Posts tagged as:

expatriation

The best places in the world to meet like-minded expats

By Simon Black · 12 comments

March 3, 2010
Pattaya, Thailand

One of reasons that a lot of people are hesitant about making a move overseas is because they’re concerned about being isolated. The world can be a cruel place, especially to newbies.

Sure there are the nomads out there who want to be left alone with their little slice of paradise in the middle of nowhere… but most people crave some human interaction from time to time, especially from like-minded souls.

I’m one of those people. I enjoy the company of interesting, like-minded, and well-rounded individuals.  This is the chief reason that I’ve encouraged kindred readers to join us in the private Atlas 400 group, whose next gathering is coming up next month in Panama. I’ll be there.
Read More…

Tagged as: , , , , , ,

{ 12 comments }

Second passports and citizenship

By Simon Black · 16 comments

February 23, 2010
Pattaya, Thailand

Throughout our conversations, we have routinely discussed the importance of planting multiple flags.

If you live, work, bank, invest, own a business, and hold your assets in the same country of your citizenship, you are putting all of your eggs in one basket, and once that basket heads in the wrong direction, you can kiss your assets goodbye.

There are nearly infinite possibilities that pose substantial risks to your wealth and security, including taxes, litigation, confiscation, inflation, regulation, and good ole’ fashioned social decay.

Making the effort to move assets overseas, diversify your currency holdings, buy foreign property, set up foreign structures to operate a business, etc. are all major steps in the right direction to preserve your livelihood and safety.

If you have executed only a few of those steps, you are ahead of the 99% of the population. You will be safe while others watch their freedoms, their wealth, and their critical thinking be eroded by corrupt bureaucrats and the mainstream media.

One of the ultimate tools in preserving wealth, freedom, and security that we have touched on before is acquiring a second passport. This tool provides additional freedoms of travel, possible tax advantages, banking convenience, an escape hatch, and security.

After all, nobody hijacks a plane and threatens to kill all the Lithuanians.

Most importantly, when your home country starts heading in a catastrophic direction, a second (or third, fourth, etc.) citizenship provides you with options… and that’s what real freedom is all about– the power to choose.

Even without a cataclysmic event in your home country, a second passport pays big dividends. With a second passport, suddenly you find that you can open bank accounts and travel much more easily.

In my case, since I travel so much, the money that I have saved on visa fees alone has more than offset the cost of acquiring a second passport.

So how do you go about obtaining one?

For starters, if you’re a member of the lucky bloodline club, you may have been born as a second or third generation citizen somewhere. Many countries have programs which grant citizenship to descendents of emigrants– Ireland, Poland, India, and Italy are examples.

If, for instance, you could prove your lineage to Irish grandparents, you would have a case to apply for Irish citizenship. There are many more countries which have such programs, but I’ll save that topic for another time.

Second, there are a handful of countries where you simply pay for citizenship, either through an official program, or an unofficial program.

In terms of official programs, most people who have done even the most cursory research have read about Dominica and St. Kitts, both of which charge about $200,000 to $450,000 for citizenship.  These are the most famous, but there are others, including Austria and even the United States.

If I have my way in this part of the world, there will soon be one more.

Yesterday I mentioned that ousted former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is traveling around the world on passports from Nicaragua and the Bahamas… and not because those countries have official programs for ordinary investors, but because Thaksin used his connections to make compelling donations.

Clearly, unofficial programs generally come down to knowing somebody of significant influence in the government. In most countries, the head of state has the authority to naturalize a foreigner at his/her discretion, and this happens frequently in small countries that have been assisted by the actions or donations of a particular individual.

Now… assuming that you don’t have any heads of state in your rolodex, aren’t descended from Polish grandparents, and don’t want to swallow a $250,000 pill for St. Kitts citizenship, the next category applies to you.

I call it ‘connected’ citizenship, in which an individual can become naturalized through some sort of connection to the country.  Typically this can be a combination of residency, marriage, adoption, religious affiliation, and of course, birth.

Obviously we can’t go back in time to change our place of birth, but the others may be well within our control, particularly residency.  In fact, most countries provide a means for naturalization through residency, including the United States and Canada.  But there are three important factors that determine whether a residency program is worthwhile:

First, how long do you have to be a resident in order to be eligible for citizenship? If you have 8 to 10 years to kill, you may want to consider putting the time in for France or Italy. But most people want something much faster, 1-4 years at most.

Second, how hard is it to actually obtain residency? In the United States, for example, residency applications are scrutinized and generally rejected– hence the inordinate number of undocumented workers. In practice, America now sends the tired, poor, huddled masses back where they came from.

