What are the total one time only costs of moving to Panama, including legal, visa and immigration issues?
Roy Cannon - Gestoria Cocle - main office in Penoneme
Once you arrive in Panama and decide to stay for awhile, you will have two choices: be a "permanent tourist" which means that you, if you are from a "visa waiver" country, will be permitted to stay for periods of up to 180 days at a time. To restart the clock, cross the border for an hour and come back - this is done at the land border to Costa Rica near David in Chiriqui (some 7 hours by car from Panama City). However, your home country driver's license...
Once you arrive in Panama and decide to stay for awhile, you will have two choices: be a "permanent tourist" which means that you, if you are from a "visa waiver" country, will be permitted to stay for periods of up to 180 days at a time. To restart the clock, cross the border for an hour and come back - this is done at the land border to Costa Rica near David in Chiriqui (some 7 hours by car from Panama City). However, your home country driver's license will only be valid for the first 90 days of your stay each time, renewed when you "start the clock" again.
The second and better choice is to obtain a visa. There are many categories available and the best one for you will be determined by your finances and background. The easiest and cheapest ($650 or so) is the Pensionado Visa (person with a pension). The age is less important than the size of your government or large company pension, which must be at least $1,000 a month "for life" for a single status person, or $1,200 for a married couple. This visa is good for an "indefinite period" (no time limit), but you cannot work in Panama.
Another class of visa is for people from countries that are classed as "Friends of Panama" (includes the USA, Canada and many European countries). The governmental fees come to around $1,100 and you have to show a bank balance of at least $5,000. You have two subclasses to this visa. The first is "Professional" (university degree or other technical qualification) and a you must find work during your first year here. The second is "investor" which means you start a company that employs at least 3 Panamanian locals. In the latter case you can work for yourself and do not have to join the Social Security System, unless you wish to do so.
Lawyers fees for these latter "Amigo" visas start around $750 to $1,500 for "single status", you need to shop around to find good bilingual help that is reasonably priced...and a hint...never pay the full lawyer's fee "up front", partial payment plus government fees will work; pay the balance when you have your carnet (ID Card) in hand...which can be quick, sometimes as little as a week from presentation of all of your documents. The big delay in getting your documents together is usually caused by the FBI in the USA, they have to issue you a clearance. If you are from other countries the process is usually much easier and quicker.
If you know you will want to go the visa route, get your references and police record certificate BEFORE you come, as this will avoid having to go back home to sort out the necessary papers. The people who are doing your visa application can explain all of the details. You MUST have a lawyer to deal with Immigration in Panama, there is no "do it yourself" option.
Posted May 10, 2013
Albert Obbens - Albert Obbens
The costs of moving to Panama depend very much on what you intend to do: stay for a while, become a resident, or go for citizenship. Let's assume that you want to go to Panama to retire and stay for more than 6 months at a time and don't like to go over the border to Costa Rica for at least a day every six months. A visa for pensioners for men over 60 and women over 55 costs in general $1000 a person and if ordered together with a partner, $1,750 for a...
The costs of moving to Panama depend very much on what you intend to do: stay for a while, become a resident, or go for citizenship. Let's assume that you want to go to Panama to retire and stay for more than 6 months at a time and don't like to go over the border to Costa Rica for at least a day every six months. A visa for pensioners for men over 60 and women over 55 costs in general $1000 a person and if ordered together with a partner, $1,750 for a couple. That's is the official price which is normally used by Bopral law firm.
With this you need a multiple entry visa, to be able to go in and out of the country during your temporary visa time, which can be for a year and costs $50. This is a visa which allows you to stay as long as you like, you can get a driver's license, obligated after three months, costs $40, a test and some pictures. We can help with that if you want us to. You can get an endless list of discounts including airline tickets, hotel discounts, medicines and doctors. You are not allowed to start a company or work. You are a pensioner!
The alternative is a permanent residence visa. Before you needed to invest minimum $300,000 but now just have to prove you have $5,000 in a Panamanian bank. This visa allows you to work and over 60/55 gives you the same discount rights as other Panamanians, it is a form of pension payment. However this visa is a lot more costly, the government demands with two different offices, checks for $500 and $800, the work of the lawyers is also more complicated which makes the total around $2,100 to $2,300 per person. No further legal, visa, or immigration issues will cost you anything more.
