NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS coming from abroad must come duly legalized through Apostille or through the Panamanian Consulate in the country of origin.
Immigration will evaluate your record and decide if it is suitable or not to be used in your residency application.
In case of applying for work reasons, you must have:
We prefer the authentication of documents issued abroad to be Apostilled, since authentication before the Consulate implies that these documents must comply with an additional requirement of authentication before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Panama City, which naturally implies additional time and costs.
The process begins at the Migration offices. Upon presentation of the complete requirements together with the visa application, Migration will issue a provisional visa in process card, this card will be valid for six months, while they study your application. It should be noted that the provisional card will include a multiple entry visa so that you can leave and enter the country during the process.
In those six months, Immigration will issue a Resolution approving or denying your application. To notify us of this, we will need your passport and provisional ID. We will take care of this in Panama City.
In the case of a positive result, you will have to go again to the Migration offices for the issuance of a temporary residence card for two years.
Note: After two years of temporary residency, you must apply for permanent residency at the National Immigration Service.