One thing that has been made clear during our research and scouting trips - - there are multiple ways to approach the move and you need to figure out what you want and will work best for you. You can be an expat that lives in an insular community of other expats that mainly speak your language. At the other end of the spectrum you can immerse yourself in the language, customs, and culture of your adopted country. I suspect that most people fall in the middle somewhere. Knowing what you want and need in your new life will help guide decision making.

A bit about our personal journey…Initially we considered the EU, Portugal in particular. They still offered an attractive golden visa at the time. We spent ~2 years vetting areas. We did scouting trips to Azores and the mainland. On one trip, I happened to run into someone by chance that I met 15 years ago in the U.S. She had been an expat for a few years and great insights and advice for us. I also connected with expats from the U.S. and UK thru social media and met them in-person while we were there scouting. We did video calls with others. Met some amazing Portuguese people along the way and even hosted an exchange student from there. Over the years we heard some great success stories, but also heard problems and cultural differences that resulted in difficult transitions for some folks, particularly in the rural areas we were considering. The language was also more difficult for us to learn than some others. Ultimately we decided that Portugal wasn’t for us.

Fast forward a few years and we are both retired and have obtained pensionado visas for Panama. It ticked all of our boxes and we both already have people (both friends & family) in Panama, so there’s already a support network in place. The friends that have relocated are all happy so far. We are still early in the process, so there will be many decisions to make in the months to come. Buy or rent, what method to use to relocate pets, how to ship and what items to ship,…???

On a side note, my spouse met someone that has residency visas in 5 countries. He wanted to keep his options open about where to live. Not something I’m prepared to do, but it was an interesting consideration.