Hi all,
My wife and I moved here to Panama 6 months ago, from Barcelona, Spain. I am British and my wife is Colombian but with Spanish nationality. We have now established ourselves here in Panama city. We have a house (unusual for expats) but also just bought an apartment to rent out. We now have our national IDs (Cedular extranjero Panamaño). We have cars and staff and had some problems there, and learnt from our mistakes. All good now though. I do drive here and it's a bit of an adventure driving around the city, especially at peak times but not a problem. I got my Panamenain drivers licence 3 months of being here, not a complex process) .
We have amassed more friends here in 6 months than 15 years in Spain and from a lot of nationalities, Panameños, Americans, Canadians, Brits, irish,Germans, Austaralians, Brazilans Colombians, Venezuelans, also a New Zealander, an Indian, an Egyptian, a Bulgarian. Panama is a very exciting and vibrant city and we live really close to the centre but its so quiet and transquil here. We have squirrels in the garden and our 2 cats love the place,chasing after the birds (and never catching them). We live in an are a called Altos del Golf (niether high (alto) nor a golf course (or near one)), but we are 3 blocks from the ocean, 2 blocks from a huge park, 5 minutes (by car) to a upmarket mall (Multiplaza). We don't hear traffic, but just the birds chirping in the morning (paradise).
I run my business (based in Switzerland and Spain) from here with no problem at all (a lot of zoom meetings). And the difference in time zones mean my working day finishes at 11 am.
I got my residency through the Pensionado route (just turned 60) with my wife (who is not yet retired, so she came as a "dependant" ) but still got permanent residency within about 3 weeks and we got our Cedulars after 3 months.
I do speak spanish and that was an enormous help, and it meant I didn't have to rely on lawyers all the time for every little thing. With all our friends we have they help us out with any assistance, like bank recommendations or hiring staff etc.
Also where to get cheaper stuff, as Panama City can be quite expensive for many things unless you know where to go (food, furniture specifically).
We went back to Spain last week and to be honest I couldn't wait to get pack "Home" to Panama.
So I feel this was the best decision ever, to move (emigrate) to Panama, but that's just us.
Cheers,
Stephen & Martha
