================================================= Expat Worlds Bi-Monthly Digest ================================================= 1 June, 2005 Vol. 7, Issue 09 .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== THE STORY =================== -=The Knowledge Box=- ==== OTHER EZINES ================ ==== EW SPECIAL ================== -=Camouflage Passports=- ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... == -=Trivia=- -=News Story=- -=Jokes=- ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============= -=Lord of Search 2.1=- ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD == -=Table of Content=- ==== THE STORY ================================== THE KNOWLEDGE BOX (Part 2) Car Insurance, Social security Number: Our winter home is in Arizona, where I have been able to buy a used car, and insure it thru Safeco, who looked at my UK claims history. I don’t know how weight they attached to it - I pay $1200pa on a Mercedes C280 worth $10000. I have a local account with Wells Fargo using a debit(switch) card only. I did need a Tax identification number to access the internet banking service (very useful)and was told I could have a credit card, but would initially need to make a covering deposit on a blocked side account to establish the credit limit. If you use a UK credit card in the USA, I believe the Nationwide are the only provider who does not take a 2.75% commission on overseas transactions hidden in the exchange rate. Sneaky, or what, on the part of the rest? Again internet monitoring is available which helps when overseas. REPLY 1: You could also see if your UK credit card provides rental car insurance as one of its benefits. This is very common in the US (e.g. Amex offers this as a standard no-charge benefit so long as you charge the rental car fee to the card). That way you can decline LDW and the other optional-but-expensive insurance coverages for rental cars and just pay for the basic liability insurance. REPLY 2: Have you thought of buying a used car instead of renting? If you do buy, you will need to licence it and buy insurance locally. To do both of those you need a Florida drivers license which you can get if you have a valid visa. The only downside is that the license might only be valid for the length of your stay and next time you come you will have to get another one. This is a post-9/11 change and the state is well aware of the inconvenience and is supposed to be considering a better way to license part-time residents. Still, it's likely to be cheaper than renting. UK insurance companies can produce a letter of reference stating that you have a clean driving record (or otherwise!) and most US insurance agents will accept that if you buy insurance for your own car. Basic insurance for an older car can be as little as $400 per year and annual Florida vehicle license is only about $35. As for credit cards - if you have a UK card, is there a particular reason you need a US one? You can have your UK credit card bills sent to a US address. Maybe carry two UK cards - one of which you only ever use in the US. Alternatively, you might be able to open a US bank account, though it's sometimes difficult without a Social Security number. Explain your part-time resident and homeowner status to the bank and see what they can do. If you get an account, you should be able to get a credit card with a very small credit limit. If you use it responsibly, they will eventually let you increase the limit. US banks cannot access credit records overseas, unfortunately, so you will have to prove yourself as creditworthy. Is There an Expat UK community in Rio de Janeiro? Having spent some time in Rio as an expat, there is a pretty vibrant and healthy expat scene! Try looking at gringoes.com.br for more information...of note there is the St Andrews Society, that promotes many social events as well as a very successful Hash. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding more information on the net. Panama: Are there any ex UK persons now relocated to Panama ? I am considering retiring to Panama where I do find anyone from UK now in Panama. I would like to correspond with individuals or married couples, for advice - possibly even meet up in Panama. REPLY: Panama is very cosmopolitan, so there is a lot of everything here. I know a couple of UK expats and I will send them your note. In the meantime, if you have any specific questions please feel free to contact expatworld@pobox.com and they can put you in touch with their Panama associates who know everything about living in Panama as an expat. Mortgages: Anybody got any suggestions on gaining approval for a mortgage in the UK or Ireland whilst still living in the U.S.A. I have called a number of banks, discuss the matter but never hear from them again! Also, does anybody know about the tax implications of owning a home in UK/Ireland whilst continuing to live and work in the U.S.A? Thank You! Carole. REPLY 1: Try www.international-mortgage-plans.com This is exactly what they do. Obtain mortgages in the UK for expats living in the USA REPLY 2: