How to Obtain Residency in Panama

Why obtain residency in beautiful Panama?

• A perfect paper residency option. Unlike in many countries, if you have residency through investment in Panama you do not need to actually spend much time in Panama. You just need to show up once every two years to keep your residency active, which makes Panama a great plan B / back-pocket residency.
• A great territorial tax system. This is mostly valid for non-US people. Essentially, Panama only taxes income sourced in Panama. Income stemming from outside of the country’s borders is generally not taxable. If you structure your affairs correctly, then you can potentially get away with 0% taxes, entirely legally.
• A great climate all year long.
• Biodiversity. From living the city life in Panama city, to chilling in surf towns, to being a bum on a Caribbean beach, or living inland surrounded by lush, rolling hills, Panama has much to offer.
• A dollarized economy. The local currency is pegged to the USD.
• A well connected airport – Panama City is one of Latin America’s hubs.
• Good healthcare due to an active healthcare tourism industry, as well as good international schools due to the amount of expats living in Panama.
• Decent banking, though it’s not appropriate for everyone. I wrote an article on the pros and cons of banking in Panama.
• Same timezone as the US, which makes remote work very convenient.
• For those who care, easy access to guns for permanent residents.

Giovanna and Wi Men helped me obtain Residency in Panama.

Giovanna and Wi Men run a small family office in Panama helping people with matters of immigration, corporate structures, and banking. They helped me obtain residency in Panama from A to Z, including banking. You can get in touch with them using the form below.

How to Obtain Permanent Residency in Panama

First off, it is important to understand that the rules changed in 2021. It is not not possible anymore to immediately obtain permanent residency through the Panama Friendly Nations visa. You initially start with 2 years of temporary residency, and after two years you can convert it to permanent residency.

If you want permanent residency immediately, you must apply for the Panama Qualified Investor Visa.

We’ll elaborate on two main ways to obtain permanent residency in Panama

1. Friendly Nations Visa
2. Panama Qualified Investor Visa
3. Panama Self Economic Solvency Visa
4. Panama visa for retirees

1. How to obtain Permanent Residency in Panama through the Friendly Nations Visa

If you are from a Friendly Nations country:

• • Invest $200,000 in local real estate OR
  • Put $200,000 in a fixed deposit in a local bank for 3 years (details here on interest rates) OR
  • Put $200,000 in a combination of fixed desposit and real estate OR
  • Create a Panama Corporation, pay yourself a salary, pay income tax and social security taxes on that income.

You obtain temporary residency for 2 years, and thereafter you can apply for permanent residency which pretty much gets granted automatically IF you have kept the investment.

The whole process to obtain permanent residency takes about 3 trips to Panama in 2.5 years. Thereafter, you just need to set foot in Panama for 24h once every 2 years to keep the residency active.

Get in touch with Giovanna and Wi Men using the form below.

List of Friendly Nations Visa countries for Panama

1. Great Britain
2. Germany
3. Argentina
4. Australia
5. Republic of Korea
6. Austria
7. Brazil
8. Belgium
9. Canada
10. Spain
11. USA
12. Slovakia
13. France
14. Finland
15. Netherlands
16. Ireland
17. Japan
18. Norway
19. Czech Republic
20. Switzerland
21. Singapore
22. Uruguay
23. Chile
24. Sweden
25. Poland
26. Hungary
27. Greece
28. Portugal
29. Croatia
30. Estonia
31. Lithuania
32. Latvia
33. Cyprus
34. Malta
35. Serbia
36. Montenegro
37. Israel
38. Denmark
39. South Africa
40. New Zealand
41. Hong Kong
42. Luxembourg
43. Liechtenstein
44. Monaco
45. Andorra
46. San Marino
47. Taiwan
48. Costa Rica
49. Paraguay
50. South Korea

2. Qualified Investor Visa for Panama

This is the gold standard visa of Panama. It allows you to obtain permanent residency for your whole family in only one trip. Anyone can apply for it, Friendly Nations Visa or not.

To qualify you must either:

• Invest $300,000 in Panama real estate OR
• Invest $500,000 on the Panamanian stock exchange OR
• Put $750,000 in a term deposit in a bank

In this case you will just need to make one trip to obtain permanent Residency. To keep the permanent residency you will need to spend 24h in Panama every two years.

Get in touch with Giovanna and Wi Men using the form below.

3. Panama Self Economic Solvency Visa

For citizens of all countries, including those that are not on the Friendly Nations list, there exists the option of depositing $300,000 USD into a Panama time deposit or purchasing the same amount of Panama real estate. For each dependent associated with the visa, you must increase this amount by $2,000 USD.

