I just landed back in Panama after travelling to the island of Roatán, Honduras, where I was invited to speak at the Free Cities Conference in Próspera (the conference itself was amazing).
I brought Susan because I knew there would be a ton of people at the conference who wanted to hear about what we’re doing at Expat Money, and I knew we'd need the extra manpower.
Sarita was also travelling with us, whom many of you will know through her work with our community via her involvement with the Veritas Villages freedom-minded communities in Latin America.
Getting into Honduras turned into quite the experience.
Whenever I fly, I’m almost always at the front of the aircraft. Either the front row of economy class or business class.
I want to be one of the first people off the airplane so I can get through immigration as quickly as possible.
So, when we landed in Honduras, Susan, Sarita and I were among the first people to reach immigration.
They sort everyone between Hondurans and extranjeros. In our line for visitors, there were maybe eight or ten people ahead of us.
Perfect.
We’re standing there chatting when the girl in front of us starts doing something on her phone and eventually pulls up a QR code.
Sarita asks her what it is.
“Oh, you need to fill out this electronic form to be able to enter.”
Wow. All right.
Copa never mentioned anything about this. Nothing came up when we booked our flights, and as far as we knew, nobody had told us we needed it.
So, out come the phones. International roaming on. Rush, rush, rush.
Now we’re filling out this electronic form asking us everything under the sun.
Where are you coming from? Where do you live? Where are you a resident? Where is your tax home? Where are you staying? Have you received a tax rebate in the last six months?
A million and one questions.
The three of us finally get everything done and receive our QR codes just as we reach the front of the immigration line.
We walk up, and the immigration officer looks at the QR code and basically says:
“Oh, that’s for downstairs.”
All right. Fine.
Now the actual immigration interview begins.
Where are you staying?
Where do you live?
You live in Panama?
Where are you coming from?
Question after question, including a bunch of the same information we had just entered electronically.
Then comes the biometrics.
“Smile for the camera.”
Okay.
“Four fingers on your right hand.”
Done.
“Four fingers on your left hand.”
Done.
“Now your two thumbs.”
Done.
Then she wants my yellow fever vaccination certificate.
Okay, I have that.
She scans it.
Obviously, she needs to scan my passport, too.
Then somehow we’re doing the fingerprints and photos again.
By the time the process was finished, I'd had my fingerprints and photo taken three separate times…
We had filled everything out electronically, answered a bunch of the same questions again during the immigration interview, handed over our documents, had everything scanned and spent a solid fifteen minutes standing at the immigration desk.
Finally, we’re allowed into Honduras.
Except we’re not finished.
Now we go downstairs and have to show the QR code we frantically filled out upstairs.
They check it.
We wait.
Okay, it’s been accepted.
Now we can go through.
Then we grab our baggage and head toward customs, where all of the bags need to be scanned, and it seems like they’re pulling over every second person to open their luggage and go through everything.
At this point, I’m thinking:
“Holy moly. Are we going to visit the Pope or something here?”
I don’t understand what is going on. We’re entering Honduras.
Unbelievable.
Eventually, we make it through all of that, only to turn around and check back into the airport because we still need to catch a little puddle jumper over to Roatán.
…then there’s another process - the visitor’s pass we need before heading into Próspera…
Of course, that means filling out a whole crapload of information AGAIN.
Then you need to take a picture.
Then there’s identity verification.
Then you need to take a photo of the front and back of your ID.
By the time you’re finished, they’ve basically done a miniature KYC on you just to get the visitor’s pass you need to enter the “free city.”
…not exactly showing itself to be a bastion of freedom by any means…
At one point, I had to stop recording a voice note I was sending to my team because an automated security announcement blasted through the airport for a solid two minutes.
First, the entire thing in Spanish.
Then the entire thing in English.
It was so loud you couldn’t even think or talk over it, and I’m guessing the exact same announcement was going to start playing again ten minutes later. Brutal.
The entire place had this constant feeling of panic, panic, panic.
I understand having security.
I want security too.
But a little bit of judgment on these things might be nice.
Anyway, fast-forward a few days.
We got back into Panama.
Walked to immigration.
There must have been 300 people in line.
But there’s a special line for residents.
We go straight up, basically don’t even break stride, hand over our stuff, and 30 seconds later we’re in.
God, I love Panama.
But here’s the thing…
I didn’t get to use that residents line because I’d decided 5-minutes earlier that Panama sounded like a good option.
I’d already done the work.
And that’s the difference between having a Plan-B and telling yourself that you’ll figure it out one day.
Whether it’s securing another residency, opening an offshore bank account, or protecting what your family has built, the time to put those pieces in place is BEFORE you need them.
Your family’s future deserves better than hoping for the best.
To understand how to set up your own Plan-B, read this important letter.
Speak soon,
Mikkel
PS. The Expat Money Online Summit 2026: Freedom Is Rising In Latin America is just around the corner. We’re bringing together thousands of people from around the world for two days of conversations about diversifying your life, protecting what you’ve built, understanding where the world is heading and creating more options for yourself and your loved ones. If those topics interest you, you will want to be a part of the conversations we’ll be having. Attendance is free, but you’ll need to secure your seat in advance. You can do that here: Secure Your Free Summit Ticket Here.
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