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Flag of Panama

Panama

Short Stay Visa for Remote Workers

PR: NoUTC−5

The requirements

Programme status
Open, accepting applications
Minimum monthly income
$3,000 a month
Required savings
None
Annual total
$36,000
Initial duration
9 months, extendable to 18
Family allowed
No
Apply online
No, in person or by post

USD 36,000/year foreign-sourced.

How this figure is set: A fixed amount set in law or on the official page. The wording on the source is: B/.36,000 per year foreign-source (employer letter must show monthly income ≥ B/.3,000).

Income confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: Decreto Ejecutivo No. 198 de 7 de mayo de 2021, art. 1(3) and art. 2(11)(c) (as reproduced in SNM requirements PDF).

Does this lead to permanent residence?

No pathway. Non-resident short-stay category; decree states no intent to reside; max 18 mo.

Decreto Ejecutivo No. 198 de 7 de mayo de 2021 (Gaceta Oficial Digital No. 29290-A), read via OCR of the official Gaceta PDF linked from migracion.gob.pa. Art 1 creates the visa within the categoria migratoria de No Residente, 9 months prorrogable once (18 months total) — directly stated. Art 8 amends art 46 of Decreto Ejecutivo 320/2008 to define corta-estancia visas as for foreigners entering 'sin animo de establecer su residencia en Panama' — no residency intent. No article grants a PR path; category placement and duration cap are directly stated, that this bars PR is inferred from the absence of any residency article.

Pathway confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07

Where it is

Panama City sits at 8.98° N, 79.52° W.

Panama picked out on a world map

Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Panama City. This is the only link here that leaves the site.

Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Time zone

  • UTC−5 Panama (America/Panama)

The country

Region
Americas · Central America
Capital
Panama City
Currency
PAB

Next door

Panama shares a land border with these.

What it costs to live there

$773 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Panama spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.

Panama City
$1,367 / month incl. rent
of which rent $691
Boquete
$1,328 / month incl. rent
of which rent $647

City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.

Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20
World Bank national accounts, reference year 2024: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.

Languages

  • Spanish official
  • English common in cities

Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".

Who can apply

Kinds of work covered
employee, freelancer, business owner

Eligibility confidence: high · checked 2026-09-08
Servicio Nacional de Migracion requirements, art. 1: 'Tenga contrato como operativo de una empresa extranjera de caracter trasnacional o sea un trabajador autonomo, en modalidad de teletrabajo'; art. 3 sets the substitute documents for a trabajador autonomo e independiente with his own company registered abroad.

How to apply

  1. Check you clear the requirements above — $3,000 a month is the figure this row records.
  2. Gather what the official page asks for:
    • Poder (notariado) y Solicitud. El poder debe contener el nombre y la nacionalidad de los padres del solicitante.
    • Tres (3) fotografías.
    • Copia debidamente cotejada del pasaporte (Notariado o Autenticado correspondiente).
    • Certificado de Antecedentes Penales.
    • Certificado de Salud.
    • Formulario de Declaración Jurada de Antecedentes Personales.
    • Completar el formulario de solicitud correspondiente, el cual contendrá el compromiso del solicitante de asumir los gastos de retorno o repatriación a país de origen o destino, en caso de ser necesario.
    • Copia de la póliza de seguro médico del solicitante, el cual deberá mantener cobertura en el territorio nacional y estar vigente por el periodo de estadía del solicitante.
    • Certificación o constancia de la existencia de la empresa extranjera en el lugar donde se encuentre registrada.
    • Carta de la empresa, en papel membrete, firmada por el representante legal, donde indique: los datos generales del solicitante; el cargo y funciones que ejerce; su ingreso mensual, que no podrá ser inferior a tres mil balboas (B/.3,000.00) o su equivalente, la periodicidad de los pagos y que el mismo proviene de fuente extranjera; la modalidad laboral (trabajo remoto); y el compromiso de asumir los gastos de retorno o repatriación.
    • Declaración Jurada de No Aceptación de Oferta de Trabajo o Servicio en el territorio nacional, con nacionales, residentes, turistas o empresas, para llevar a cabo negocios en la República de Panamá, firmada por el solicitante.
    • Pago de doscientos cincuenta balboas (B/.250.00) a favor del Servicio Nacional de Migración.
    Documents confidence: high · checked 2026-09-08
    Servicio Nacional de Migración, 'Requisitos para solicitar visa de corta estancia como trabajador remoto' (migracion.gob.pa), the requirements PDF, verbatim. Self-employed applicants are exempt from the last two company items under art. 3 and instead file a certificate of their own foreign-registered company and a notarised declaration describing the client relationship; art. 4 requires bank certification or a foreign bank statement proving the income comes from abroad. Legal basis: Decreto Ley 3 de 2008, Decreto Ejecutivo 320 de 2008, Decreto Ejecutivo 198 de 2021.
  3. Apply in person or by post — this programme has no online route.
  4. Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
  5. Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.

Migración requirements (PDF) ↗

Must file via Panamanian lawyer; ~USD 1,800 fees; foreign income exempt.

A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by .