Contrast that with, say, Singapore, where anyone with a good idea, strong work ethic, or investment capital is a strong candidate for residency through an easy, painless, transparent selection system.

Third, do you actually have to live there? Many countries’ naturalization regulations require an applicant to spend the preponderance of his/her time in that country. Canada is a great example… if you become a Canadian resident and spend too much time out of the country, you render yourself ineligible for citizenship.

For the next two days, I’m going to discuss two such countries that fit these requirements that I think you should strongly consider if you’re interested in second citizenship.

** Note, I only plan on releasing this information to email subscribers and will not be posting either article on the website. If you want to receive these articles, make sure you sign up for the daily e-letter here before tomorrow.

Tagged as: ,

{ 16 comments }

Secrets of a Panama real estate insider

By Simon Black · 4 comments

February 18, 2010
Bangkok, Thailand

Panama is one of those countries that registers a lot of interest from potential expats… and with good reason. It’s cheap, it’s close to North America, it has a strong and stable economy, and it’s full of opportunity for an ambitious investor and entrepreneur.

Over the past few months I have received numerous requests for more information about Panamanian property– it seems that people are finally starting to take action and getting prepared to internationalize themselves.

Of course, buying overseas property is one of the best ways to do this– property transactions are not reportable, and the capital that you park in real estate cannot be forcibly repatriated– once it leaves your home country, it’s much safer.

One of the major pitfalls of foreign property transactions that I’ve noticed over the years is when people entrust their capital to an incompetent or shady real estate agent.

It happens more often than you think– someone who looks good and sounds good, but whose opinion absolutely cannot be trusted. Panama is unfortunately full of people like this– charlatans who masquerade as real estate professionals.

In fact, I published a case study several weeks ago describing the experiences of a woman who trusted the advice of a real estate agent in Panama that sold her into a building with a condemned sewage system.

The right advice truly makes all the difference in the world, and that’s why I want to share with you some insider information about the Panama real estate market courtesy of the person who I have found to be the absolute best in the business.

His name is Ulrich Schwark; he and his partner Peter run one of Panama’s most successful real estate agencies, and they are hands down the most knowledgeable real estate professionals I have come across in the country.

Why? Because they are sharp investors themselves… they understand value, they understand risk, they understand long-term trends. And as Europeans, they can relate to foreigners and high standards of quality.

I’ve been operating in Panama for over 7-years, and I’ve met hundreds of ‘agents.’  Most of them are simply cheerleaders riding the wave. Ulrich and Peter understand the ebbs and flows of the tide and how to make money across the entire cycle.

I recently conducted a short interview with Ulrich in which he discusses the state of the market, where the best value and investments are, and a handful of really undervalued deals that he currently has available.

You can access the 30-minute interview here in mp3 format:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/withoutborders/Panama-property-interview.mp3

If you have any interest in Panamanian real estate, you should absolutely get in touch with Ulrich. The best way to reach him is to fill out this short form that describes the sort of property you might be looking for:

http://www.sovereignman.com/panama-property-interest

The information you provide is completely confidential and will go directly to Ulrich’s desk.

Tagged as: , ,

{ 4 comments }

Why you don’t want to go at it alone

By Simon Black · 7 comments

Blair is in her early 40s from Southern California.  She’s intelligent, fairly aggressive, and an experienced financial executive at a mid-sized manufacturing company. In total, she has about $250,000 in savings, some of which she used to buy property in Panama.

She is single with no children and has been traveling to Panama to plant flags since 2006. She plans on (semi) retiring there in another 5-years and has unfortunately learned a lot of hard and costly lessons.

At the height of the global property boom, Blair bought a unit in an ocean-view condominium tower in the San Francisco barrio of Panama City. I like San Francisco– it is well located and presents a nice mix of local Panamanians and foreign expats.

At the time, however, San Francisco was put under a building moratorium because the neighborhood was severely overcapacity with its infrastructure.  Waste treatment facilities were overburdened to the point that raw sewage was washing away construction sites, water utilities couldn’t get pressure to higher floors.

Of course, Blair’s real estate agent didn’t mention any of this to her. He cheered her on to make the purchase, encouraging her wise decision-making and investment acumen at every step along the way.  He looked good, sounded good, and had even lived in Miami for a while… sounds like a trustworthy fellow worth his salt, right?

Wrong. Blair was terribly misinformed. Aside from the sewage and the lack of water pressure, even her beloved ocean view was gone before the building was even complete– another building was erected between her bedroom window and the sea, built by (you guessed it) the exact same developers.

Like many gringos, Blair found her real estate agent on Google and was initially impressed by his English skills and claims of knowing important people in the country. She admits to being taken as a fool and quite literally is paying the price for it.

