Panama Visa Law

The Panamanian government promulgated a new migratory law to regulate 'with major restriction' the entrance and exit of foreigners and their stay in the Republic of Panama.
This decree replaces the Migration National Direction for the Migration National Service.

The new norm expected to begin after September 1, 2008, classifies foreigners who enter the Country under four different categories:

1. Non Residents. such as tourists, sailors, passengers and tripulation.
2. Temporal Residents: are those who visit Panama for labour, political, cultural, humanitarian and religious reasons. They will be given a temporary resident permission of six years.
3. Permanent Residents: according to the new law, are those whom enter Panama for economic, investment and political pupose, especially Government related. To be a permanent resident of Panama, the new law grants a provisional permission for two years that will become indefinite if the person complies with the appropriate requirements.
4. Foreigners under protection by this Country: will be the ones considered refugees sheltered, stateless or those received for humanitarian reasons.

Visitors who enter national territory classified as tourists, transients, travelers in transit, or travelers in direct transit, temporary visitors and immigrants: Those who arrive with the exclusive purpose of recreation or tourism are tourists for thirty days, which can be extended for up to sixty days.

This new law does not require Visa aplication for citizens of countries that do not need visa to enter Panama.

Article 36 of Law 15 of 2007 reduced from 90 to 30 days the duration of the tourist visa. Before this regulation, the tourist visas were valid until 90 days and could be extend to 90 days more. Now, valid time for the visa has been reduced and can only be extend for up to 60 days more. The Action taken to reinforce migratory controls, has created discomfort in the real estate sector, which is one of the most affected by this reform and has been rapidly growing in the last five years.

Investors from the Panama Real Estate Sector are requesting the President to change the norm with an executive decree, since they argue that the legal norm was not written properly. Although investors recognize the good intention of the Government to protect citizens security by avoiding criminality and the arrival of undocumented people into the country, they believe this reform "was not the best option" for the commercial growth activity, since the tourists and investors that reside in the city consume great amount of goods and services in the country, and this will be restricted.

The Real estate Market will be affected because 30 days is not enough time to make a decision in wether to buy or not a property. It is a decision that is pondered and is made after knowing something about the country, after been acquainted with the areas where you plan to invest.
Under the new law the immigration department is given 60 days to approve or deny any applications that have been accepted. If a determination has not been made by the 61st day then the application is automatically considered to be approved. There are currently 100 residential projects under construction in Panama that are at least 40 stories high with one some 100 stories high. There are at least another 125 getting ready to go into construction.

Panama feels as if they are in the middle of a real estate boom and wants to take advantage of it without govenment restriction on visitors. Based on what’s happening, some of these projects will never complete or even be started. There is also the possibility that after completion many of these projects will fail to sell completely and the people will walk away from their deposits. The prices are way too high and the new migratory law is not helping.
Many people used to like to know they could come here for a few months at a time and not have to worry about immigration. Now this is gone and it is now a problem for those who want to just try living here as a renter before buying a property.

It seems the government want only people who can drop substantial sums to live here but none of this will have any effect on Panama as a financial and corporate center. What we are starting to see is people entering the country from the USA and Canada and presently getting 90-day visas again. Some people have commented that they asked for the 90 days and got it. Other say they just got the 90 days without asking for it. We have also seen people get the 30-day Panama visa as well. We are not entirely clear as to what is going on but we are watching closely. This is probably an indication that the visa law for tourists will soon revert back to the 90 day visa but we have to wait and watch.