English (and French) speaker, prospects in Colombia?

There is lots of serious crime all over the United States .....whether you want to admit it or not......in virtually every major city.....New Orleans, Miami, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles,  etc., etc. etc. ...drugs & guns gangs, MS-13,
Hells Angels, etc. ...and that's not even counting all the mass school shootings all over the country ....the entire United States is literally going down the tubes now, in my opinion...who the hell would even want to live there now....the American Dream has turned into a complete nightmare

I just wonder why there are so many American and Canadian expats living in Medellin and other cities in Colombia  if it is all so dangerous

maybe they all have Colombian wives and girl friends.... or maybe they just like the lifestyle .....and the climate .....and the culture.... and the short 3 hr flight from Miami, Florida

and the cheaper cost of living

Expats cannot just "ignore" the roaming "Maoist-style nutbars" referred to above .. if traveling by car at night. 

Some nutbars leave the jungles or wherever at night, often on motorcycles .. and prey on unarmed motorists and passengers during later hours when police are not present, even on the Panamerican highway. 

Do not do intercity travel in Colombia at night outside the Coffee Zone.

cccmedia

Quechimba wrote:

I recommend you incorporate..in Alberta (where the lowest tax rates are) ..work remotely on contract, pay yourself a dvidend, dont get Colombians involved ...

Just get a PO box or address in Alberta. Or use an accountants address. Ican give you a name.

If you are in the top 1% in your field you should be able to do this easily and make 100 to 150 k a year and pay minimal taxes.

And dont get any Colombians or DIAN involved. Besides, Canada has a tac treaty that over rides the 183 day rule.

.
Calling Brother Archer.

IMO the claim of a "tac treaty" supposedly cancelling out the 183-day 'tax resident rule' for Canadians in Colombia .. doesn't pass the smell test.

Please weigh in, Brother.

cccmedia

Obviously. Good advice. And don't walk through dirt poor barrios in major cities like Medellin, Bogota, Cali late at night all by yourself after you've had a few drinks.

The nutbar Maoist-style crazies and guerillas are mostly confined to jungle and remote areas

cccmedia wrote:

Quechimba wrote:

And dont get any Colombians or DIAN involved. Besides, Canada has a tac treaty that over rides the 183 day rule.

.
Calling Brother Archer.

IMO the claim of a "tac treaty" supposedly cancelling out the 183-day 'tax resident rule' for Canadians in Colombia .. doesn't pass the smell test.

Please weigh in, Brother.

cccmedia

As far as I know this is not correct - the rule of who is classified as a tax resident of Colombia (anyone who resides in Colombia 183 days or more in any 365 day period) has not changed as far as I know, and it applies to all foreigners no matter their nationality as far as I know.

This Deloitte PDF refers only to a treaty with Canada to avoid the imposition of double taxation:
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/D … 202015.pdf

I invite Quechimba to clarify and cite his sources for this tac treaty of which he speaks.

Hello everyone,

Please note that we have put aside some off-topic posts. Please don't use this topic to post irrelevant information, otherwise we will have to remove any further off-topic posts.

All the best,
Bhavna

Sorry. Added in error.

Been living here for years... I have a complete totally different experience than you....

There is crime in every country and in every big city all over the world, including the United States and Canada where I live.

Mexico is full of crime, drug cartels, etc. Italy has lots of crime and lots of organized crime, but that does not stop tons of people from visiting Italy.

The same goes for France and Paris.....lots of crime in Paris.

If people are going to constantly worry about every little thing that might happen to you, they might just as well just stay at home....maybe even never leave their house.  but living in  constant fear of everything under the sun is no way to live.

Life is passion, and passion is life...that's my motto. Without dreams and lots of passion, adventure & travel, we are already dead. I love that slogan....Colombia is passion !!!!   So true.

The warmest and most friendly people that I ever met were all in Colombia.

Colombia Rocks !!!   Amo Colombia !!!

Actually, the Colombian people are the best....they are the  most happy and friendly people I ever met......it's the people ….the people make Colombia....I think Colombia has a great future and one day soon the whole world will come to Colombia to invest and visit a truly great country. 

I traveled all over Colombia....Medellin, Sabaneta, Marinilla, Andes, Jardin, Santa Fe de Antioquia,
Isla de San Andres...and I  never had one single problem. I even walked through a poor barrio in San Cristobal on the outskirts of Medellin and had no problems whatsoever.

Hell, I felt safer in Colombia than I did back home in good old safe Toronto-Canada.

Of course, bad things  can happen anywhere so you just have to take the normal precautions, but not get overly paranoid about things. 

Take a walk on the wild side......take a chance......and why not, you only live once, and you haven't lived until you have gone to Colombia.

Ole !!! Ole !!!

Brian

So what is your totally different experience in Colombia ?

Helpful, warm, friendly, respectful, and cooperative people eager to participate and contribute to our social projects.  No incident of crime, personally. No incident to loss of trust in my Colombian friends.  I now have 10 employees who are young idealistic, hard-working, bright, and completed committed to our foundation willing to skip paychecks and work late hours; whatever it takes.    I have a wonderful loving caring hard working woman as my wife half my age and two beautiful sons.  Frankly, I couldn't be happier. I am a lucky lucky man. All I do is try to be as positive, helpful, loving every day so I can deserve all these blessings.  I showed up to Colombia with 20K to start my foundation and we're kicking butt and growing still.  I love Colombia. When I quit pursuing happiness and became a minimalist to find my peace within me, then happiness found me.

Yes, that is very good advice. No place is perfect. Those whacko nut-bars are just a bunch of low-life criminals. But they have people like that in almost every country all over the world. You just have to listen to the locals on how to stay safe, and take the ordinary & necessary precautions. Those criminals also prey on the Colombian people, not just on gringos

Sounds great. You sure found your niche and complete happiness in Colombia. Congratulations.

Am i mistaken or is this guy just posting the same thing over and over and over?

Deja Vu

Bhavna has already moderated this thread from the Home Office in the Mascarene Islands.

Please keep your posts on-topic .. and avoid oblique comments that seek to invalidate the commentary of others.

cccmedia
member, expat.com experts team

Some things bear repeating....hahaha

Hey what’s up dude , so how safe is la ceja for an English guy there as a tourist it potentially become an expat ?

Antioquia in normal times and even now is one of the safest areas of Colombia, it has great people and is the most progressive part of the country.  However these are not normal times.  Right now despite rigorous government efforts Covid19 is exploding across the country and there is no air travel there until at least September.  Also because the economy has been shutdown for the last four to five months there are a lot of people who have had close to zero income, and there are 1.8 million Venezuelans in Colombia, this has made street crime a much more serious problem.  Your Spanish needs to be pretty good because most of the people do not speak much English.  Colombia should have a great future as long as the left does not take over and ruin it as they have in so many other countries in Latin America, last time they did get 42 percent of the votes.

Laker4115 wrote:

Colombia should have a great future as long as the left does not take over and ruin it as they have in so many other countries in Latin America, last time they did get 42 percent of the votes.

Aside from Venezuela, which countries in Latin America (pre-covid) were supposedly ruined by "the left," Laker?

Cuba, Nicaragua, Argentina, etc. etc.

Laker is correct on all points, including that Colombia is doing better because it has not fallen to the far left.