Don't You Stop Being an Expat When You Get Residency?

[@1stLukecifer]

You have expatriated your country of origin, hence an expat. Regardless of how many countries you have visited short or long term; regardless of residency or newfounded citizenship; once you have left: you are an expat.

[@ExploreOmetepeLife]

Hola Amigo! What is the best way to reach you, I want to catch up on a few things and ask your permission to showcase your videos a bit more across my platforms ;)

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

I'm way behind on comments. Yes, of course, please share wherever you can!!

[@Brent-ox8lk]

Just seeing this response to a request on a FB group looking for retirees and other expats. Wanting them to do podcast interviews on the cost of living in Nicaragua: "Please consider the effects of these kinds of podcasts." "[They] produce overtourism, inflation, and negative social pressures on the target locations" etc, etc. I'm sure you must have received similar comments and, since you seem genuinely sincere in wanting to help out the country and its people, I assume you view things differently. I wonder what the actual numbers are in terms of the negative effects mentioned? There are no doubt also, of course, the positive effects. The commenter might deny there being any at all I suppose. lol. In my mind as long as the influx isn't massive and the expat population is spread throughout the country, their being there (along with their inflowing extranjero money) could be a net positive. As far as negative effects culturally (eg McDonalds, etc) that's another story I guess. lol. Anyway, maybe a good subject for a video. Have a great weekend! ✌

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

I've done a couple videos on this in the past, but have one planned for the near future. Mostly I think these are either people looking to hurt the economy in the hopes of their foreign income staying really high by comparison and not caring if people starve to do it, or people acting on behalf of other countries and hoping to do harm to the ones that they are talking about. Worth noting, all the customers at McDonald's are Nicas. I've never seen an expat go there. Obviously some do, but not enough to make a difference in their planning or budget. This isn't Europe where that might happen. Nicas want American restaurants because there are loads that see the US as "cool" because they were the conquering empire for so long. So having American things is sought by some (and hated by others.) Now Chinese stuff is considered cool in the way American used to be. American is starting to be seen as old and outmoded, whereas Chinese is seen as hip and upcoming. Since China supplies the latest tech, gadgets, products, trends, etc.

[@1stLukecifer]

An “unlawful” immigrant

[@attentioncestpaslegal7847]

3:50 This is the case for canadians but also for the french and other countries. And since Nicaragua has 0 double taxations treaties, you end up paying taxes in two places.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

We've talked about that. You "can't" be taxed in Nicaragua. This is false information. No one is being double taxed. If you are from most of the world, you aren't taxed AT ALL. If you are from really bad places, you get taxed once. There is a theoretical position that you can screw yourself with by filing your taxes foolishly as an investor and get taxed twice, but it ONLY applies to people who are either utter idiots and file incorrectly in Nicaragua or the essentially non-existant situation of a large investor who chooses to also work locally for someone else under salary. NEver heard even a rumor of someone like that or anyone who wanted to do such a thing, but if your goal is double taxation AND you are wealthy enough to buy your way into that position, you could find a way to prove your point. But in the real world, it's utterly false in every sense. To no actual human will it ever apply.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

You are repeating the fake information from PWC, the scam organization in the US. They don't have a presence in Nicaragua and know nothing of it. They are not a valid resource, any use of them, any reference of them is an attempt to deceive yourself. They are famously crooks, no honest business would ever look at them as their business is crime.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

It's wild that the majority of expats in Nicaragua pay NO taxes. Not locally, not foreign, yet you'd make this claim. Given how common it is, given that the DEFAULT, is to casually prove that it must be false, it's such an absurd position to take. YOu know it is fake. You know you used a fake news source. You know that even that didn't say this and you read it wrong. Yet you repeat something so absurd as to claim the sky isn't blue when everyone can see that it is, consistently, day after day. There are plenty of French here making money, and not one is double taxed. Explain yourself, please. Do not reference fake sources, don't make up fake interpretations of laws. Explain a real world situation where an actual example person is required to pay two sets of income taxes.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Furthermore, France does not tax worldwide income for those living abroad, only French sourced income. So as an example... if you are French and you move to Nicaragua... * If you earn a salary in Nicaragua (WHY!?!?!) you'd pay Nicaraguan taxes, but not French. * If you work remotely for a business in France or do professional services in France, you'd pay French income tax but not Nicaraguan. * If you work remotely for a German, American, Russian, Canadian, Mexican or other business that is neither Nicaraguan nor French, you'd owe zero taxes. There is no way with France to be double taxed that I can find. If you work two jobs, one in France and one in Nicaragua, you'd be taxed by both nations, but one would tax the French part and one would tax the Nicaraguan part and there could never be any overlap. I literally can't find a way to create a double taxation possibility UNLESS you managed to claim dual RESIDENCY, so that France could claim your worldwide income, AND you worked as a Nicaraguan, which requires that you live the majority of the time in Nicaragua, and be a large investor, and invest years into getting qualified to be allowed to be taxed, then creating this situation to spite me in this post, lol.