Barclays Offshore in the Channel Islands could be helpful on this. REPLY 3: The best place for mortgages in Britain are the building societies. type in Building Societies UK into your search engine should bring you a list that you can contact for information. Good luck. REPLY 4: A colleague who now works in London for a large US software company tells me that HSBC was particularly understanding and had specific mortgage products for expats. It might help to take a short trip to the UK and visit some banks in person. I don't know any more than that -- sorry. Money, Money, Money: I'm leaving US for good in 8 weeks and wondering what to do with our money currently bank with Bank of America. Not sure where to start, we don't have a huge amount - $20,000 and with the dollar to pound xchange rate being so bad we really could use some advice. REPLY: I'd just leave it in America for now. You can certainly access your accounts online and via your cash card, should you need the money. You will, however, need to visit the bank and go through the situation, probably filling out some paperwork. I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect you will need to declare all interest earned on your US account on your UK taxes. I would advise however, that you consider keeping the account open. An American bank account is a huge asset should you ever decide to return here for retirement or to work again. Leaving a few hundred dollars in your account could save huge hassles later on. Credit Record: I am a UK citizen owning a holiday home in Naples Florida and have the old problem of no SSN and hence no ability to get a credit record as this has to be attached to an SSN. I do not need credit but having a credit rating would allow me to get cheaper car insurance, etc, etc. I have a US bank account but this is no help in getting a credit card. I spoke to the manager of my Social Security office who recognised my problem but could not issue a number as I did not require it for work purposes. He stated that SSNs should not be used for ID purposes but recognised that in the real world that is in fact what they are used for. Any suggestions gratefully received. REPLY 1: The SS guy is wrong. You can get an SS number as another respondent mentioned. Appeal to a supervisor. The card will be stamped with a not-allowed-to-work sentence. Just tell them you need it to get a driver's license, etc. Then ask your credit card company in the UK to arrange a credit card in the US. American Express is generally the best at this. REPLY 2: This is really useful to know. I have a friend who is in process of buying house in Florida and will need driver license. Ralph – which state was it that issued an endorsed SS# to your brother in law? REPLY 3: Your request raises a number of points. First, my brother-in-law came here on a visit from the UK. He wanted a driver's license, went to the SS office, and they gave him a SS number and card, which was stamped "Cannot be used for work". He used this number to get a credit card. Second, do you not have a credit card such as Visa, which you use in the UK? Third, have you tried using letters of good credit from your debtors in the UK? I did when I first came over here and it worked. Fourth, I am amazed that you have not been inundated, like the rest of us, at your US address, with offers of credit cards. Of course you will need some kind of SS number to make use of them. REPLY 4: Have you tried getting a TIN (Taxpayer ID Number) from the IRS? The IRS issues these because it uses the SSN as a unique ID for tax payment tracking, much like the credit scoring agencies use the SSN. The IRS wants to tax some people who don't have an SSN (e.g. foreign owners of US companies). So it issues TINs -- unique IDs that follow the SSN format. I'm not suggesting that you need to pay any new taxes, just that using a TIN instead of an SSN might work. I have not done this myself... but other people tell me that they use the TIN whenever a form asks for an SSN and it works because all companies want is a government-issued unique personal ID number in the SSN format. Final Canadian Emigration: Does anyone know - or have a feeling about - how long final approval takes from the US? Our final papers were mailed today, March 1, 2005. Our first round of approval took 7 months then the FBI checks took another 3 months. Thanks! REPLY: It took my wife a total of 17 months. July 2003- Jan. 2005 NOTE: Part 1 was in last EW Digest issue (Vol: 7, Issue 08). ==== OTHER EZINES & BOOKS ======================== ASIAN TIMES ONLINE Asia most trusted source for news, business,commentary and analysis from throughout Asia and our world. (www.atimes.com). ----- SURVIVAL BOOKS Go to and check it out! ----- japan-guide.com Extensive, up to date online guide on Japan living and travel related information. http://www.japan-guide.com/ ==== EW SPECIAL ================================= CAMOUFLAGE PASSPORTS WHAT IS A CAMOUFLAGE PASSPORT? A Camouflage Passport looks exactly like a real passport but the issuer is a non-existent country, but at one time did exist. It