• For the bank deposit option you must deposit the money for a minimum of three years and show copies of the time deposit contract with the bank.
• For the real estate option, you must purchase property valued at $300,000 or more, and the $300,000 must not be financed with debt, but any value in excess of it can be mortgaged.

You obtain temporary residency for 2 years, and thereafter you can apply for permanent residency which pretty much gets granted automatically IF you have kept the investment.

The whole process to obtain permanent residency takes about 3 trips to Panama in 2.5 years. Thereafter, you just need to set foot in Panama for 24h once every 2 years to keep the residency active.

4. Panama Visa for Retirees

Easy residency in Panama can also be obtained for retired people who earn a guaranteed monthly income of at least $1,000 per month. You can also ask Giovanna for the details or read this article.

Services in Panama

• How to obtain Residency in Panama
• Real estate lawyer in Panama
• My Realtor in Panama City
• Create a corporation in Panama

Articles on Panama

• Panama City Real Estate Market: 2025 Investor Guide
• Affordable Tax-Free Caribbean Lifestyle and Real Estate
• The Pros and Cons of investing in the Boquete Real Estate Market in Panama
• How to Obtain the Panama Retirement Visa
• Panama Permanent Residency in ONE trip
• What is the Panama Travel Passport and how to get it?
• The Pros and Cons of living in Panama
• Panama Friendly Nations Visa through Work Permit and Company Formation
• How to buy a gun in Panama – Gun rights in Panama
• Real estate for Friendly Nations Visa in Panama City – case studies
• Buying real estate in Casco Viejo of Panama City – Things to know
• Panama Tax Guide
• Remotely opening a bank account in Panama

Full transcript of “The Secret Third Way to Get Panama Residency – Company Formation for Friendly Nations Visa”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice of The Wandering Investor. Today, we’ll be discussing how to obtain residency in Panama using the Friendly Nations Visa. We’ll be discussing this with John, Wi Men, and lovely Scarlet, because you people have helped me obtain residency here. And I’d say Scarlet was the most helpful

WI MEN: [laughs]

JOHN: [laughs] That’s right.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Everyone knows about the $200,000 in real estate or $200,000 in a term deposit, but there’s also a third way that I would like us to discuss, which is the way I used to obtain residency here in Panama. It’s through company formation.

Panama Friendly Nations Visa by Company Formation

LADISLAS MAURICE: Can you, please, elaborate on the company formation route to get residency here?

WI MEN: For the company formation route, the requirement is basically forming the corporation here that could be used for business purposes, not just for the residency. And then once the company is formed and registered, we can get the operation agreement, operation license, and the certification that be go along with corporation. Also, then once everything is wrapped up, we can elaborate and draft the job contract for that.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And this is the basis for the residency?

WI MEN: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: It’s really that simple. You create a company, you hire yourself, but then, yeah, there’s accounting fees on the salary that you get. You also need to pay a bit of personal income tax. There is a bit of carry cost that there isn’t with the term deposit or the real estate option, but it’s a company that you can actually use, and you don’t have to invest $200,000. If people go for real estate or a term deposit, how long do they actually need to keep that investment?

WI MEN: They need to keep that for three years.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Of your client base that do the Friendly Nations Visa, which is really applicable only for Westerners, so Europeans, Australians, Canadians, Americans, even South Africans and some East Asians, what percent goes through real estate versus term deposit versus company formation amongst your clients, roughly?

WI MEN: Most of them, they go to the company formation.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Most do the company formation?

WI MEN: Yes.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, and then is it more real estate or term deposit?

WI MEN: More term deposit.

LADISLAS MAURICE: What’s interesting is that when you look online, most people will try to push the real estate option. Why? Because there is, typically, a back commission on the real estate, as opposed to a term deposit or a company creation, etc., where there’s just a lot less fees involved by lawyers, and developers, and all of that. But the reality is, this company formation option works quite well. And it’s not a company that needs to be very active, right?

WI MEN: Yeah, it doesn’t need to be very active.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And if you want it to be active, it’s fine, because the taxes on income earned from outside of Panama is tax free, except for a dividend tax of about 5%. Personally, I actually use the company here. And even once I receive my permanent residency, which I should in a few months from now, you helped me this week apply for permanent residency, after I was a temporary resident here for two years, I’ll probably keep the company, because I actually have a use case for it. Who can be included in the application?

Who can be added to Panama Friendly Nations application?

JOHN: For the main applicant dependents, it can be a spouse, children under age. If they’re between 18 to 25, they have to be registered into a Panamanian university. And the parents of the main applicant as well.

LADISLAS MAURICE: When you say registered at a university, because a lot of people, they want the Plan B, or they want to move here, but they have a kid that’s, like, 18, 21, do these young adults actually have to attend the university here, or do they just get registered?

JOHN: Not really. For the purpose of the residency, as long as they have a registration or admission letter from the university, it will work.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And you can help people obtain this?

