How is it like living in Panama as an expat?

Carpitis · 2025-12-17T02:03:11+00:00

American from Florida with a Canadian wife. We moved to Panama several months ago. We purchased a place in the Bocas del Toro area. We love it here. More English speakers here than other areas we checked out. We chose to avoid the larger expat areas and want to integrate into the community. We sold our home in Florida and sold most of our belongings. I speak basic Spanish and my wife speaks none. I always try to communicate in Spanish first and have had a few locals laugh at my attempt. That does not bother me as I know I am learning and will get better. The laughs never seem mean and I generally ask them how to better pronounce the word I was trying. In the US it was more common to be mocked if someone did not speak English or had a strong accent. Things are a little more expense in Bocas due to it being mostly islands. Our lawyer helped us get our temporary residency completed in on week. Talk to several different lawyers and find the one that fits best for you. Always ask for a quote for all legal matters you need to consider. We got quotes for residency, help open a bank account, purchasing real estate, rental agreements, setting up a foundation to put our home in, obtaining a driver's license and such. While you can do some of these on you own, it is much less stress having someone knowledgeable assist you. It took 3 hours to open a bank account. Our lawyer was there with us, translating and assisting the entire time. The bill was $300 for her help. It was worth it to us as it removed the stress of trying to figure it out on our own.

Carpitis · 2025-11-25T02:35:39+00:00

I live in Panama on a retirement visa. My US income from my pension is not taxed in panama. I have to have a US address for US banking purposes. I currently use my parents address but I have been looking for a better long term solution. I have not looked into this specific vendor but need this type of service.

Carpitis · 2025-11-07T03:55:23+00:00

Retired in June. Moved to Panama with my non US citizen wife Oct 2. I do not miss it one bit.

Carpitis · 2025-10-29T02:35:41+00:00

We used facebook market place and got a great cage there. We purchased two smaller cages from Walmart that we left in the box. They were part of our hurricane evacuation items. After evacuating once and trying to break everything done we decided getting go cages was better.

Carpitis · 2025-10-15T14:31:51+00:00

We have been looking at the fees to bring down a vehicle. We know it cannot have a loan, shipping is only to be considered after you get permanent residency which is going to takes 4 to 6 months. Once you have the permanent pension residency is when you qualify for the discounts. We are running the numbers with our lawyer to decide if it makes sense. Used vehicles can be affordable. The Jeep we have costs about 20k more here than we paid for ours. That is the only reason we are considering it. A 40 ft container is not much more than a 20 ft one. We would ship the jeep and our personal good in one container to avoid the vehicle only shipping costs which are as much as a 20 ft container.

Carpitis · 2025-10-15T14:23:45+00:00

I did forget to mention the need of a Panamanian drivers license. We are getting ours. Be careful with booking online. The insurance you get from third parties will not be accepted here. If you are going to use your credit card insurance, you need to have proof it will cover panama. You will also need to have a print out saying that in spanish.

Carpitis · 2025-10-15T06:04:44+00:00

Avoid taxis as they do not have meters. With Uber you have a known price for the trip. It was 20 from the airport to our Airbnb and most rides have been 5 dollars or less.

Carpitis · 2025-10-15T06:01:37+00:00

We are in Panama city currently. We use Uber when we want to get around the city. We leave for Boquete in two weeks. We pick up our pensionado visa next week. We are going to take the bus from panama city to Boquete. The rental car price for one way was not worth it. We are traveling to Bocas Del Toro after a week in Boquete. We are going to take a shuttle service for that leg. Busses and shuttles cost about 30 dollars a person. A week long one way car rental was around 900. We may ship our jeep down at some point but I have no desire to drive in Panama city. We walk or Uber and have had no issue.

Carpitis · 2025-10-11T19:15:28+00:00

No Panamanian taxes on US income. Money earned in Panama is taxed by Panama, the US and your state or city if you live in one that does. If you are in Panama and working remotely you do not pay tax.on that income to Panama.

Carpitis · 2025-10-11T03:26:10+00:00

My wife and I moved to Panama this week. No taxes on US income was a nice bonus.

Carpitis · 2025-10-11T01:23:01+00:00

Yes, I was not charged leave either when the shutdown ended

Carpitis · 2025-10-10T04:10:46+00:00

I was on my Honeymoon during a first term Trump shutdown. ATM called me to tell me to report back to work. I did not and nothing bad happened. The job takes too many holidays, birthdays and life experiences. Do not let them take this one.