has a richly authentic vinyl cover which is embossed with gold lettering. It contains your photo, entry/exit stamps, as well as a registration number and official seal. And that's not all! For maximum authenticity your passport comes with its own security hologram. In fact, it looks just like a real passport. The only thing is that the country that issued the passport no longer exists. WHY YOU NEED ONE! Darwin noted that the most effective life forms survived by use of camouflage. The Camouflage Concept has been created to identify you as an unimportant tourist from a small, harmless country. It is legal to use in a hijack or kidnap situation but has no official status. It is to be used only as an instrument for your personal protection. Many government officials use them to protect their identity when travelling. Get the details at or email us with "CamoPP" in the subject line. ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... ================ NEWS STORIES I'm off on vacation for 3-5 years... COLOMBO (Reuters) - Want a tourism experience with a difference? Sri Lanka is converting a historic prison into a hotel so that visitors can enjoy the holiday of their lives -- presumably with time off for good behavior. The Daily News reported Thursday that Galle prison -- built in a centuries-old fort that is now a United Nations world heritage site -- would be developed into a tourist site. Quoting Southern Province governor Kingsley T. Wickremaratne, the state-owned paper said guests would have to abandon their holiday finery on check-in and would be issued with prison uniforms for the duration of their stay. "Unlike the star class hotels, there won't be luxury rooms fitted with hot water taps ... the rooms are none other than the prison cells fitted with iron bars," the governor said. But the news said a "jailor" would allow guests to keep the keys to their cells and they could move about at will. Galle Fort dates back to 1663 during the Dutch settler era and contains some of the finest examples of colonial architecture in the region. Property in Galle fort is among the most expensive in Sri Lanka, and a number of grand old buildings -- which used to house the colonial Dutch and later British administrations, have already been converted into luxury hotels or museums. A Sri Lankan company converted an old tea factory in the hill district of Nuwara Eliya into a hotel some years ago in its bid to offer tourism with a difference. --- Hubby annoying? Put him in a box HUSBANDS are such a nuisance. They hog the family computer, watch TV at nerve-grating volume, clutter up every flat surface with their hobbies and mess up a room with their very presence. Now a Japanese company thinks it has found the solution: lock up the monster in a soundproof wooden box. Yamaha has come up with MyRoom, a 2.5sqm den that can stand in the corner of the average-sized lounge and perform - albeit on a cramped scale - the functions of a study, cinema and shed. The noisiest of activities is inaudible to the outside world, and even if the inside is a tip, the mess is scarcely visible through the thin strip of frosted glass. It should come as a relief to the harried Japanese wife, as a huge number of men are due to retire next year and, from being a weekend annoyance, become round-the-clock pests. For about $7000, presumably paid by the salaryman whose wife seeks escape from him, MyRoom has a range of options depending on its intended purpose: it can be rigged up with a desk, a surround-sound speaker system or the sort of low workbench favoured by Japan's legions of model-train, robot and calligraphy enthusiasts. A tatami-matted version is available for those wishing to give their box a traditional Japanese feel. The potential market for MyRoom, which comes in three colours, is huge because so few Japanese homes are large enough to have that sort of spare room. The problem has become worse in recent years because a growing number of Japanese in their 20s and 30s are opting to live at home as so-called "parasite singles". Their decision to remain under the family roof has shattered many a parent's dream of converting the child's bedroom into a hobby room or study. Next year heralds the start of an era that Japanese housewives have been dreading. The first wave of post-war baby-boomers turns 60 next year and a huge generation of salarymen will be retiring. Women who have grown used to the serenity of days without their noisy, smoking, hobby-obsessed husbands are now desperate for ways to maintain the tranquillity. Yamaha, one of the world's biggest makers of musical instruments, came up with the idea for MyRoom after working for 20 years on technologies for soundproofing rooms for those who want to practise the piano without enraging the rest of the household. Other companies in Japan are rubbing their hands at the prospect of next year's mass retirement, particularly makers of small-scale agricultural equipment, which predict a sudden sales boom as seniors fill their twilight years with the popular hobby of rice and vegetable cultivation. --- Squirrel