even though at first thought it sounds mighty convenient. For example down here
[24:03] You'll find that corrupt bloated giant Citibank. You'll find Scotia Bank Bank of America Lots of US banks. So at first you're thinking. Hey, I have an account with Citibank I'll just open an account down there and it'll be so easy to just move money back and forth at will But let me tell you that's a very very bad idea The idea is that the bank you select in your Latin country is a good strong bank That's been around at least 40 or 50 years. So, you know, it's stable and solid by the way It should be your Latin lawyer that tells you which bank to use because he knows the most solid ones and the ones that seem To be solid but aren't just because the banks got lots of ads and TV commercials doesn't mean it's solid That's why you need your local Latin lawyer to fill you in on these things
[24:49] You don't want to trust the gringos in the local expat bar to give you banking advice Though so many fresh green gringos will do that. I've seen it for myself, but I digress though Not much anyway mark the big reason why you should never get a Latin bank that has a branch in your town or even in the US at all is because all the US State Treasury Department or IRS has to do is make a phone call to let's say Citibank who you've got an account with in Chicago and Guatemala and with one phone call not even a court order They could lock up your account and make it impossible for you to move money in and out till the end of time But that won't happen to you, right? Well, let's say you get divorced right away The first thing your soon-to-be ex-wife's lawyers gonna do is gonna lock down the Citibank account, which includes the one in Guatemala
[25:39] However, if you had dough in a bank in Guatemala that was not connected to or had a branch anywhere in the US They cannot touch your dough It's nearly impossible because to do so a lawyer or team of lawyers would have to come down to your Latin country from the states Get a court date down in your Latin country and all this will have to be done in Spanish Of course, they'll have to present their case The reason why they want to lock up your account and guess what by the time they get that all together and all the dough They'll have spent Surely tens of thousands of dollars on trips and lawyers and hours build not to mention the court systems here in Latin America Work on triple mañana time. So a case like that might not even get heard for a year or two The fact is if you talk to any Latin lawyer ask him if he's ever heard of a case
[26:25] Where a gringos Latin bank account has been locked up or frozen or what they call embargoed after there's been some kind of US Court order or request you'll find there's probably not a single Latino lawyer who knows of any action like that being successful In fact people ask my ex-pat insider seminar lawyer that same question all the time and he says he's never heard of that ever Happening in Guatemala or with any of his other lawyer friends throughout other Latin American countries It just doesn't happen that way unless you've got an accountant at a bank. That's got a branch up in the US Alright, speaking of my upcoming seminar, which kicks off just about a month from now on January 10th There's still time to get on board Just go to www.theexpatfiles.com and click on this seminar link or go to www.theexpatfiles.com
[27:16] Seminar and remember you can kill two birds with one stone That is come to the seminar and apply for your Guatemalan residency at the same time Just check out the seminar sign up information and you'll see the details on how to arrange with our seminar lawyer to apply for Your residency at the same time You've been listening to The Expat Files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult Just send me an email theexpatfiles.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in Central America Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B Send me an email theexpatfiles.com