Webby

Hi Mpegmaster!

Odd you should ask that! :-) At the moment we are having meets with the director of immigration to get background info for some other webmasters in Asia and New Zealand.

Here's a clue... There is nothing to stop you "just moving" and living in Panama.. or Costa Rica or almost any Latin American county. The only condition is that technically you are supposed to leave the county for 24 hours every three months then ya can come back in. I know several people who have been doing this for.. over 15 years. They are not interested in residency and just come and go as they wish.

For residency, the qualifications are:

(a) Submission of current passport copies

(b) A clean police record in the country you were last resident - basically they do an check at the local Interpol office to establish you are not on the wanted list. Trivial offenses don't matter.

(c) Some evidence you can support yourself for a period of five years. Some people dump $12K into a bank account each year which means a $1000 month to survive :-) This $1000/month is the example for Costa Rica - other countries in Latin America seem to want less, - Nicaragua is only $400-$600/month etc. In real life, you can forget that after 2-3 years, - nobody is interested - you have "arrived" :-)

The other method is to buy some asset in the country to show an intention of staying. This can be a home... or, I've even heard of people just buying a car :-)

These are the main and brief critera for residency.

In your instance, depending on your country, that 90 visa may be different and this seems to depend on whether your country offers the same courtesy as the Latin American country. Example.. Think it is New Zealand, they only grant 30 day Visa's to Panamanins, so Pamana has the same deal with New Zealand. In instances like this, it is probably easier to just get residency than bother with visa time limits.

BTW.. Although the govt's consider the above amounts of money OK to live.. that may OK be in some instances, but in real life it is nicer to have more!:-)
But.. the cost of living is far less than.. almost any industrialized country. Domestic full time labor, such as maid/gardners etc.. is, depending on the country, around $80 - $250/month, but some places that can be $30 (pathetic!*s*). The salary of someone with some web experience - these are usually graduates, - is around $800 to $1800/month - averaging around $1200 ish.

Other things like.... eg heathcare.. In Costa Rica the healthcare system is good and matches any EU or North American facilities. The last cost I heard of for a family of four is around $250/year and includes *all* healthcare, dentistry and medication blah. There also also a number of private hospitals as an option. Most people use two levels of healthcare and only charge the expensive elements against the $250 type policy and just pay the doc for trivia stuff :-)

On property.. that is rising, but still "cheap" in comparison with "sophisticated" countries. There are a growing number of citizens from other countries moving here and hence the main reason for the increase. This is roughly around 15%/year, but can be higher.

It is much easier getting residency in Latin America than.. eg the US or the EU and often made easier by "who you know". These are small countries and knowing the right govt ministers is more "normal". I know of residency being completed in one day with two trips to offices with a lawyer, but it normally takes three months and during that time you can come and go as you please. 99% of any problems are easily overcome - it's much more laid back :-)

If you want to pursue living in Latin America, it's best to establish whether your country offers 90 visas to whatever Latin American country. Depending on that, you may wish to either apply for residency or not.

__________________
XXX TLD's - Another mosquito to swat.