Recommended: A How-to Guide to Living and Working in Peru

I get emails from time to time from people abroad who want to know about resettling in Peru.

Is the job market in Peru good, they want to know?  (Tough for a foreigner, unless you’re okay with teaching English at $5/hour.) Can an American buy property in Lima? (Yes.) Is it true that if you put $20,000 in a Peruvian bank, you can get a resident visa? (Not!) Do I think it’s a good idea for a retiree to go in on a scheme with his guru to buy land in Tarapoto and build a vegetarian co-op/ashram on it? (Well, I met two U.S. citizens who lost $60,000 that way in 2007 because the seller didn’t have legal title to the land….)

Welcome to Peru! This poor guy is being examined by a worker for INTERPOL, who will X-ray his mouth so that, should the man’s corpse go missing one day, it can be identified by the national police. One of the odd humiliations you have to put up with to get a resident visa in Peru.

I sometimes respond with information I’ve gained from my own bungling journeys through the labyrinth of Peruvian bureaucracy. Other times, I do a quick Google search and hazard a guess, crossing my fingers that I haven’t led someone astray.

Really, though, what people need in these cases is los datos — the low-down. Now, I think, I can point them to it.

Next time someone writes to me with residency and work-permit questions, I’m going to recommend them to The Ultimate Peru List. The word “list” suggests that the site just provides names, addresses and links, but really, it is a comprehensive how-to guide to living, working and surviving in this country as a foreigner.

Updated in December 2008, the UPL provides clearly written, accurate information on how to navigate more than 50 real-life situations/potential nightmares, including:

• Finding teaching jobs in Peru;
• Shipping your stuff to Peru;
• Renewing your tourist visa;
• Obtaining a resident work visa;
• Having a baby in Peru;
• Setting up a Peruvian bank account.

And lots, lots more, folks. 

I’m happy to be a shill for The Ultimate  Peru List because, between you and me, I do not have the time or patience to gather all this valuable dato for the benefit of other potential ex-pats. Peru is a complicated place in which to put down roots, and lately when some innocent soul without job prospects or family connections asks me, Should I move to Peru?  I tend to answer cautiously.

But for the nitty gritty questions — I refer those to the UPL.

The hard-working person I can thank for making this American in Lima’s blogging life easier is UPL author Sharon de Hinojosa, a longtime EFL teacher in Peru and a veteran contributor to web sites about Peru and teaching English abroad.  The UPL evolved over years from articles she wrote for other sites, as Sharon describes:

I originally created The Ultimate Peru List, or UPL for short, on Dave’s ESL Cafe as a result of the emails I received. Later, it became stickies on Expat Peru, Living in Peru, and ELT World.

Although I don’t pretend that this has all the information you will need to know about Peru, it’s pretty comprehensive. I have decided not to thoroughly address some issues, such as Tourism and History. In these cases, I have given some basic information and websites which should help.

Browse through the Ultimate Peru List and let the readers of this blog know what you think.