The Guatemalan Flag
Guatemala is offering a Pensionado program. This is a permanent residency allowing one to live in Guatemala for the rest of their life. The Pensionado receives a Cedulla which is a national identity card that would allow the person to open a bank account in Guatemala without showing the passport from their home country. It is also possible to open bank accounts in other countries including some offshore tax havens without showing a passport. The Cedulla is a high tech digital ID card. The identity card can reflect a lawful name modification for additional banking privacy. With the Cedulla one can travel without a passport to five other central american countries, off the grid so to speak.
Time Frame
The process takes approximately 7-10 days. One does have to be in Guatemala during the process. Five Star hotels run about $100 to $145 a night depending on the season. It is possible to stay in Antigua, Guatemala which is a lovely resort community (google Antigua Guatemala). A large steak dinner in a five star restaurant is about $20. You will find things cheap here.
Fee
The complete fees are $7500 for one person, $9500 for a couple. All fees are paid at the start of the application. Fees can be paid by cash or wire transfer. We do not take checks because they take longer to clear (30 days) than the program requires to complete.
Pensionado Economic Requirements
The program is for retired or disabled people. There is no age restriction. One does have to show financial responsibility. An income of $1000 a month is needed. This is $1200 for a married couple. This is so stated in a declaration to the government. The income is proven with bank statements, stock broker statements etc. Income can be private sourced from investments, rental properties etc. You will not have permission to work as an employee for others. You can be self employed in your own business.
Guatemala Taxes
Guatemala does NOT tax offshore derived income. Money coming in from outside of Guatemala is NOT taxed. Your pension, investments etc from outside of Guatemala are not taxed. If you had a shoe store in Guatemala you would pay taxes. There is a VAT of 15% on some goods. A plasma TV costs a few hundred dollars more than in USA. USA cars are about same price without the discounts which are better in USA. European and Asian cars are higher priced. Solid wood furniture is far cheaper than in USA and better quality.
Official Documents Needed
One needs their passport, birth certificate and marriage license if married. If possible marriage license and birth certificate should be the more modern variety with seals etc.
Language Requirement
None. You do not have to speak Spanish. It is a great idea to start taking spanish lessons ASAP when here or before. There are a number of computer programs that are excellent. Rosetta Stone is popular. We do advocate learning the language. Our law firm and staff all speak English well. The better hotels and restaurants will have English speakers. Most of the Doctors speak English. Many establishments do not speak English as well.
Rights in Guatemala
You have the rights of a citizen except you cannot vote and cannot get a passport. As a Pensionado you are not supposed to seek work as an employee for others. This is not the purpose of the program. You can own property, start businesses, own corporations, have bank accounts, get mortgages etc.
Time to Become a Citizen
The normal time is five years. After you are a resident for two years you can apply for citizenship. Only citizens can have passports, not residents.
Cross Border Travel as a Resident
There is a Free Border Treaty in Central America. With a Guatemala Residency ID card you can travel by land or boat into the following countries without any passport needed: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras. Costa Rica has signed the treaty but is known for not honoring it so don’t count on them. If you go by commercial airline you will need a passport. Your home country will not know where you are since the passport is not being swiped. You will not be able to open bank accounts in the other countries by just showing your national identity card (Cedulla), just Guatemala.
Guatemala Banking
As a Pensionado resident in Guatemala you can have a bank account in Guatemala without showing a passport or any ID from your home country. NO passport needed. What can be done is the maiden name of your mother can be added onto your resident ID (Cedulla) as a third name. If you were Daniel Boone now and your mother maiden name was Smith you could now be Daniel Boone Smith. This is a lawful and customary practice in Latin America but of course optional.
Now when you open your bank account in Guatemala it will be in name of Daniel Boone Smith and not reference your home country in the records. No lies and nothing illegal yet this allows you to fall through the cracks. Guatemala has NO tax treaties for information sharing with any country. There will be no sharing of any banking information for tax reasons (any sort of tax or tax related case). Guatemala has no Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with the USA, Canada, UK or EU Countries. This means sharing of information for criminal cases will be difficult and unlikely unless the case involves narcotics, trafficking of persons, crimes against children, murder, extortion or blackmail.
A view coffee ranch in Guatemala.
Driving License
As a resident it is possible to obtain a Guatemala driving license. The driving license can also be used to open bank accounts in offshore tax havens with bank secrecy. Some offshore tax haven banks will accept the driving license or the cedulla for bank account opening. If you combine the Guatemala driving license with an International Driving License you can drive in most foreign countries around the world. This is due to a United Nations Treaty. The International Driving License is obtained from organizations like the auto clubs around the world for a very nominal fee, $25 or thereabout. The International Driving License is only good when carried with a valid driving license from a nation in the United Nations treaty which does include Guatemala.
Let me address a few points about the international driving privileges that some are bound to ask. If you are from the USA or Canada could you use the license there? If you already have a driving license in a state say, Texas and you use this license instead of your Texas license in Texas, it may come up on the computer if you get stopped. They will not like this at all. The names could be different as well as the country but it could trigger a query.
Do not drive in a state that has issued you a license which is still valid, to avoid problems. If you have a revoked or suspended license do not use this license as a means to drive in that country. This could get a hit on a computer check during a stop and the consequences can be serious. If you get stopped you just explain to the officer that you are a resident of Guatemala and have a driving license from there and you are visiting. Show the resident ID card with the driving license. If he says are you American, Canadian, etc say yes, if you are but add that you reside out of the country. Be calm, polite and don’t try quoting the laws to him. He knows the laws and if he doesn’t he will use the radio to ask his sergeant what the laws are.