(It is exactly for this reason that I put together my Panama Black Paper, released in September and December, which names names of people in Panama to do business with, and people to avoid like the plague.)

Because Blair has such a long-term view, though, she has taken everything in stride.  She feels that, by the time she semi-retires in five years, she will be able to recoup what she invested in the condo.  Meanwhile, as Panama City’s infrastructure improves, she has been able to generate positive rental cashflow on the unit.

She has since wised up to the city life, and these days she is actively searching for a new property outside of Panama City where it is cleaner, quieter, but still accessible.

By the time she is ready to move there, she expects several new multinationals to have relocated to the nearby Panama Pacifica commercial park located just outside of the city.  This commercial park, she believes, will present a lot of opportunity to entrepreneurial-minded people who can provide essential business services.

Because she expects to be generating business income in Panama, she plans on registering a Belize company to conduct the business, thus planting her business flag outside her country of (future) residence.

She told me that she already made this mistake once– two years ago she searched for “Panama companies” on the internet and purchased a corporation from one of the service providers who popped up.

As it turns out, a Panamanian corporation was the exact opposite of what she needed, and the Panamanian lawyer she spoke with had no earthly idea what her US tax implications would be as a result.

Blair has since straightened out her tax situation once she finally found a competent US tax attorney who had expert knowledge of international business structures and was willing to help her out without breaking the bank.

Aside from planting a residency and business flag, Blair has moved some money to a European bank; she feels comfortable in Austria because she does not live there or do business there, so the government has little cause to milk her.

Lastly, she is planning on eventually acquiring second citizenship, possibly through a South American program that I will be discussing next month.

Her ideal vision for the future will be living outside of Panama City as a citizen of a South American country, with her business based in Belize, generating revenue in Panama from multinational firms, and banking her capital in Austria.

Because her foreign business will neither be engaged in US trade nor generating US-source income, her company will not be subject to US corporate income tax. Additionally, as an expatriate, she will be able to pay herself a salary of roughly $90,000/year tax free.

I think one of the key lessons here is that planting multiple flags is not always a do-it-yourself process. As Blair’s story demonstrates, there are potential landmines along the way, though expert advice is available to ensure a smooth journey.

Knowing how critical this expert advice is, in the last few months we provided you with key contacts in the Panama Black Paper, and introduced you to a top international tax attorney.  Next month, we will be discussing South American residency and citizenship programs, so stay tuned for that.

Tagged as: , , , , ,

{ 7 comments }

Panama vs. Costa Rica

By Simon Black · 7 comments

January 27, 2010
El Valle, Panama

For a future expat, there are three places worth seriously considering in Central America– Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.  Much is written about Panama, and rightfully so; the country is the most stable, economically liberal, and business oriented.

Not to be completely ignored, though, Costa Rica has its own merits that are certainly worth an honorable mention.

First, to understand Costa Rica, you need to get a feel for the country’s life cycle.  The original North American expatriate movement started with Mexico right around the time of US prohibition.  Everything fun in the United States became illegal practically overnight, and Mexican border towns became a rally point for the disillusioned.

Mexico’s expat domination lasted for several decades until finally, around the 1980s, people became dissatisfied with the large number of foreigners living in Mexico, as well as the rising cost of living.  They sought greener pastures further south.

Costa Rica became the obvious choice– Panama was a complete disaster between Torrijos and Noriega, Nicaragua was embroiled in civil war, and Honduras was quietly exterminating its socialists.

Initially there were only a handful of expats living in Costa Rica, but eventually the word got out that living in Costa Rica was cheap, beautiful, and spiritual… it was like the India of the western hemisphere, cheap drugs and all.

For the next two decades, the steady inflow of North American tourists created steady demand, and new developments sprouted up all over the country. In time, the ‘cheap’ cost of living in Costa Rica had risen sharply, rivaling that of Mexico.

That’s when the expatriate market turned its sights on Panama in the early 2000s– the Canal had been turned over to the Panamanians without disaster, and the country had managed to build a stable government and society in the 15-years post-Noriega. At the time, Panama was much, much cheaper than Costa Rica as well.

Today, I find the costs of living in both countries to be comparable, as well as the real estate prices. But I find that, putting the two countries head-to-head, Costa Rica has the following advantages:

1) Costa Rica has no military. Technically Panama has no military either, but with so many national police (green uniforms), tourist police (tan uniforms), and Presidential guard (black uniforms) running around the country with automatic weapons, they might as well be an army, albeit a poorly trained, dysfunctional one.

I doubt that the Panamanian police forces have the capability or iron will to go house-to-house against the locals, but Costa Rica lacks the manpower resources altogether.

