TEMPORARY VISA CARD IN HAND! (Day 4)

It happened today!  Ray and I have one year in Panama as temporary residents with our visa cards in hand.  Within two to three months, we hope this changes to permanent status, and we will have our Pensionado visas.  This morning started out with us being clueless as to what we would be doing and when we would be doing it all.  We ate a big breakfast just in case we were to be in the Immigrations Office for three hours again.  Heidi had told us yesterday she would call us around 9:30 to tell us when we would be picked up for more big fun.  At 9:20, she called to say she was at a window getting our registered passports notarized.  We found out that usually what was done today can in fact be done in one day (so yesterday would have been four hours instead of three at Immigrations), but because of new laws/rules with illegal residents and legal residents changing visas and other things Ray and I didn't really understand, things are taking a little bit longer than they used to take at the office.  This is why Heidi needed another hour today.  After Heidi called, Ricardo called about fifteen minutes later to tell us he would be by our hotel in ten minutes to take us to Heidi.  Ricardo drove a different route than Heidi did yesterday (she drives Corridor Norte--like our highway with tolls, and he takes some road with traffic lights), and after one hour, he was dropping us off at the Immigrations office.  It was great conversation with Ricardo.  He loves football (Miami Dolphins team and is Captain of Panamanian National football team), and he told us Mario loves baseball (which Ray and I figured out when we saw the baseballs in his office) and plays for Panamanian National Team.  With Ricardo parking anywhere and getting yelled at in Spanish for it by the police, we hopped out of his car and found Heidi on a line upstairs.  She was paying for what she had just had notarized (in Panama, things are never,ever done at just one window).  Ricardo left us in great hands, and off he went back to the office.  Once Heidi paid, she went to the numbers line and was given #Z563 for our pictures to be taken and #Z602 for our multiple entry visa card.  Unfortunately, the visa number showed up first, and we had to ignore it.  But very quickly (within ten minutes of our arrival), our pictures number flashed on the TV screen.  The three of us walked through a door, wrote our signatures out (I did mine twice because in Panama they really want your signature to be exact all the time, and I wanted to make sure mine was legible and pretty.) and then we smiled pretty again.  Cards in hand now, Heidi went outside to the roadside stand, or as I learned today, the "cart".  She had copies made of what she had paid for and of our cards.  While she was outside, Ray and I stood inside on the numbers line again.  We were to tell the man that our number had passed, and to please issue us another number.  Heidi told us how to say this in Spanish.  We thought we said it right, but the number the man gave us concerned us.  I got back on line, as a just in case.  When Heidi returned (the cart was very busy today!), the number was wrong, so she went to the head of the line and got it reissued.  Downstairs we went but rather than waiting for #Z603 to be called, Heidi went to the window to make sure we had not missed the call again.  There, the very friendly Immigrations officer showed Heidi a new order/rule/regulation that was written out in Spanish and hung in the window.  It basically said that this form we had needed to be signed by the person applying for the visa and no longer by the attorney.  This could have been another pain or big problem, but we had done it the right way to begin with, and all was good.  Heidi took a picture of the sign to show Mario once back at the office.  Next, Heidi went back outside to the ATM machine to get more cash and back downstairs we go to, of course, pay at another window for the multiple entry visa we had just been given.  Once she paid, she went to the original window (where the sign was hung up), and she gave our passports up.  YIKES.  On Thursday, after 11:30 am, Heidi can go back to the office (we don't need to go) and at some point that afternoon, she will bring them to us at the hotel.  WOW!  One hour later we were back at Mario's office chatting with him about our  two days.  We gave the secretary payment, and Mario told us that when we come back to get our permanent cards, he will also get us our E-Cedula cards.  This is included in our costs.  Some attorneys charge a fee for the visa and then the future "expat wannabe" has to make all of the payments to Immigrations (everything Heidi kept getting cash for), and then pay for the E-Cedula card (which is done at the Tribunal office mind you, and not the Immigrations office), etc.  Again, Ray and I are very happy with this law practice and the team we have been working with this past year.    I should write here that an E-Cedula card is Panama's National Identity card (like our Social Security card, perhaps).  Anyone who has residency and then wants to become a dual citizen of the US and Panama needs this card.  Ray and I don't plan on getting dual citizenship (also, you have to wait five years once becoming a permanent resident and take the citizenship test), but the number on this card is very valuable.  Our passports have a number issued and every ten years this number changes.  This is confusing in Panama (it just makes things more difficult).  With the E-Cedula card, our number will never change and this is the number we can use for our drivers license and car title.  And we won't have to change it ever.  At least this is how I understand this card.  Also, we won't need our passport when going into the bank for transactions--we can just hang onto this card.  I cannot be quoted on this, but I think this is correct.  I will learn more as I go along.  The E-Cedula is not as difficult to get as the visa is, but without the language under our belt and the fact that it is part of our fee for our visas to be taken care of, we are more than happy to let Mario take care of it.  And Heidi also said she would help me go through the motions of getting my drivers license.  My concern, I told her yesterday, is with the hearing test (since I can't hear very well lol). 