If he does ask you about the laws the International Driving License has the United Nations treaty in there. An International Driving License is not by itself permission to drive. One needs a real government issued driving license to go with it. It is basically a translation of your driving license into several languages. You can add in things like I cannot get a state of Texas, Ottawa or whatever license since I am not resident there and am thus not entitled to get a driving license from this state. If he gets confused say well people that live in California cannot get Texas licenses, right.
Same thing when you live out of the country. Being a citizen of the USA does not matter since the USA does not issue driving licenses. The USA does actually does issue driving license but just to government employees and the military. The police will usually just give you a verbal warning not a ticket unless you were doing something extreme. The police will have a tendency to treat you like a foreign tourist. Don’t get cute and start with things like we have no yellow lines or red lights in Guatemala if you are in your home country.
Another one is we do not have the word “stop” in our language or “stop” means caution only in our country. Play straight and you will get plenty of mercy from the police person as a foreign tourist. They will check your registration papers. If you do get a ticket just pay it or they may put out a warrant for you. There are no points applied to foreign licenses. They cannot take away your license since they did not issue it.
States have a limit on the time frame you can drive on a foreign license. It is usually 30 to 180 days, varies state to state. Every time you go from one state to another this should reset the time clock, but this is generally not a problem. You do not have to carry a visa with you. It may be a good idea to carry your passport with you to show the police that you are not an illegal alien, if you are using the license in your own nation. The USA passport card can be a convenient way to do this since it is wallet sized. That should stop any illegal immigrant queries. Your story is plausible and lawful.
If the car you are driving is registered in your name it is going to raise red flags and open up questions. You could say you keep the car there for when you visit and relatives use it when you are not there. Getting insurance with a foreign driving license will be tricky at best. People with foreign driver licenses are supposed to eventually get a domestic license. If you do use this license to show driving experience (this gets you no advantage and you still need to take all the test including road test) when applying for a license, they will not take the license away from you. They cannot do this since they did not issue it and you will need it to drive in your home country. They will make a computer entry in the system that you have a local driving license and note your foreign license that should not be used. You can use the driving license to rent cars even if the passport and driving licenses are from different countries. They do not care as long as your credit card goes through. By no means do we advocate the obtaining or use of this driving license for any illegal purposes in any jurisdiction. It is up to you to know the relevant driving laws in any jurisdiction you are going to use the license in.
Other Countries Pensionado Residency Programs
With the Panama Pensionado program there is a zero chance of ever opening a bank account without showing your home country passport. We know people who have tried this with a number of Panama Banks. The Panama banks are not allowed to take the pensionado ID or even a permanent residency ID to open a bank account. The cell phone companies in Panama will not open an account without one showing a home country passport no matter what sort of Panama permanent residency they have. All the panama residency programs, permanent, pensionado or otherwise, are nothing more than long term tourist visa, period. Panama residency ID’s of any sort do not allow for any cross border travel without a passport.There are very few Pensionado programs in the world today. There are residency programs. They usually take about six months to process a residency and one needs to remain in the country during this period of time.
Does One Live Free in Guatemala ?
Yes, far freer than you are used to, think of it like the USA in the 1950′s. The police cannot come into your home without a search warrant. None of this “I heard a cry for help” garbage. Warrants from the patrol car radio are not happening. The police will need evidence of a violation of law to get a warrant. We did not say probable cause as in a reasonable person would deduct blah blah blah, that is USA not Guatemala. Not a common thing to see a search warrant issued here. If the police stop your car you can refuse to let them search it. You can also call your lawyer and wait until the lawyer comes and then the search proceeds, your choice. The police will generally be polite and a request to search a car would be like when there is an emergency and a roadblock scenario to catch fleeing felons who were shooting at police or something drastic. Not a common thing.
We have a kind of police called Transito. Traffic cops is what they are. They have no guns. They have cool yellow green uniforms with white helmets like Bermuda Police. They can only do traffic or auto equipment violations. Normally they will have a side of the road setup and look at cars to make sure they have a current sticker. They will check trucks to see if their loads are secure or not. When pulled they ask for driver license to make sure it is current. None of this – “where are you going, can I look in your trunk, do you have any weapons, have anything I should know about”. None of this happens with a traffic stop. If you do get a ticket just send your lawyer down to appear for you and pay fine. No point system. Very rare to ever see radar and never saw laser yet in Guatemala. People don’t even bother with radar detectors. Never saw any speed or red light cameras. They do offer parking tickets for parking violations and they can be generous in this area in some locations. Tickets are cheap, relax. Some towns like Antigua boot cars. Never park illegally in Antigua they love parking enforcement. Antigua has a special tourist police force that are on almost every corner when it is busy. They often speak English and you will find them very polite and eager to help. If you say you want leather belts they will even tell you where such a store that sells that is located.
The regular Guatemala police are called the black police (policia negro) because their cars and uniforms are black. They have guns. They do not work traffic and cannot pull you for traffic reasons. They are crime fighters only. They generally ignore you. The police will probably never show if you call them to come to your house or if they did it would take a lot of time. I never knew anyone to have their house robbed. We live in gated communities with armed guards. We have alarm systems. When the alarm goes off two ex military guys from the alarm company on a motorcycle come with guns. Often in about five minutes. One hides behind cover and the other walks around to see what is up. They have body armor and are serious fellows. So you have the armed guards in the community, some sort of fence, the alarm and now the alarm guards show up. Never knew anyone to have his home robbed.
The lawyers and court system does not work in a harassing way like in USA. This is not a society that likes lawsuits. Lawyers do a lot of contracts, real estate law, family law, criminal law but not a lot of civil litigation. If you go about your business and do not bother other people, no one will be bothering you. People here do not go out and start trouble with their lawyers like up north. People will tend to settle their differences more sanely here than the USA. That being said never ever sign any real estate agreement or any contract without a lawyer to review it. I think this rule applies anywhere. The freedom here is very noticeable.
