Pensionado – Received!

What started out as a confusing exercise was completed on October 17. To apply, you must follow a lot of specific requirements. For people of a ‘mature’ age, the income requirement is pretty easy. Just a copy of Social Security or life-time pension proof. We also needed our marriage certificate and our FBI report.

The FBI report turned out to be the hardest part. Not because either of us have any criminal record or have living assumed lives but, as people get older sometimes their fingerprints begin to disappear. The fingerprint tech in Coral Springs said it is actually very common for doctors, nurses and teachers to lose their prints because we wash our hands so frequently. The first attempt last January was not successful. By the time I tried again in March, we made a trip to Panama which disqualifies the original report. After your prints have been rejected twice, the FBI will use your original print from your first driver’s license. They only need one readable print. Because of our trip to Panama, David’s prints were no longer valid and he also had to begin again.

Our prints were accepted and our FBI report was delivered to us in May. Plenty of time to get all of our paperwork apostatized at the Panamanian Consulate. We also had to bring our marriage certificate and proof of income to the Consulate for their official stamps.

With those papers in hand, we met with our attorney, Erik Quintero, right here in Boquete. All legal documents must be in Spanish, so all of our apostatized documents went to a translator. Once that was completed, we met with Erik in David. He ran from office to office as we sat in the lobby of the Immigration Office. After about 2 hours we got called in for our photo. The photo machines in Panama take square pictures that have to fit into a rectangular spot. To accomplish this, they take a square picture and then stretch the photo to fit into the rectangle. Everyone gets a loooong face on ID cards. We also got our multiple entry visas pasted into our passports. A few minutes more and we had our temporary pensionado visas. That was on July 1.

It’s very important to get a multiple entry visa when getting your temporary card. If for any reason you need to leave Panama, there is a $2000 fine to re-enter if your pensionado process has begun. You will also have to leave Panama every 90 days to keep your US driver’s license valid. Once you get your permanent pensionado and Panamanian driver’s license, that won’t be necessary.

A really cool thing about having a pensionado card – after landing at PTY, the passport control line for tourists was longer than I have ever seen. Probably 1 1/2 – 2 hours. With our cards we went to the Resident’s line, about 5 minutes!

We had just gotten to Guatemala, when Erik emailed us to let us know that our permanent cards were ready for pick-up! We arranged to stay 1 night in Panama City which saved us a special trip to the City from Boquete. Eric’s driver took us to the US Embassy to get our US driver’s licenses stamped and then off to Immigration. Another elongated photo and our cards were done. Start to finish = 13 weeks! Woot! Woot!!

Border Run 101

People who come to Panama arrive with a Tourist Visa. It allows you to stay for 180 days. Sounds easy but what a lot of people do not know is that your driver’s license is only good for 90 days. that means that these visitors must cross the border in order to continue to use their home-country driver’s license.

We tried to do this quick trip across the border into Costa Rica a few weeks ago. We were told we could not do it because we would have to be gone 24 hours for them to check us back into Panama. We went to Rio Serreno, near Volcan, and there are no places to stay in this very tiny town. So we returned home and planned to return shortly.

Then our calendar began to fill and we didn’t have 24 hours until yesterday. Our Florida licenses were not valid after September 10 – we’ve been in Panama 90+ days already. We could not take our car to the border so we caught the Boquete-David bus and then the David-Frontera bus. We were in Paso Canoas in no time.

Paso Canoas is a typical border town. It’s smaller than Nogales, Az but not cleaner. It’s classier than Tijuana (before the new immigration bridge) as x-rated stuff is not on every street corner. It’s safer than El Paso, TX. That said, it is dirty, hot and dusty. It does not have infrastructure to handle the hundreds of people who cross every day. Until recently, we could just go across the border, have lunch at Chicken Brothers and return to Panama. That changed about 3 weeks ago. Now we are required to stay out of Panama for 24 or more hours. Paso Canoas is not prepared to handle this new requirement. It has places to stay and some offer air conditioning, wifi and a pool.

The hotel we found was not the best.

Unfortunately, we found a much better hotel on the Panama side of the Free Zone AFTER we registered at Casa del Sur. The hotel was creepy looking but it was clean and had AC, wifi and a pool. I still left the bathroom light on all night as I am hysterically afraid of roaches. We saw not a single bug, not a fly, not a mosquito. The hotel was clean and, more importantly, right across the street from Costa Rica Immigration.

Food in Paso Canoas does not have to be good since their restaurants are for a captive audience. The aforementioned Chicken Brothers was actually good. We had dinner at another nondescript restaurant and it was barely fair. Until Immigration closed at 10 PM, it was noisy.

There was also some kind of celebration between the two immigration buildings last night. Boys and girls were in their finest traditional dresses and suits. There was a band and fireworks. The officials from Costa Rica gave a flag to the Panamanian officials but we have no idea why. People had little boxes with lights in them.

We got up early to be at the beginning of the line when the immigration office opened at 6 AM. The office actually opened at 7 AM. It was very smooth. Out of Costa Rica, short line to get back into Panama, catch the bus and we were home by 10:30 AM.

All in all, it was painless since we have been reading about horror stories. We did not see long lines, we were not asked for proof that we each had $500 or for an airline ticket to the US. This might be attributed to the fact that we are in the process of getting our pensionados for permanent residency.

Although this was not the worst 24 hours of my life, or anywhere near the worst 24 hours of my life, I really hope that this is the last 24 hours I have to spend in Paso Canoas.

Can you spot the gringo in this picture?

Better than US Border Protection

Today we started our first border run to Costa Rica. For the last three years, this has been a half day process – according to everyone who has been doing this for a while. We went with Scott, our neighbor, who has done this numerous times. So frequently, in fact, that he is familiar with the border agent on the Panama side.

Panama Border

The plan was: 1. leave early 2. cross into Costa Rica 3. Cross back into Panama 4. Have 90 more days of driving privileges. Reality was: Not going to happen. So close to the border.

In Panama, visitors are allowed to stay 180 days but a driver’s license is only good for 90 days. Until our pensionado is approved, we have to leave the country. Officially, the law states that you must be out of the country 48-72 hours, depending on who you ask. But Panama has allowed us gringos to go across the border, have lunch and then return. Two weeks ago the government of Panama issued a statement that the law would be followed. The agent at Rio Sereno followed the new procedure.

The drive to Rio Sereno is beautiful. It takes about two hours to get there through mountains, farmland, coffee fincas and waterfalls. It is also much cooler than using the main border control at Paso Canoa. We got to the border but the agent said he would not allow us back into Panama that quickly. It is an easy border to use as not many people go there. But it also means that they don’t have hotels and restaurants where you would want to spend 48 hours.

The town of Rio Sereno is a typical border town but much smaller. They have a brand new Duty Free store so our visit wasn’t a total waste of time. Yes, that does say $12.99 for Grey Goose.

We drove back, stopped for lunch and were home by 1. We still have about 2 weeks to drive so we will go again. This time we have a plan. We will go to Paso Canoa and plan to stay in Costa Rica a few days. Playa Zancudo is known for its beautiful beaches and very close to the border. This is low season so there are plenty of rooms. It’s near two national parks filled with monkeys.

We have so many things on our calendar and finding 2 nights was a problem. We must cancel our trivia night, reschedule our hot stone massages, and plan dinner for another night. Life his tough, but we will somehow struggle through and spend three days at the beach.