gets the Chop A TRENDY London restaurant owned by designer Sir Terence Conran has added a new dish to the menu - roast squirrel. The cheeky squirrel, a familiar favourite in the parks of London, appears on the 22-dish menu at the Chop House restaurant, near Tower Bridge. It is featured alongside such dishes as crayfish soup, char-grilled ox liver and Cumberland sausages. The dish has proved so popular that some diners have missed out. At the end of World War II, the Ministry of Agriculture urged the UK to eat squirrel to relieve the food shortage. ----- And the number one U.S. beach is... MIAMI (Reuters) - A stretch of sand off the west coast of Florida near St. Petersburg is America's best beach of 2005, according to a Florida scientist whose annual top 10 list has become a promotional tool for the tourism industry. Fort De Soto Park's North Beach is a "natural jewel on the finger of a sun-drenched city," Dr. Stephen Leatherman, head of Florida International University's Laboratory for Coastal Research, said on Wednesday. Leatherman, who calls himself Dr. Beach, described the Gulf of Mexico beach, on an island off St. Petersburg, as a "long, wide, sugar sand beach with great shelling and thriving natural dunes." Rounding out Leatherman's top five, in order, are: Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina; Hanalei Bay on the Hawaiian island of Kauai; Caladesi Island State Park near Clearwater, Florida; and Fleming Beach, on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Numbers six through 10 are: Coast Guard Beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Coronado Beach, San Diego, California; Cape Florida State Park, on Key Biscayne near Miami; Main Beach at East Hampton, New York, and Hamoa Beach, also in Maui. The list describes Leatherman's view of the top swimming beaches chosen under 50 criteria including facilities, management and scientific and ecological factors. Visit Florida, the state's tourism agency, immediately issued a news release hailing Leatherman's rankings and noting that three state beaches were among the top 10. Beaches are the backbone of Florida's key tourism industry, which drew 76.8 million visitors last year. ----- Oxymoron: bad luck ----- Everything is drive-through. In California they even have a burial service called Jump-In-The-Box. -- Wil Shriner ----- I gave my wife a new watch for her birthday . . . waterproof, shockproof, unbreakable and anti-magnetic. Absolutely nothing could happen to it. She lost it. -- Joey Adams ----- A little girl and a little boy were at day care one day. The girl approaches the boy and says, "Hey Tommy, wanna play house?" He says, "Sure! What do you want me to do?" The girl replies, "I want you to communicate your thoughts." "Communicate my thoughts?" said a bewildered Tommy. "I have no idea what that means." The little girl smirks and says, "Perfect. You can be the husband." ----- In a long line of people waiting for a bank teller, one guy suddenly started massaging the back of the person in front of him. Surprised, the man in front turned and snarled, "Just what the hell you are doing?" "Well," said the guy, "you see, I'm a chiropractor and I could see that you were tense, so I had to massage your back. Sometimes I just can't help practicing my art!" "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" the guy replied. "I'm a lawyer. Do ya see me fucking the guy in front of me?" ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============================ Lord of Search 2.1 Lord of Search is a media search tool . It can find almost any MP3, WAV, MPEG, AVI, WMA, DiVx, EXE files you want. Lord of Search not only search from Gnutella network that connects to LimeWire, Morpheus, Bearshare, and Shareaza, it also search media files from Internet Search Engine, Web site, FTP sites and LAN. LordofSearch has built-in players to play popular media file types. Get it at ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD =============== EXPAT WORLD NEWSLETTER (VOL.17 ISSUE 05) Table of Content: - PANAMA IS MORE THAN JUST A CANAL - RETIREMENT PROGRAM - THE KNOWLEDGE BOX - LETTER FROM AMERICA - TORTURE COVER UP IN GITMO AMERICA'S SHAME - A JAMES OR JANE BOND YOU COULD BE - THE OFFSHORE WORLD BY EXPAT WORLD - TO BE REDFLAGGED - THE NIGERIANS ARE UP TO IT AGAIN - AROUND THE SEXUAL WORLD WITH EXPAT WORLD - INTERNATIONAL SNIPS AND CLIPS - OPERATION "FOOL THE AMERICAN PUBLIC" - MORE ON THE NEW BOOK: "CODE NAMES" - CRAPPER RAPPER - PUSSY PHONE - WHAT IS FART GAS MADE OF? YOU MISSING SO MUCH Each week the EXPAT WORLD DIGEST gives you just a smattering of what you can find in the EXPAT WORLD newsletter that we produce once a month. Why not get the whole story and subscribe now to our electronic version for just US $30 per year. Go to our website: www.expatworld.net to sign up. ********************************************************************* EXPAT WORLD - the newsletter of international living URL - http://www.expatworld.net Email - office@expatworld.net ---------- End of Expat World Digest --------------------------------