2) Environmental sustainability is much more prevalent in Costa Rica– and I’m not necessarily just talking about tree hugging… Costa Rica is simply cleaner, especially compared to Panama City.

Panama City’s boom has come so quickly that the city has experienced significant growing pains– notably with its infrastructure challenges. You see a lot of garbage, sewage, etc. piled up where the city hasn’t figured out how to deal with its problems.

To be fair, it’s not the same outside of Panama City, but head-to-head, I would still say that Costa Rica is cleaner and more pristine.

So what are Costa Rica’s chief flaws compared to Panama?

Read More…

Tagged as: , , ,

{ 7 comments }

Go to this city if you want to disappear

By Simon Black · 3 comments

January 18, 2010

Tangier, Morocco

If you’re on the run and looking for a place to lay low, one city you should consider is Tangier.

You have to start with a bit of history– as far back as the days of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Tangier was an important commercial center due to its location at the entrance of the Mediterranean.

For the next 2,000 years, the city was conquered by successive nations, including the Arabs, Berbers, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English. In 1912, though, several countries signed a treaty declaring Tangier a politically neutral, economically liberal ‘international’ city, open to all nationalities and businesses.

As such, Tangier attracted a shady cast of characters ranging from international bankers and businessmen to foreign diplomats to expat artists, as well as legions upon legions of spies. People came from all over Europe, Africa, and the Middle East to Tangier, and its place in history, particularly in espionage, is unparalleled.

Movies and storybooks paint a romantic picture of the city… and all of Morocco for that matter– the name conjures the same imagery as Casablanca, including my favorite scene from the classic movie:

Unfortunately, Tangier is now a long way off from Bogart’s day. Sure, it was once quite picturesque, laden with European architecture amid Berber traditions. Today, while there are still some nice parts of town, the whole place is generally run-down, as if the maid hasn’t shown up since 1956.

p1060768

The best analogy for Tangier is probably Havana, Cuba; Tangier was to the Europeans and Arabs what Havana was to North and South Americans– fully of tourists, wealth, hedonism, shady deals, and spies… lots of spies.

Similarly, the last 50-years has been rather unkind to both cities, due largely to an exodus of foreigners and their capital. But while its original wealth has faded, Tangier has still retained its ‘can-do’ (i.e. corrupt) outlook… and this is part of what makes it a great place to disappear:

First, the costs are reasonable… not cheap, but reasonable, so it won’t break the bank to lay low there for a while. Real estate (if you would consider buying there) will set you back around $1,500 per square meter for a clean place with a sliver ocean view, roughly 10% of the price in Rome.

Renting a modest apartment will cost you less than $500/month.

p1060777

Food is also quite cheap, and you can buy fresh vegetables, herbs, and spices from the markets in the same place that merchants did thousands of years ago.

p1060771

Second, language is not a problem, so you will be able to communicate. One of the strange side effects of being conquered so many times is that the locals managed to pick up quite a few languages. Most people you will meet speak English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.

Third, the city is crazy. For first-timers, it can be shocking, and even for hardened veterans it can be overwhelming. You have to constantly be on guard against being fleeced, accosted, harassed, or otherwise annoyed by your new friend who wants to ‘make you very special price’ on a Moroccan rug.

In other words, most people are not going to want to come looking for you in Morocco because it’s simply too much hassle.

Fourth, everything is for sale– and negotiable. Do you want you passport stamp backdated? Not stamped at all? Do you want to eliminate all record of your visit? Do you want to trade for goods and services in gold? Assume a new identity?

Tangier is the place where all of this can happen before you even leave the port.

Tagged as: ,

{ 3 comments }

How to avoid living in a police state

By Simon Black · 155 comments

If I have been too subtle in the past, let me be absolutely clear this afternoon: the time to do something, the time to take action to safeguard your future and your families livelihood, is NOW.

I’m more impassioned than usual this morning… and with reason.  Reluctantly, I tuned in to Team Obama’s press briefing last night about the ongoing saga of the Nigerian underwear bomber.  Obama’s is clearly trying to cultivate a fear of al-qaeda while simultaneously building blind trust in his government.

After the President’s remarks, his Homeland Security Secretary and Deputy National Security Advisor took the stage to unveil a series of proposals to ‘improve security.’

I’ll spare you the details as you have probably already heard them, but the bottom line is simply more government– a bureaucrat’s ultimate and only solution. This means more TSA, more air marshals, more undercover agents, more gun-toting soldiers, more pat-downs, more scanners, more searches, more scrutiny, more suspicion, etc.

How do you spell police state?

