Visa information

Panama offers three named routes in the 2026 guide — the Friendly Nations visa, the Pensionado visa for retirees with a lifetime pension, and a Qualified Investor visa via real estate or a bank deposit — and scores 84/100 for visa and bureaucracy, the highest in this batch. Its remote-work route is the batch's most precisely stated: a Short-Stay Remote Worker visa of 9+9 months for income over $36k.

The routes the guide names

Friendly Nations visa — residency for citizens of ~50 countries with a local tie such as a job or property (the guide's figure is ~50; see the threshold section for a conflicting site figure).

Pensionado visa — for retirees with a lifetime pension.

Qualified Investor visa — via real estate or bank deposit.

Panama scores 84/100 for visa and bureaucracy in the guide, the highest visa score in this batch — the routes are presented as a strength of the country, not an obstacle.

Thresholds — one printed figure, and two the guide withholds

For the Qualified Investor route the guide names the vehicles — real estate or bank deposit — but prints no investment amount for either, so this page states none.

For Friendly Nations, the guide and the site data's schemes list both say ~50 countries / ~50 nationalities, while the site data's main country entry says ~52 countries. The guide figure (~50) is used here and the conflict is recorded in the source notes. The site FAQ adds that the visa grants permanent residency through economic ties such as a business, employment or property investment — the guide itself says only “residency,” so the permanent qualifier is attributed to the FAQ, not the guide.

For remote workers the guide does print a figure: the Short-Stay Remote Worker visa (9+9 months) for income over $36k.

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not government fees

The guide does not list individual government visa fees separately. What it gives is a bundled “Visa, permits & translations” line in each move plan — described as government fees, apostilles and translations, with the Luxury tier adding an immigration lawyer — and those lines are the only sourced cost figures for the application itself:

• $750 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $1,100 — Mid-range plan
• $1,100 — Retirement plan
• $2,600 — Luxury plan (the plan notes the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer)

The Retirement plan carries one further, separate line: $2,050 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification”, covering an immigration lawyer, apostilled pension letters, medicals and translations.

Application steps and timelines, by tier

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence across the plans and checklists is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.”
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier; the Retirement paperwork stage adds pension or income letters certified and apostilled, a police certificate, a medical, and birth and marriage certificates translated.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file (see the Hospitals page for the guide's first-year insurance budgets).
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the Mid-range, Luxury and Retirement tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations in the guide: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent filing (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Renewals and the path to residency — the honest limit of the guide

The guide calls the Pensionado outcome permanent residency in its retiring text, and the site FAQ applies the same phrase to Friendly Nations. Beyond that, neither source gives renewal intervals (other than the remote-worker's 9+9 months), absence limits or a citizenship timetable, so this page states none.

Frequently asked questions