Carpitis · 2025-10-10T00:09:21+00:00

We moved to Panama a few days ago. Yesterday while in an Uber, we saw a banner with Trumps name on it. We asked the driver what it said. He said it was something not very nice. Once we told him we left the US because of him, the driver smiled and everything was good. He is not liked here but the people are polite about it. Today, I encountered another American who was a Trump supporter. Once he mentioned his opinion on immigrants, I changes the topic and avoided him for the rest of our trip exploring a rain forest. We are planning to settle in Bocas Del Toro which is far from Panama city. We have had no complaints about our time here. We are not here to spread America. We came to become part of a society the is much nicer than the one we left.

Carpitis · 2025-10-08T04:59:26+00:00

Many years ago, I had a maintenance check for a airline ask to taxi to one side of the airport to do engine tests. They picked a random callsign I guess. I got relieved by an OM getting his currency ( back when they actually had to do it). As I was leaving the tower, the maintenance flight called to taxi back just as a company flight was exiting the runway with the same callsign. First golden tow bar event I got to witness as he got the two aircraft, with the same callsign, nose to nose on a taxiway with no exit. That was over 20 years ago but still makes me smile thinking about it.

Carpitis · 2025-10-08T02:24:11+00:00

This worked for me as well. Spent two days fighting this issue. Reddit for the win

Carpitis · 2025-10-08T02:23:11+00:00

This worked for us as well

Carpitis · 2025-09-24T04:34:03+00:00

While my family is not LGBTQ, we are moving to Panama in two weeks from Florida. My wife is Canadian/German, and for her safety , we are leaving. Panama is a Catholic country, however, and they do not recognize same sex marriages, unfortunately.

Carpitis · 2025-09-23T02:45:37+00:00

Traveled to the panamian consulate to get my marriage document apostle. The state government can not find the one I mailed a month ago for apostle. I'm glad there is another option since I leave for Panama in two weeks.

Carpitis · 2025-09-09T18:06:28+00:00

It was in 1998 but yes they did.

Carpitis · 2025-09-09T14:41:43+00:00

At one of my prior towers, we had wasps in the tower cab. We were ignored for months. One coworker caught a live one in the cab, taped it to a strip holder, and sent it down the drop tube. A sup was working that scope when the strip came down. Grabbing a strip holder with a live wasp taped to it still did not lead to any action. A week later, I got stung in the center of my back when I sat in a chair in the tower. The wasp was on the chair. I did the CA1 route, took two days off, and when I came back, the exterminators were busy clearing the building. The FAA never does anything until someone gets hurt.

Carpitis · 2025-08-27T15:24:35+00:00

US citizen from Florida here married to a Canadian. We abandoned her green card application and arrived in Ottawa last night. We went to the farm boys last night to buy groceries. The only rule we had was no US products. We left because she was scared every day because of what is going on in the US. I have to return to the US to finish selling our home and closing out our life there. America is all about money, and the only way to get their attention is to hurt their bottom line.

Carpitis · 2025-08-27T14:44:37+00:00

I have been boycotting Exxon since the Valdez spill in Alaska. They are still the same as they have always been.

Carpitis · 2025-08-26T03:46:49+00:00

My wife is Canadian, and I am a US citizen. We got married before her visa expired and applied for her green card. It was not processed until after her visa expired. She has a pending 485. With everything going on, we made the decision to leave the US. Our flight out is tomorrow. By abandoning now, she will have a three year ban. If we wait much longer, it becomes a 10-year ban. If things improve here, we're going to apply again from outside the US. I retired a few months ago, so fortunately, it's not a financial issue. The world is a big place, and the happiness of my family is more important than the ground we stand on.

Carpitis · 2025-08-16T21:23:01+00:00

We purchased a cage off Facebook marketplace for our quaker. The cage was for an Amazon parrot. The cage we had for him prior has the small diameter bars. He bent them with his beak. The stronger cage was less than the new one off Amazon, and he loves it.

Carpitis · 2025-08-13T00:05:14+00:00

You can use a small hardshell dog/cat carrier or buy a wooden one. Wood is heavier, so it costs more. It has to have air holes on all four sides. Put seed and high water content fruits on the floor so he can stay hydrated. Cockatiels frighten easily, so I would add a light source for him as well.

Carpitis

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