Don't believe stories from among others International Living, that you can live in Panama with $1,000 a month. A Panamanian, who expects minimum living conditions, might be able to, but first world persons used to even the most minimum luxury cannot. If you have paid your rent, or own a house, have a car and just need your income to pay for food, gas, electricity bill etc. you could live from $1,500 - $2,000 a month. What are the total one time costs of moving, except for your airline, bus or other tickets, transport of your personal items? Minimum $1,090 per person to maximum $2,000 per person, "all included".
Posted September 24, 2013
Terry Bradford
Aside from airfare, it cost my husband and I about US $1,000 each to get our Pensionado cards and to become a resident here in Panama. After we got that, I think there was an additional charge to file that with the Republic of Panama and I think the attorney charged us $200 each. You will also pay for import duties, unless you get the Pensionado Visa, which will allow you to ship up to $10,000 worth of items duty free. You will also pay for the cost of moving. I think we spent around...
Aside from airfare, it cost my husband and I about US $1,000 each to get our Pensionado cards and to become a resident here in Panama. After we got that, I think there was an additional charge to file that with the Republic of Panama and I think the attorney charged us $200 each. You will also pay for import duties, unless you get the Pensionado Visa, which will allow you to ship up to $10,000 worth of items duty free. You will also pay for the cost of moving. I think we spent around $6,000 to move our things here. Not a lot of people move their things here though. We were some of the few that did and that is because most of our household items were custom-made. A lot of people come to Panama with just their personal items, so they spent a whole lot less than we did.
Posted October 29, 2014
Linda Jensen
If you come to Panama to live, you need to have at least US $5,000 in your bank account, in order to show that you can afford to live here. You are going to spend from $1,000 per person to get your visas or your pensionados. Some of them are more expensive and it depends on which attorneys you choose. Easily, it is going to cost $3,000 to $5,000 for a couple to come here to Panama. That includes all the visas and other legal items. You have to take...
If you come to Panama to live, you need to have at least US $5,000 in your bank account, in order to show that you can afford to live here. You are going to spend from $1,000 per person to get your visas or your pensionados. Some of them are more expensive and it depends on which attorneys you choose. Easily, it is going to cost $3,000 to $5,000 for a couple to come here to Panama. That includes all the visas and other legal items. You have to take note that the law in Panama changes every time there is a change of president, and there was a recent change. When you come here, you can stay here for 180 days without having to get a visa, but when you do get a visa, or when you start that process, you have to pay some money down.
The law used to allow you to come on a one way ticket but you cannot do that anymore. You have to have a round-trip ticket unless you’ve got a visa already. Every document that you use for these visas, regardless of which one you get, can only be 90 days old, which is why you have to have an attorney. And your attorney has to have some connections because you have to have an FBI, criminal background check and fingerprints and these things can only be 90 days old. It is kind of tricky getting all that sent here.
If you are married, you have to have an apostilled certified copy of your marriage license and if you have only social security income, you have to have an apostilled social security statement, which shows what money you get and that payments to you will be ongoing. The FBI report has to be apostilled.
You wouldn’t believe how many people get here and ask, “What’s an apostille? I’ve never heard of that!” An apostille comes from an official government office. It is a stamp that, in this case, comes from an official government office in the US and verifies to the government of Panama that the person who has these documents is a legal person, and the stamp is an official recognition that your documents are legitimate.
The cost to move your possessions could be rather expensive, so the people down here in Panama often tell people not to bring your items with you. For example, they recommend that you do not bring your car from the US, and instead buy a car here in Panama. Among the reasons are that it costs a lot of money to ship your car from the US and when you get it here it has to stay in storage while they practically take it apart looking for drugs and contraband, and then they will bill you for the time that it was in storage. This can get very expensive.
The other thing is that many freight companies will ship a container and for $400 to $500 you can get a spot in a container, and you can stack five or six plastic bins in a corner of a container. You first have to ship those things to Colon, where the government inspects it, and then you have to ship your things to where you are going to be here in Panama. In the long run, it makes more sense just to buy out here in Panama and do with things that you find available here. Go to garage sales or to estate sales because it is just too expensive to ship things.
(A cargo shipping going through the Panama Canal, pictured.)
Posted April 12, 2015
Eddie Montes - Panama Property Rentals
In my case, when we moved here to Panama, we packed up a 40-foot container and it was literally full. The pricing was based on weight. To give you some rough numbers, the move of the furniture, the customs clearing, and everything else was approximately US $12,000.We are a family of four and we are in the process of becoming residents here in Panama. We hired a local attorney, who brought us through the various phases of obtaining that residency. I believe the cost for our...