So!  Today Ray and I were in the Immigrations office for forty minutes since Heidi had spent most of her morning waiting for a number to be called (and we didn't need to be there for that).  We left the hotel at ten am, and Mario brought us back at one.  Ray and I walked through the mall for smoothies, changed our clothes and left the room in search of a pub called Brew Stop.   A patient had told me that his best friend recently opened this beer restaurant in Panama City.  I was told by this patient that it was "by Hard Rock Café".  I looked the address up on face book, and we took a $7 cab ride to Multicentro Plaza.  This is where Hard Rock Café is and  the Majestic Casino.  After playing penny slots and not winning big, we found the concierge of the hotel and asked him about Brew Stop.  He had never heard of it, and he didn't know what road it was that we were looking for.  We called the restaurant and were told we weren't within walking distance, but we were given directions.  We decided to get outside and just walk the city a bit.  We would figure out our next move once we had done a little walking and exploring.  We saw the Sheraton Hotel, next to another casino (played more penny slots), saw the United Nations building and looked at a map.  The pub did not look too far, but it looked like it was by our hotel, not anywhere near where we were at Hard Rock.  So we walked.  And walked.  About an hour later, after calling the pub from National Car Rental (and getting into the air conditioned office), we kept walking.  We walked along  Calle 50, which is a one way, three lane road mostly on a sidewalk and sometime not.  We passed every car dealership imaginable in search of BMW where our next road, Via Porres, would take us to the pub.  Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Volvo, Audi, Lexus, Cadillac, Infinity, Mini and Mazda were the dealerships we saw.We also passed KFC, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins along with Panamanian coffee shops and bakeries.  Just when we thought we would never see the BMW dealership, Ray in no Spanish thought to ask a Spanish-speaking only Panamanian boy on a bicycle if he knew where the dealership was haha.  Ray said the letters "BMW".  I told Ray to say them in Spanish (and he wrote them down).  The boy said the letters back in his Spanish dialect.  Yeah that is what we were trying to say, is all I was thinking!  He didn't know where it was even though it was just two minutes up ahead.  Like we really thought that he would pay attention to where a BMW dealership was located.  We walked close to ninety minutes from the time we finished with the slots at The Majestic Casino and were ready for beer!  Chris Rock is my patient's childhood friend and one of  the owner's of Brew Stop.  First he was amazed at how much we had walked!  And that I was talking to him about his friend that I had just seen last week.  Ray and I tried two different beers, ate chips and pizza and had wonderful conversation with Chris and the others about Panama, restaurants to try, their travels and our experiences in Panama.  Once we were fueled up, we hit the road and it was a FIFTEEN minute walk back to our hotel!  To reward ourselves even more, we ate cheesecake from Nikos (where we had breakfast the other morning), and we bought more snacks and breakfast food from the grocery store.  With our feet on fire, we showered and called it a night.  

For the next two days, we really don't have big plans.  On Thursday afternoon, our friends, Clyde and Terry, are driving back to the city.  They will stay in a different hotel this time, we hope to take them to dinner at a restaurant we keep hearing about, and spend all day Friday with them exploring and having more big fun!  For now, it is bedtime again at nine pm.