Michael: Not Wanted

The dog stops, lies down
In the middle of the street
And ignores traffic.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015


Yesterday, after two and half years of marriage, Kimme and I found out that according to the F.B.I., neither of us are criminals. That’s a relief. Not that I was worried I was secretly married to a drug king pin or a hitman, but if I am, at least I know she’s smart enough to hide her true identity from the government.

Actually, the background checks are part of the Pensionado visa program, which I had hoped would have been completed by now, but because it’s not, and our tourists visas are about to expire, we’ve got to figure out what we need do if we wish to remain in Panama.

Initially, I thought our only option to renew our visas was to cross over the Costa Rica border for a few days. When we returned we would be issued new tourists visas good for another 180 days and that would carry us through the time we need to finish the Pensionado visa process.

But it turns out we have two other options that may be more convenient.

One, we could apply for an extension at the Immigration office in David. That’s an hour and half bus drive away, but we go there every once in a while anyway, and it would be much less of a hassle than finding a place to stay in Costa Rica. Supposedly, the process takes about 4 days. I can’t see why we wouldn’t receive an extension. But there’s a lot about Panama I don’t understand, so I wouldn’t be shocked if it took too long or got lost or somehow we weren’t approved.

Two, we could just let our visas lapse and pay the $50 dollar fine for every month we overstay our visit. The risk in that is that we could be deported if we were stopped by the police and they asked to see our passports. Again, being deported for an expired tourist visa supposedly never happens. But again, this is Panama, and though I couldn’t see any reason to make me the example of what could happen to a lazy gringo that lets his passport lapse, I don’t want to take that risk.

So we’ll try option one first. Tomorrow we’ll try to find the Immigration office in the labyrinth that is David and hopefully get an extension of our tourists visas.