In my case, when we moved here to Panama, we packed up a 40-foot container and it was literally full. The pricing was based on weight. To give you some rough numbers, the move of the furniture, the customs clearing, and everything else was approximately US $12,000.We are a family of four and we are in the process of becoming residents here in Panama. We hired a local attorney, who brought us through the various phases of obtaining that residency. I believe the cost for our attorney for all four of us is somewhere in the $6,000 range. For $20,000 or less you could have all of your stuff shipped and have your residency completed here in Panama.
(Condo living room with tropical furniture, pictured.)
Posted September 30, 2015
David Bayliss - KW PACIFICA
If you are a person moving to Panama who says, “I’m moving to Panama and I’m bringing three shipping containers of all my stuff, I just can’t live without my Prius, etc.,” then it is going to be expensive for you to move to Panama. If you take our advice and not bring anything big and not bring in a container but instead just bring important stuff and just buy the other items here, then you’ll have a much cheaper landing here in Panama. There are...If you are a person moving to Panama who says, “I’m moving to Panama and I’m bringing three shipping containers of all my stuff, I just can’t live without my Prius, etc.,” then it is going to be expensive for you to move to Panama. If you take our advice and not bring anything big and not bring in a container but instead just bring important stuff and just buy the other items here, then you’ll have a much cheaper landing here in Panama. There are plenty of places to buy or rent that are fully furnished. Personally, I just brought suitcases. You can also look into the different visas. There is the Friendly Nations Visa and the Pensionado Visa. The Friendly Nations Visa is one of the popular ones because it gives you a permanent visa and a work permit, which is really important, since there are a lot of people who move here and find out that they want to work after wanting to retire, so this visa becomes a big plus.
I try to make people read about the Jubilado Visa and certainly consider the Friendly Nations Visa because of that feature. In order to qualify for the Friendly Nations Visa, Panama will want to know that the applicant has some means. For instance, you’re going to open a bank account and put money in it, although the amount of money that’s put in it is not necessarily the amount of money you’re going to spend. If you have two members of your family, you will need around $5,000 and if you have four members of your family, maybe $7,500. In any event, you’re going to need to put several thousand dollars in the bank and then you’re going to pay your attorney to do the paperwork and there are fees to the government, etc. It would cost about $2,500 to $3,500 to do all that. Part of what you do is to create a corporation with that visa. In that corporation, you’re allowed to put things in as a business or you can figure out what you want to do later.
The Jubilado Visa, which is the one that everybody reads about, doesn’t allow you to work. You can own a business outside the country. It gives you discounts that you would get at restaurants and the movie theater. The interesting part is if you’re 55 years old and use the Friendly Nations Visa, you get the discounts anyway. I have my Friendly Nations Visa and I am over 55 years old. So I get the discounts, I have a permanent visa, I have a work permit, and I have a corporation.
(Cartier jewelry store in Panama City, Panama, pictured.)
Posted May 23, 2016
John Gilbert - PanamaKeys
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Panama are no one-time costs in moving to Panama aside from your airfare to get here. If you’re going to come and live on a tourist visa, which means that you’re going to come and go every few months, you don’t have to worry about one-time costs, because there aren’t any. If there are one-time costs to consider, it may be the one-time cost of setting up a new home here in Panama. That means a trip to the local...
Panama are no one-time costs in moving to Panama aside from your airfare to get here. If you’re going to come and live on a tourist visa, which means that you’re going to come and go every few months, you don’t have to worry about one-time costs, because there aren’t any. If there are one-time costs to consider, it may be the one-time cost of setting up a new home here in Panama. That means a trip to the local furniture store and getting new furniture, to the local hardware or to the local Do-It-Center, which is very similar to Home Depot and where you would get all of your appliances. If you have to replace appliances and furniture, those would be considered one-time expenses. There are no one-time expenses for simply coming in and out of Panama on a tourist visa.
If you’re going to be a visa-approved permanent resident in Panama, then there are one-time expenses that include attorney’s fees, the residency fee, and the fees associated with becoming a permanent resident receiving your residency card and your cedula, which vary depending on the attorney you talk to.
The fees are reasonable. Fees usually cost $3,000 a person if you’re going to be a full-time resident in Panama. It may be a little more or less, depending on the Visa application that you qualify and get approved for. That amount would include everything. For my family of seven at the time, the total of all the attorney and government fees was $11,500.
(Gilbert children and friends, Panama, pictured.)
Posted May 5, 2017