JOHN: Correct, we will help them as well with the process.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Can you, please, talk us through the timelines?

How long does it take to get Panama Friendly Nations Visa

JOHN: For the whole process, coming from scratch, it will be three trips. The first one will be for the application, which will receive a temporary provisional ID for six months. Later, they will come back to get the two years temporary card. And then the third trip will be for getting the permanent residency, which is the one that you applied for right now.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And once I will be a permanent resident, how often do I have to come to Panama to keep my permanent residency active?

JOHN: Just for 24 hours every two years.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Panama is a great Plan B option in this regard. Again, of your clients, what percentage moves here to Panama as a Plan A versus just keeps Panama as a Plan B?

WI MEN: Most of them, they look for the Plan B, and it’s increasing also for Plan A now.

LADISLAS MAURICE: More and more people are moving here?

WI MEN: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And also, one of the benefits of being a resident of Panama is access to banking. I’m certainly not here going to say that banking in Panama is a fantastic experience, but it’s definitely a much better experience when you’re a resident than a nonresident.

WI MEN: Yeah, that’s correct.

LADISLAS MAURICE: You worked, Wi Men, in banking for many years before starting this company, helping people with incorporation and immigration matters. How would you describe Panamanian banking?

WI MEN: Panamanian banking for residents and, I mean, as a local Panamanian, though they work very well, like, they’re friendly.

Banking in Panama as a Panama resident

WI MEN: Especially, Panama has become very friendly with international sanctions, so which means that you can operate the banking remotely, sending and receiving money internationally.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Banking here does work relatively well if you’re a resident, but yeah, as a nonresident, I have a hard time recommending Panamanian banking. People who want to apply for the Friendly Nations Visa, what paperwork do they need to bring to Panama, apart from, essentially, the proof of the investment or the company they created?

Documents required for Panama Friendly Nations Visa

JOHN: From their country of origin, they have to bring a police background check. It needs to be apostilled or authenticated by a Panamanian consulate in their country. If they’re married, it needs to have a marriage certificate, which needs to be apostilled or authenticated for the consulate at Panama. And if they’re bringing dependents, children, they need to have a birth certificate as well apostilled or authenticated.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And if I want to bring a little Scarlet like this one?

JOHN: Yeah, you can bring also the apostilled document from the veterinary, they will ask for the dog.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool, so apostilles for everything, including for pet stuff?

WI MEN: [laughs]

JOHN: [laughs] Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. And Wi Men, can you help us understand the difference between residency and tax residency, because many people make this mistake? They think that just by getting residency in Panama, they become tax residents of Panama, and that they don’t have to pay taxes back in Canada or Belgium, even if they live there full-time.

Difference between residency and tax residency in Panama

WI MEN: The residency card is not tax ID document itself. To get the tax ID, you need to go through a different process to request it. Once you become a taxpayer, you will get a tax ID number, which means that you legally are a taxpayer here in Panama. To become a legal tax resident here in Panama, to get the tax residency certificate, you need to spend 183 days here in Panama.

LADISLAS MAURICE: This is really important to understand. There is also ambiguity depending on where you’re from. In some cases, the country that you’re exiting doesn’t really require you to become a full-on tax resident of another country. Sometimes, they’re happy enough if you have much more ties to Panama than to the country of origin, that you spend more time in Panama than in the country of origin. This enables you to still travel around, so you can have Panama as a base without spending half the year here, but still being able to claim that you have more ties to Panama than to the other country.

It’s a bit ambiguous, and it really depends on where you’re from, and you absolutely need tax advice from your country of origin to really manage your exit properly if you were to move to Panama. Because, let’s face it, the taxes here are really interesting, not just on a corporate level, but also on a personal level. Wi Men, what is the tax rate for income earned outside of Panama, for Panamanian tax residents?

Tax rates for Panama residents

WI MEN: The tax rate for those income is actually zero. We, as a resident or a local Panamanian, we have overseas income, which is they could be capital gains, dividends, rental income from overseas. Also, we can get, like, inheritance in case, so this is not taxable even at all.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Panama is just fantastic from a tax point of view, and that’s why people are increasingly moving here. We’re seeing more and more fiscal pressure in Western countries, whether that be Western Europe, North America, Australia, and a lot of people are starting to boil and to feel the heat, and are moving to places like Panama, and are living here, are starting a new life here, and are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in taxes, and that’s money that they can reinvest, they can donate to charity, they can use for their own family, instead of just paying into systems that are increasingly going broke and are being thankless for all the taxes that are being paid. And what is the path to citizenship here?

JOHN: That’s a good question, since there’s a confusing matter with this subject. Once you get the permanent residency, you have to wait five years in order to get or apply for the citizenship. The thing is that information that is important is that you actually need to live here in Panama to get the citizenship. It’s not something probably for people that want to have it as a Plan B rather than having as a Plan A.

