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Richard Kongable

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Everything posted by Richard Kongable

  1. This is Panama. We had to go to Panama City to get a copy of my wife and son's passport "authenticated". The passport office in David, where we requested and received new passports from them, "wasn't authorized". What should be very simple processes are often not so simple here. But it's slowly getting better. The hardest part of obtaining the E-cedula was getting the required documentation from Immigration (in PC, of course). I never received the document acknowledging my pensionado visa, and that was a major effort requiring multiple trips to PC. Immigration never seemed to be able to find the paperwork that I submitted several times to get the original document, so it was like deja vu each time. Then you need another letter from Immigration before you can apply for the E-cedula. I ended up hiring an attorney in Chiriqui, Marcos Kraemer (abogado@cwpanama.net) who had runners that took care of Immigration. Still took a couple of months. The process at Tribunal Electoral is pretty straightforward, and easy to do with some Spanish. Otherwise, it was worth it to me to hire an attorney due to the Immigration paperwork issues. We were in and out of TE in a few hours. Would have been quicker if the computer system hadn't gone down while we were there, and if there wasn't an extra step required because I'm married to a Panamanian.
  2. Have no need for a Panamanian bank. Would be handy for local utility bill payments but those can usually be handled online with a credit or debit card. Schwab is fantastic, but you'll need an address in the US for a successful application. Unless you're wiring funds for buying a house or car, the ATMs work fine, usually. Just lost $335 when I tried to get $500 out; the machine only had 5 dollar bills. Of course 100 of those won't exit the machine through the small slot, so the machine ate the rest and powered down. Obviously there was an error or problem. After 3 weeks of investigation, the ATM company said it was a valid transaction so I'm out most of the withdrawal. But you can always take your card inside the bank and get cash the old-fashioned way, even without an account there. Try to get cash BEFORE paydays or holidays, otherwise the machines may be drained of cash and not refilled until after the holidays.
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