Panama Ranked #1 for Expats Again. Should You Believe It?
Rankings & Reality Check Panama Ranked #1 for Expats Again. Should You Believe It? The same survey that just crowned …
Brian
6 Months Before Moving to Panama: Month-by-Month Checklist
Panama doesn’t deliver mail to your door — and that one fact changes how you should plan the six months before you move. Here’s the month-by-month schedule we’re using for our own relocation, plus a real duty exemption on household goods that most moving guides never mention.
Renting in Panama: Leases, PH Condos & Avoiding Scams
Renting first is one of the smartest moves you can make in Panama — but the PH condo system, the deposit rules, and the informal way leases get handled here all have quirks Americans and Canadians rarely expect. Here’s what “PH” actually means, what the law really says about your 30-day exit right and your security deposit, and the specific scam patterns to watch for before you send a dollar.
Why We’re Maxing Out Our 401(k) — And Why Panama Is Part of the Same Plan
A new TIAA Institute study found 76% of retirees wish they’d started saving earlier. We read it the week we increased Kent’s 401(k) contribution to the max — and it confirmed something we’d already figured out the hard way: how much you save and where you retire are the same decision.
Which Panama Visa Should You Choose? QIV vs. Friendly Nations vs. Pensionado
Comparing the numbers only gets you so far. This one runs the actual decision — household economics, timing tradeoffs, and nine real situations — and shows why a gay couple should treat this as two immigration decisions, not one.
Panama Investor Visa: $500K Resale Minimum Explained (2026)
Overnight on September 16, a $300,000 resale condo stopped qualifying for Panama’s Qualified Investor Visa. The same $300,000 still works if the building is brand new. We break down Executive Decree 17, the six-month grandfather window, why Friendly Nations at $200,000 is now the obvious fallback, and the two-year trade-off nobody mentions.
Panama’s Qualified Investor Visa: A Gay Couple’s Real Guide
Kent’s residency path runs through the Qualified Investor Visa — Brian’s already secured through Pensionado. Here’s the $300,000 real estate route, the deadline that hits in nine weeks, and the marriage-recognition problem almost no other site mentions.
Panama’s Friendly Nations Visa: A Gay Couple’s Real Guide
Friendly Nations isn’t the fast, cheap program it used to be — it’s a two-year provisional stage now, and the dependent-spouse shortcut that makes it cheap for straight couples doesn’t reliably work for married gay couples. Here’s what actually changes, and what a same-sex couple should budget for instead.
Panama Eliminates Bank Fees in 2027: What’s Free
Panama’s banking regulator just banned a long list of fees — and several of them are exactly the paperwork expats pay for on visa and mortgage applications. Here’s what’s free starting January 2027, what isn’t, and one correction to how other outlets got the approval date wrong.
Working in Panama on a Residency Visa: What’s Legal
Getting Panamanian residency doesn’t mean you can sell your baked goods at the market or take a salary from your own company. Here’s what each visa — Pensionado, QIV, Friendly Nations, remote worker — actually permits, and what it takes to legally sell something or provide a service.