I’m ordinarily laid back about this sort of thing. I can afford to be since I’m a safe distance from all of that stupidity… but in this case I looked down to find that my knuckles were turning white, clenched around my glass of 2005 priorato.

I set my wine down and remarked to my friends who were watching with me, “What is it going to take for people to wake up and get the hell out of town? Do they need legions of storm troopers marching down the street before they realize it’s time to go??”

I was positively exacerbated.  The US is turning into a police state, and I’m not even saying this specifically to Americans living there. Many countries around the world are following close order behind Uncle Sam.

Once again, the time to act is now.  So what should you do?

First, make sure you have access to funds outside of your home country. This is one of the most important flags that you can plant.  You should open a foreign bank account (like I discussed in the Panama Black Paper), and/or consider storing precious metals in a private storage facility overseas.

Later this quarter, I plan on releasing a new Black Paper that contains actionable information to open an account at safe foreign banks that still take US customers.  You haven’t heard of most of them, and would probably never hear about them because it’s actually illegal for foreign bank to advertise in the United States in most cases.

Stay tuned for that.

Second, you should really be thinking hard about foreign property. Why? Because it can be a great investment; it’s an easy, non-reportable way to move money overseas; and it can be your escape hatch when you’re finally ready to hit the eject button.

Remember, I’m not talking about a 50 million euro villa in Monaco; you can pick up cheap land in Latin America for less than $50 per acre, and I’m pretty sure that everyone reading this letter has at least 50 bucks to spare.

Also, as I’ve discussed in the past, you can buy foreign property using your tax-deferred retirement savings, and I plan on revisiting this topic in short order because it is an absolute no-brainer.

Additionally, if there’s interest, I may also explore the idea of building a small, cost-effective, subscribers-only development.  It would likely be on the outskirts of Panama City and include self-sustaining fresh water and agricultural resources.

Third, if you have the means, you should really consider obtaining second (or third, fourth, etc.) citizenship. Second citizenship can be the ultimate emergency exit if things get really bad, and it effectively serves as the most comprehensive insurance policy you could even have.

I have a lot of contacts in this field, and my colleagues and I are currently experimenting with a few options that I plan on bringing to you soon.  I won’t bring you a passport program unless one of us has gone through the process ourselves, so give me some time while we play guinea pig.

Fourth, give serious consideration to your finances; unless you are already independently wealthy or have sustainable income streams, think about what you would do to earn money if you lost your job today.

Think about what skills you have– what problems can you solve that other people are willing to pay you for? What opportunities to you see around you that can be quickly and profitably exploited?

I guarantee you that there is opportunity everywhere around you. For example, a friend of mine is an intelligent, 22-year old girl who lives in Minsk, Belarus– the last bastion of the Iron Curtain.  While Belarus is not the totalitarian state it once was under the Soviet Empire, it’s pretty close.

And yet, despite living under a tyrannical yolk, my friend has become quite a successful entrepreneur, launching a successful brick-and-mortar company and several profitable web sites just within the last few months.

I raise this simply to point out that if an inexperienced but intelligent and energetic young girl can find opportunity in a place like Belarus, then I would wager that there is a plethora of opportunity out there in places like Panama, Abu Dhabi, Chile, China, Angola, Thailand, Bulgaria, and even the US/Europe.

In fact, I know this to be true because I see so much of this opportunity when I travel.

So those are the top four things I would recommend you do in making your own personal preparations. I clearly have a lot of work to do between the real estate, the citizenship programs, and the banking Black Paper… but after seeing the writing on the wall so plainly last night, I will be refocusing my efforts to get these moving quickly for you.

In the meantime, let me know your thoughts– I’m frankly curious to know what you would like to see in a real estate development, and at what, if anything, it would take for you to hit the eject button.

Tagged as: , , , , , ,

{ 155 comments }

How to value foreign property

By Simon Black · 6 comments

January 6, 2010

Reporting from: Estepona, Spain

I’m sitting now in lovely Estepona, Spain– a coastal town on the Mediterranean that experienced a massive property boom over the last decade.

The community I’m in is anchored by a five-star Ritz Carlton golf resort, and surrounded on all sides by the mountains or the ocean.  Ancient military tacticians marveled at the defensibility of such a position and likely did not envision it being turned into a holiday hot-spot.

As the coastal region here is generally dry, warm, and nestled in the mountains, it’s ideally suited for me. I prefer clean places that are reasonably priced with great weather, access to major transportation, vibrant culture, and yes, a single’s scene.  Coastal Spain is all of these… but to buy now I would be overpaying. Here’s why:
Read More…

Tagged as: , , , ,

{ 6 comments }

← Previous Entries