Hello to all
I'm a newbie and this is my first post. I would like to thank all the veterans for all their thoughts and comments as I've learned much just by listening to wisdom and experience.
Last month my wife and I finalized our permanent Pensionado Visa and driver's license.Lourdes Miranda made this process painless and I'd like to walk through how she accomplished this.
In the fall of 2012 we decided to zero in on Panama as a country we want to spend a fair amount of time in and I initially signed up with 5 or 6 yahoo discussion groups and received daily posts. I've since stop receiving most of them and have substituted other forums that I do receive on a regular or daily basis such as ning. As I received these posts I saved, in various folders, all the information I thought would be useful both short and long term.
Early last year we decided to get our Pensionado Visa and started the process. Based on numerous posts I zeroed in on 4 attorney's and sent each a email with a list of questions. Any one of them would have been satisfactory but we chose to work with Lourdes Miranda for a couple of reasons. She had an office in both Boquete and Panama City, was always the quickest to respond with the most complete answers, seemed like a genuinely nice person who would be easy to work with and had reasonable fee's.
After we gathered all our US information ( income, marriage and FBI reports and had them Apostille) we scheduled a trip to Boquete last August to meet with Lourdes to begin the process. We met with her and her staff (equally as nice and competent) and signed all the paperwork. She has an assistant in David we met the next morning. He drove us to the Immigration office and except for being physically present and signing documents he did all the talking and paper shuffling. We left with our temporary Pensionado visa which took much of the day to do.
Late November we were notified that our application was approved and made arrangements to come to Panama City to finalize our permanent visa and get our drivers license. I think both needed to be done in Panama City. Lourdes also has an assistant in Panama City. He met us at our hotel Tuesday afternoon and pick up some documents and money. On Wednesday he went to the government offices (Notification) and we spent the day exploring Panama City.
Thursday morning he picked us up and we went to the US Embassy to have our drivers license authenticated and afterward went to a clinic for our blood type and then to the immigration office to finalize our Pensionado visa. We were finished by about 12:30 and the 3 of us had lunch.
Thursday evening Alejandro's wife had a baby and couldn't pick us Friday morning to get our driver's license. Lourdes arranged to have someone else pick us up and she met us at the driver's license building. She got us through the driver's license process rather quickly and it appeared they either had a special line for Pensionado people or she somehow moved us ahead because based on how much time we spent in their office verses how many people were their it didn't take that long. After we got our license Lourdes drove us to the hotel.
A couple of items. Late last year I read that someone would need to pay $2,000 because they left the country between temporary and permanent visa because they didn't have a multi entry/exit stamp in their passport. After reading this I looked at my passport and it seemed like I had one but couldn't tell for sure. I contacted Lourdes and she had her staff double check ( I did) but she mentioned she has this done for all her clients.
On the way back to the hotel it came up in conversation who else we contacted. When I mentioned Mayra Lamboglia ( Most frequently recommended attorney) Lourdes stated that she worked for Mayra as a young attorney, learned the process from her, also thinks she's great attorney- I took comfort in this.
What was also impressive was both Lourdes and all her staff spoke English, were unbelievably nice, competent and a pleasure to work with. The assistant in both David and Panama City were known and recognized by the staff in any Panama office we visited as well as the US Embassy.
Cost $1,500 legal fee for both my wife and I that included the Pensionado, Driver's license and Cedula at a later date. $492 government fee's to get our temporary and this last trip $200 US Embassy to authentic our drivers license, $100 Immigration (Notification) office $40 driver's license $10 Foreign affairs stamp and $90 legal assistance fee which includes transportation or $2,432 total and another $115 if we get our Cedula.
Pensionado savings Anavilma (travel agent) saved $75 each on our airfare, Doubletree we saved $119, probably $35 to 50 dollars in food. So we saved almost $300 on this trip and it will be more next time. There was a car rental and other hotel stays we didn't get our discount either because I didn't know how to get it or our visa wasn't permanent. We will eventually recoup all the money we spent plus.
Two final comments. I've read that some people have not applied or been able to get their Pensionado visa because of some blemish on their arrest record from many years ago. A friend of mine had such a blemish and was concerned for employment reasons and we discovered in Michigan they have a set aside program. It's a process you must follow and you eventually appear before a judge and if granted this infraction is removed and won't appear on background checks for situations like employment or FBI background checks. The previous arrest record is only available to State of Michigan law enforcement agencies.
Last comment, because of all the information I've gotten from so many people my wife said to me the first time we came to Panama April 2013 that the trip was flawless. After our August 2014 trip she mentioned that she would feel comfortable coming here by myself. She travels frequently for business so she wasn't referring to airplanes, airports or car rentals it's everything else. So again thank you.
Replies
Beware folks, not all attorneys are equal. Our friend traveled to PC to get her Cedula and was stood up by her attorney she prepaid for his service.
You do not have to get your FBI records through David or a Panama attorney, but request them directly from your US address and they are quite faster.
No records are ever ereased from the FBI, but the Panama government considers the magnitude of the blemish on your record.
"No records are ever ereased from the FBI, but the Panama government considers the magnitude of the blemish on your record."
I think this is right. I scored myself a DUI when I was young and dumb but went through all the programs and got the charge expunged. But it still showed up on my FBI check as "dismissed" I believe. Which is nice, but its not as nice as the record being expunged as was advertised.
This thread was started a while ago. Can anyone confirm that this process is still around $2,500 out the door going through Lourdes? The Panama City lawyer we found online before coming down wanted to charge about $5,000 total. Thank you Joe for the great post.
Cheers
Yes they are good. Also for setting up a corporation and a lsat will if you own property or a business in Panamá.
Lourdes and Juan are GREAT. Efficient, professional, reliable, fast, very nice, and most importantly, HONEST & TRUSTWORTHY.
2500-2600$ overall seems like a good deal. The attorney fee is reasonable and at least transparent. It's good to know the "true value" of something because I see plenty of web sites advertising it easily for twice that.
For anyone who is doing the Friends of Panama Visa, were you able to take the money out of the account once the process is finished? It's 7000$ for a couple I think to prove solvency. Did you have to buy property or start a business to meet the other requirement? I guess, a lot of people will just buy a small house or property worth 10000+ in that case since they are already moving and it meets the requirements.
I think stopping by their office is the best way to go. It is in the office building right before the bridge going over to the BCP. On the 2nd floor to your left on the right.
I'm having a great experience using Lourdes Miranda as my attorney to get a Friendly Nation's Visa. She and her partner are the height of organization.
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