Panama has always welcomed foreigners from all points and now they’re making it even easier with its new “Immediate Permanent Resident” visa. The visa was passed into law in May 2012 and applies to residents of 22 countries that Panama deems to have maintained friendly diplomatic and economic ties with the country. Some of these countries include the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Austra...

Many gay people are unencumbered by deep and binding family ties; 90 percent of us have no children. As we age and our parents have passed on we can become more mobile than at any other time in our lives. Not having to be home for Christmas makes it easy to consider heading south. Retiring to a typical retirement area can be a frightening prospect. Even more so for perhaps three million gay...

“We have more friends than ever—our kids can’t believe how social we’ve become,” says one expat couple. “I’m busier than ever before,” says another expat in Panama. It’s a constant refrain from those who thought their retirement years might be marked by the restraints of a fixed income and a waning social calendar. Only to find that in Panama, the retiree lifestyle is a lot of fun… Take, fo...

When my family and I were looking at rentals before our move to Costa Rica, we really had only one solid requirement: Our home had to be within quick driving distance of the hospital in San Jose where my wife was going have our baby. But we didn’t want to be in San Jose—it’s awfully crowded and you should see rush hour. Grecia was the perfect choice, and we found a three-bedroom house about ...

This is an older article from last year (published on Feb 15th 2011) taken from the Miss Move Abroad website, however it is incredibly important to read about these first hand experiences with the CCSS Medical System in Costa Rica and that of the Private Hospitals, such as Clinica Biblica. With the new immigration reforms that go into effect in Costa Rica on March 1, expats who are legal reside...

Finding a message in a bottle is a very neat experience, especially if it comes from a faraway land and the sender wants you to correspond with them. In the last 20 years, Sue and John Eyre have launched more than 50 bottles with messages within them in different parts of the world. Each message includes the couple's name and address in Brown Deer near Milwaukee in the state of Wisconsin. They ...

A new bill making its way through the United States legislature may impede travel for American passport holders who owe taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Costa Rica’s proposed Fiscal Reform Plan, which was recently sent back to the National Assembly by Sala Cuarta (Constitutional Hall), is just one example of legislative efforts in several nations to increase revenues with the goal o...

Relocating to another country is a significant decision that should be given careful thought. When pondering about such a move, one can easily come up with a million questions about what to expect; something that can be attributed to the many complexities we have assigned to our modern lives. Like many other developing countries around the world, Costa Rica has seen her fair share of change and...

There have been a lot of changes in travel lately. Airline fees tend to bring you to your knees in the past few years. I want to touch base with the traveling surfer and fisherman who are interested in traveling to Costa Rica. All of you “water sport junkies” have been hit really hard where it hurts the most, your wallet. I am on a mission to get the most out of my money, have the best time, and n...

On a very thorough article by Vicki Berrong in the December 19th edition of the Wall Street Journal, she mentioned a few key points about retirement planning which prompted her to take the plunge and move to a place near Playa Naranjo on the beautiful Gulf of Nicoya. Ms. Berrong describes herself as a 60 year old American who at one point laid out a 10-year plan to pay off debt and pick a con...