This week we continue our examination of the options available to you if you’re looking to establish residency or a residential address outside of your usual country of abode.
A quick recap…
So why might somebody wish to have a second residence?
There are a number of valid reasons as to why someone would want to secure residency entitlements in a second country including:
- As insurance against political, economic or social upheaval in the person’s historical home country
- To make international travel simpler (eg Depending on where you are from if you hold a passport that is considered “problematic” by the country you intend to visit entry VISAs, even for holiday visits, can be very hard to come by)
- As a vehicle to enable you to avoid being discriminated against (ie by virtue of your country of origin)
- To enhance employment prospects outside of your home country
- To avoid the risk of potentially hostile treatment by Government officials, kidnappers and hostage takers
- To access new opportunities for the tax structuring of one’s personal or corporate tax affairs. (Generally, an individual’s residence and citizenship are the ultimate basis for the majority of taxation rulings)
- For enhanced privacy – Modern day information sharing protocols make it possible for your local authorities to be automatically informed by “reporting entities” (ie banks, asset managers etc) if you hold certain assets outside of your home county. In such instances information is usually only shared with the country which appears as your home state in the proof of address document you provide to your non local Bank/Asset Manager
- Citizens of certain countries are subject to tax on their worldwide income, regardless of where they may be residing. By relinquishing one’s current passport/citizenship and taking up a new one such persons might be able to take advantage of residence-linked tax planning opportunities that would otherwise be beyond access.
Panama has one of the strongest histories in terms of offering second residency programs. For some time it has offered what is known as The Panama Pensionado Visa which allows foreigners to obtain legal residency in Panama under the condition that they have a pension income (of minimum $1,000 per month) guaranteed for life.
A recent addition to its offerings is the Friendly Nations Visa.
With the Panama Friendly Nations Visa there is nothing to invest midterm or long term, you just need to:
(a) create a company in Panama where you will be the President and Shareholder and claim that it will be used for professional services in Panama; and
(b) open a bank account in your name. (This bank account would have to be funded with a minimum of $5,000.00. If there are dependents that will apply with the main applicant, then $2,000.00 per dependent needs to be added).
Most of the bank account opening process can be done without you needing to visit Panama, so we can advance 90% with that and, once you arrive in Panama, finalize everything so that the account is opened in approximately 2 weeks.
You will need to travel to Panama at least twice.
On the first trip you will need to meet the bank and finalize the account opening, sign the power of attorney empowering us for the purpose of filing the application and have your passport registered with the Immigration Service.
Once the bank account is open you will need to send funds to activate the account and request the bank for a letter of reference and/or a statement of account stamped by the bank and then start the process of incorporation of the company (takes roughly 5 days to incorporate a company). The account would need to be funded with $5,000.00 and $2,000.00 extra per dependent if such is the case.
If you’re able to stay in Panama for this whole time, we can file the application right away and obtain the provisional residence permit and multiple entry and exit permit (this last one is necessary to leave the country while the visa is being processed as otherwise upon the return of you can be penalized with a fine of $2,000.00).
On the second trip, ie once the Visa is approved, you will need to travel to Panama to get your permanent resident card.
Our legal fees are $7,000.00 for the main applicant, plus $1,000.00 per dependent. The fee includes the company formation.
The approximate expenses are:
- $1,690.00 for main applicant and $1,300.00 per dependent. (Children under 12 years of age are exempt of the repatriation deposit of $800.00);
- Our legal fees for the attainment of the Multiple Entry and Exit Permit is $500.00 (per applicant) + $200.00 (per applicant) in costs payable to the Immigration Service.
To open the account, you will need to travel to Panama and meet the bank, plus bring with you the following documents:
- Reference letter from a bank
- Reference letter from a lawyer, accountant or other professional
- Reference letter from a business partner
- Copy of your entire passport (the bank will make a copy)
- Copy of a secondary ID such as a driver’s license
- Proof of income, which can be provided in the form of payment stub from your current employment or by submitting the last three tax returns you have filed.
These documents can all be submitted in English.
For the Visa, it is imperative that you have the bank account, so after the bank account is opened we can move forward with the Visa.
The documents each applicant needs to bring with him/her for the Visa are:
- Valid passport
- Police record issued by the FBI, RCMP or equivalent authority in your country (except children under 18)
- Marriage certificate (applicable if legally married and spouse is applying as dependent of main
applicant)
- Birth certificate (applicable if children of the applicant under 18 years of age are applying as dependents of the main applicant).
The rest of the documents can be obtained in Panama, including the Declaration form of personal background information.
Any and all documents issued abroad have to be legalized by means of a Panama Consulate or via Apostille and duly translated to Spanish.
Translations prepared abroad would also have to comply with the legalization via Consulate or be Apostilled.
Would you like to know more? Then please Contact Us:
info@offshorecompaniesinternational.com