Applying for Panama citizenship as a permanent resident

LADISLAS MAURICE: When you go online, permanent resident, five years, you can apply for citizenship. You can apply, you’re just probably not going to get it, so you really need to build ties. [laughs]

JOHN: Exactly.

How to contact Wi Men and John

LADISLAS MAURICE: Great. Thank you. If you want to find out more about the Friendly Nations Visa, there’s a link below with a lot more information. There’s also a free brochure that these gentlemen can send you, and you can get in touch with them below. Gentlemen, thank you very much.

WI MEN: Thank you.

JOHN: Thank you very much.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And particularly, thank you to Scarlet, the hero.

Full Transcript of “How to Obtain Permanent Residency in Panama in ONE Trip”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice from thewanderinginvestor.com. So today, I’m in Panama City with my favorite couple, Giovanna and Wi Men, who run a small family office here specializing in helping people with immigration, banking, and corporate structures. How are you?

WI MEN: Very good, very good.

GIOVANNA: Very good, very good.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So today we’ll be discussing how to obtain permanent residency immediately in Panama with only one trip to the country. So the path to permanent residency that people typically discuss is the Friendly Nations Visa, where you invest $200,000 in either real estate, or in a term deposit, or a combination of the two. There’s also the option of for people that are on the list of the Friendly Nations Visa to create a company locally in Panama to hire themselves as a director, to run some business activities, to pay Social Security. So we did another video on this topic. So this is another way of obtaining residency here.

The friendly nations path to residency is essentially the first two years you have temporary residency, and after Year Two, then you can apply for permanent residency. But there’s also a way to obtain permanent residency from day one, and by making only a single trip to Panama, as opposed to typically three trips to Panama, if you want to get permanent residency the traditional way. So can you, please, explain to people how to get this amazing Panama permanent residency immediately with only one trip?

Panama Qualified Investor Visa

WI MEN: So this visa is called Qualified Investor Visa, which is considered a VIP program. So the applicant also will be having a VIP treatment in the immigration office. That means the person needs to invest, as a minimum requirement, $300,000 for real estate, $500,000 for stockbroker’s firm, or $750,000 in a bank term deposit for four years. This visa has been released on 2022 to incentive the foreigner to invest in Panama. There is no nationalities restriction in that visa program. So as soon as the investment is from outside of Panama as overseas source, so that could be qualified for that program. The person will get the residency within one month.

This person doesn’t need to be here in Panama physically for the whole process, like the other visa may demand. The Panama government the first law they released for the qualified investor the $300,000 investment for real estate supposed to be in 2022, October. So they made the extension to 2024. After 2024 October, that will be increased to $500,000 (increase to $500,000 has been cancelled)

The Qualified Investor Visa is even better than the Panama Friendly Nations Visa

LADISLAS MAURICE: So this is really an interesting option. Typically, for Westerners, we always discuss the Friendly Nations Visa, but just by putting an extra $100,000 in local real estate, you can go immediately to the permanent residency stage, as opposed to doing the Friendly Nations Visa, which takes longer and involves more trips. So again, this is for people of all backgrounds. The paperwork is, there’s a lot of paperwork in the background, but that’s what you guys are here for. But when you hire competent people to help you with the process, you really don’t have that much to do. You just need to collect a few documents back home, get them the apostilled, etc. And then you’re good, you have your permanent residency for life. Essentially, it’s valid for life, but you need to come to Panama once every two years to keep it active.

Minimum Physical Presence Requirements to keep Residency active in Panama

So this is the only requirement really to keep your permanent residency active, it’s to come here once every two years, which in the world of residencies is very mild, is very easy, and is very friendly. And because Panama is so well connected in the world, it’s really not complicated to come here. So it’s not like an Uruguay, or a Paraguay, or an Argentina where you need to go to the other side of the world. Panama, from that point of view, is very comfortable. There are tons of direct flights to North America, to Europe, to Asia as well. So it’s an easy residency to maintain.

It’s also a great Plan B. And it’s also one of the best Plan A’s out there. If you become a tax resident of Panama, you only get taxed on Panamanian-sourced income. If you structure things properly, income from outside of Panama does not get taxed in Panama. Again, if you’re a US person, things are a bit different for you. But generally speaking, it’s a good Plan B, but it’s also a fantastic Plan A. So if you want to get more information on the normal Friendly Nations Visa, or on this Qualified Investor Program, there is a form above. Get in touch with them and they’ll send you a brochure with all the information, the process, and the fees.

All right. Giovanna, Wi Men, thank you very much.

GIOVANNA: Thank you.

WI MEN: Thank you.