[@attentioncestpaslegal7847]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog I agree Scott we have talked about this before and I even referred to you the relevant article in Nicaraguan law about tax residency. On the specifics of France, you are incorrect when you write that “France does not tax worldwide income for those living abroad”. The truth is : if France considers that you are a “tax resident” in France, then you need to pay taxes on your worldwide income. France has a very large and greedy definition of what a tax resident is and it's also a very well established definition. One can spend zero days on the French territory and be considered a tax resident. What usually saves people is the no-double-taxation treaties that France has signed with many nations. But Nicaragua has no such treaty.

[@attentioncestpaslegal7847]

Are COVID vaccines still mandatory to get residency in Nicaragua ?

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

The ONLY way to check is to get the director of the medical board to make an announcement. There's literally no other way to check. So we've not heard of there being any such announcement, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened, only that things like this are not announced, ever. So you can find out by going to the hospital and checking in person. But that's the only process to be sure. Obviously ever con artist that wants to trick you into paying for their relocation services will claim the requirement doesn't exist to get you hooked, so you can't trust anyone that can't quote the director. And loads of expats get scammed or pay for forged documents, so you can't trust random stories. And for tons of people (most, maybe) it doesn't apply, so unbelievable numbers of people talk about how they didn't need it and leave out that they never qualified for it. And then you get people who quote unrelated people (police, migracion, etc.) who have no connection to the matter and don't themselves have that requirement. So sadly, unless the medical board contacts me and says "we never do this, but can you let everyone know....", we won't have a reliable way to know if it goes away. It's easy to prove when a requirement is added, because people start getting it and that can trigger a right to verification (it happened to me, that gave me access to query the director.) But if it isn't required of someone, you have no means of knowing if that was a fluke, that it didn't apply and they didn't realize why (age, medical condition, etc.), accident, already had it, etc.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

What's important is that Nicaragua seems to actively not want anyone who would question getting a COVID vaccine. The view of most people is that they are trying to weed out people who prioritize fake western propaganda over the public good. Nicaragua doesn't need "just anyone" and people who consider this a priority are realistically never going to be good for the country on the ground. So leaving it as a thing is hugely beneficial as getting fake news and misinformation repeated in teh country is very dangerous. There is so much misinformation about Nicaragua from external sources, discouraging those likely to embrace it internally is important. SO people are guessing that that is the value of the requirement. They don't care if you don't want a vaccine, that's fine, They care, it seems, if it is more important than your country of residence, public good, etc. As an expat, you have a moral obligation to prioritize the citizens of where you move, not personal religious beliefs. So they embrace those that can set aside their political and religious preferences for the communal good, and discourage those that arbitrarily embrace false narratives for personal satisfaction.

[@attentioncestpaslegal7847]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog I agree. The craziest part is: you are now probably the most reliable source of information about Nicaragua, for people outside of Nicaragua.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Yeah, it sucks that it's all on the ground research and not available online. THe government doesn't consolidate rules, regulations, policies, laws, etc. and put them together. Often it's because it's a mix of agencies that all work independently. IN this case, migracion requires an "all clear" from the medical board. The medical board is 100% independent of migracion and they interface through this "API" of sorts. So migracion has a good guess what current policies are, but only that. THey have no official channel to know, and no reason to care. It's not related to them. And the medical system doesn't really have an interest in immigration concerns, so they see it as basic lhealthcare and they don't care about the immigration mechanisms.

[@attentioncestpaslegal7847]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog I love how you extended the use of “API” :-)