Panama Reforestation Visa Program

Summary - $40,000 Investment in teak trees– Permanent Residency. Not a great program. Could be discontinued. Was just recently reinstated. No assurance on return on investment.

Introduction – This is a unique program where one invests $40,000 in an approved Panama reforestation program. This allows the investor to obtain a Visa for themselves and their spouse as well as dependent children; no additional investment is required for dependents. This is the least expensive legitimate residency program we are aware of other than the small investors visa, which also requires $40,000.

The Visas are renewable annually and after either one or five years they become permanent residency Visas allowing the investor and their dependents to reside in Panama permanently. After five years one can apply for citizenship, please note we said apply not a guarantee and this application process for citizenship must be signed by the President of Panama and can take years. This is an extremely inexpensive way to obtain a Panama permanent residency.

The reforestation program is a statutory program written down as law. It is not a pay off some lawyer in the dark situation, which will blow up when the government investigates some corrupt official selling citizenships. Never get involved in any residency/citizenship/passport program that is not written openly in the public laws for you to read. Never get involved in any residency/citizenship/passport program where you do not have to go to the official immigration building in the country for processing and to pick up your documents. Never get involved in any situation where you are paying a lawyer large fees because he "knows" the immigration officials and can make it happen cutting the red tape for you. People are constantly getting arrested trying to use passports and identity cards obtained in this manner. All of our programs are statutory and written in the public laws.

If you actually make the investment of either $40,000 or $80,000 in the reforestation visa program it is a documented lawful program written in the law books and will be honored by the government, subsequent elected officials of Panama etc. What I am saying is if you make the investment, you will have your permanent residency, which after having for five years makes you eligible to apply to be a citizen of Panama with a Panamanian Passport.

The Investment – You are investing in forestry projects generally dealing with teak wood but other types of trees are available. Some projects give you title to the actual land, usually about 2 hectares. It is impossible to live on the land. The land is land locked and has no roads, no electricity, no water, no plumbing. Would be hard to get a permission to construct a home or close to impossible on this land. The reforestation project must be an approved one.

These projects are supposed to generate a fantastic return after 25 years, many times your investment. If you were to liquidate the land say after 10 years your return would generate substantial losses. This is because it takes years for the trees to grow. If you wait 15 years the loss would be less or perhaps you’d reach break even. Now if the value of land in Panama keeps appreciating like it has been doing recently this may prove to be untrue and the investment may be worth more in a few short years? We do think it is a way to obtain residency and eventually citizenship for a small investment.

Investment Downside and Risk Factor - We are not investment advisors and you need to evaluate the investment potential yourself. The land can be held in the name of a corporation. Our comment on the investment possibilities is that you are throwing $40,000 into the ground to get a residency. If you ever get any money back great, if not we told you so. We do not subscribe to or approve of any sort of blue-sky claims, promises, renditions, or implications as to this investment offering any return on the investment at all, really. The government may discontinue the program at any time which would probably have the effect of the reforestation companies ceasing operations at some point and then no one knows what will be worth what if anything. If the reforestation program was discontinued would the residencies still apply? In other words if you were still applying every year would you be able to continue doing so? We think so, is our best answer, or we could say probably but we are not the government so we can only give our opinion.

So this is a $40,000 or $80,000 price tag to get a temporary residency leading to a permanent residency, only – forget about any return on investment, make like it does not exist. Anyone making claims looking forward 25 years with commodity prices of wood should be seriously disregarded.

Which Reforestation Company Should We Use – Since this is a $40,000 or $80,000 ticket to a Panama Residency only as far as we are concerned it does not matter who is used. You should always use an independent attorney to keep your interests protected. Never ever use their attorney since that involves a conflict of interest. Same applies to any attorney they refer you to. Never sign anything in Panama without an independent attorney representing you and you alone. As long as they are approved and you get clear title (these are some of the things we take care of for you), end of story you will get the residency.

All this noise about how well they care for the trees, their land, blah blah blah is of no importance and they have no idea what will happen in 25 years when they harvest the wood, if they harvest the wood, if the wood is still there, etc. By then the wood could be out of demand, it could be endangered and not harvestable anymore, the trees could have died of some disease, the land could be contaminated, new bugs could come along that eat these trees, and who knows what. You pay your money to any approved company, get the title and apply. You may want to take a hard look at some of the other programs like buying $200,000 worth of real estate, putting $200,000 in the bank for two years. Both of these programs lead to permanent residency in two years. If you put $170,000 in the bank here for five years you get a five year residency and a five year Panama Passport for yourself and family plus you get $750 a month in interest. At end of five years to either renew or take your money back so program is basically free.

The small investor visa is another one that works. You start a business sand hire three locals for $253 a month each and invest $40,000 which would also include your car or SUV, computers, office furniture, website, etc. There are better options available but if you are willing to throw $40,000 into a residency program and not care if you ever get it back then this may be for you but do have an independent attorney represent you and file your immigration request.

Residency – There are two levels of investment for the Reforestation Visa - $40,000 and $80,000. Both have residency and lead to the ability to apply for citizenship after five years. The larger investment leads to a permanent residency after one year, the smaller investment leads to a permanent residency after five years requiring the visa to be renewed each year until the fifth year. We favor the $80,000 program since it is more likely for this recently reinstated program to be around a year from now.

Documents Required – Passports valid for at least 6 months, police clearance report from last place of residence, marriage certificate, birth certificate for children dependents, medical clearance from Panama (we can refer), application forms, pictures, proof of investment contract etc. You have to come to Panama to apply in person but you do not need to live here for this visa.

Time Frame – From the time of receipt of all documents and fees 30-45 days as an approximate time frame. Much depends on the workload of the immigration department at the time of your application.

Fees – The visa immigration processing legal fees are $1500.00 for first person and then $250.00 for each dependent for the initial application. This is for any of the programs except the instant passport program. The fees in the following years ($40,000 visa) are $795.00 for the first person and $250.00 for each additional person. Our fee to review and negotiate your investment contract with the reforestation company is $300 (optional). Please note our fees are fair and honest just like our programs being offered unlike the lawyers in other countries that are charging $25,000 and up to get you a visa or citizenship based on the “immigration connections” they have.

Click Here for information on Instant Panama Passport/Residency Programs: http://www.panamalaw.org/passport_program.html

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