Panama Digital Nomad Visa

The income condition rests on a foreign source with an annual amount no lower than 36,000 balboas, or the equivalent in foreign currency.

That figure appears a second time in monthly form in the company letter: the letter must be signed by the legal representative on headed paper and state that the applicant monthly income is not less than 3,000 balboas, together with the frequency of payments and confirmation that the money comes from a foreign source.

The foreign origin of the income must be evidenced separately, in one of two ways.

The first is a bank certification attesting that the income received comes from abroad and is linked to the declared employment situation.

The second is a statement from a foreign bank, or from a local bank bearing the authentication stamps of the issuing bank, showing the transfer transaction and establishing that it is linked to the declared employment situation

A nine-month visa, renewable once for the same period; the holder may work remotely from Panama without seeking any further authorisation, but must declare on oath that they will take no domestic employment or services.

The visa sits in the Non-Resident category, and an eligible person must be an employee of a transnational foreign company or a self-employed worker, working remotely. Their work must produce effects abroad.

A self-employed applicant files two other documents instead of a company letter: certification of their own company registered abroad, and a notarised sworn statement describing the relationship with each client, including the services provided, the amounts received, the source of funds and the payment frequency.

Those providing non-profit social services under agreements with the state or recognised organisations may extend once and are exempt from migration service fees.

The visa runs for nine months and is extendable once for the same period, with the corresponding card costing 50 balboas. An extension application must satisfy the same conditions as the first filing, including the documents proving that the income comes from abroad.

One group is treated differently. It covers foreign nationals coming to provide non-profit social services under agreements with the government, with a patronage body or with non-governmental organisations recognised by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, together with participants in student exchanges who work remotely.

They may likewise extend once for an equal term, and are exempted from the payment for migration services

Once granted, this visa confers the right to work remotely from within the territory of the Republic of Panama, and the holder need complete no additional procedure and obtain no permission from any other state body, whether to work or to reside.

The counterweight is a narrow undertaking: the file must contain a sworn declaration of non-acceptance of any offer of work or services within the national territory, with nationals, residents, tourists or companies, for the purpose of carrying on business in the Republic of Panama, signed by the applicant.

The application form must also carry the applicant commitment to bear the costs of return or repatriation to the country of origin or destination should that become necessary, and the company letter must repeat that same commitment.

Eligibility has two limbs: holding a contract as an operative of a foreign company of transnational character, or being an autonomous worker in teleworking mode; and performing functions whose effects arise abroad

The legal framework for this category creates no dependant status at all, and that is a measured silence rather than a closed door.

The official requirements sheet of the National Migration Service reproduces articles 1, 3, 4 and 5 of Decree 198 of 7 May 2021, and it does not mention a spouse, son, daughter, relative, marriage, minor, beneficiary or partner.

Two apparent exceptions are not exceptions: the word for dependant occurs only inside the word independent in the phrase autonomous and independent worker, and the word parents occurs only in the requirement to state the name and nationality of the applicant own parents on the power of attorney.

In the agency's own document library, this sheet is the only document on remote work; the material on dependants concerns only the dependants of permanent residents, and the material on relatives belongs entirely to family reunion for temporary or permanent residents.

The agency maintains a dedicated set of dependant requirement sheets but none for the short-stay non-resident class.

The converse points the same way: the applicant must file a sworn statement that they will not accept an offer of employment or provide services within Panamanian territory, whether to Panamanians, residents, tourists or businesses.

This record does not prove that dependants are forbidden, only that this category creates no such status and that anyone travelling with the applicant needs an independent ground of their own.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Panama passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Panama passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Panama passport reaches 157 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The two official documents for this category — the requirements sheet of the National Immigration Service and the guidance page of the investment promotion agency — contain not one line about tax.

Neither uses the words for tax, fiscal, levy, taxable income or territorial. This is the easiest place to misread the record and it needs stating plainly: the structure of foreign-source income and functions taking effect abroad in the decree is an immigration condition, not a tax rule.

The governing instrument is Executive Decree No. 198 of 7 May 2021, published in Official Gazette No. 29290-A of 20 May 2021, entitled creating the short-stay visa as a remote worker.

Article 1 creates within the Non-Resident immigration category a new visa class on three conditions:

Holding a contract as operational staff of a foreign undertaking of transnational character, or being a self-employed worker under a teleworking arrangement; performing functions that take effect abroad; and receiving income from a foreign source of not less than B/.36,000 a year.

The immigration effect of the visa is drafted broadly: it confers the right to work remotely within the Republic of Panama, and the holder need undertake no additional formality and obtain no permit from any other state entity, whether to work or to reside.

The term is nine months, extendable once for the same period; the card fee is B/.50 per the immigration service document, while the investment promotion agency states the payment to the immigration service as USD 250.

Three duties to evidence the source of funds, and they are tightly drawn: Article 4 requires the applicant to prove that income comes from abroad by a bank certificate or foreign bank statements, or a local bank bearing authentication from the remitting bank.

The company letter must state a monthly income of not less than B/.3,000, the payment schedule, and state expressly that it comes from a foreign source; and requirement twelve is the sworn declaration, quoted in the residence cell of this page, that the applicant will accept no offer of work or services in national territory.

Article 3 allows a self-employed applicant to substitute two items with a certificate of their own business registered abroad and a notarised sworn statement describing the commercial relationship with clients, including the origin of funds and the payment schedule.

Article 5 requires the renewal file to repeat the same documents as the first application.

Two procedural points from the investment promotion agency: filing is at the special procedures window at the immigration service headquarters through a representing lawyer, and the applicant must already have entered Panama in order to file; nationals of restricted countries must obtain an authorised visa first.

One thing this cell cannot answer must be said. Panama territorial principle of taxation sits in Article 694 of the Fiscal Code, and the tax-residence rule in Executive Decree 958 of 2013.

The full text of neither instrument has been verified at an official source.

This cell therefore does not state whether a holder becomes a Panamanian tax resident, and cites no tax provision. Read this cell within its scope: the two sources cover conditions, documents, duration and fees; they establish no tax regime, do not say whether the holder becomes a tax resident, and make no reference to the Fiscal Code

The two fees are 250 balboas payable to the National Migration Service, item 13 of the requirements list, and 50 balboas for the card.

But the real cost of this route is not in those two figures; it is in the documentary burden, and the first item on the list announces as much: the file opens with a notarised power of attorney together with the application, and that power of attorney must state the name and nationality of the applicant's parents.

A file that opens with a notarised power of attorney is a file that goes through a lawyer, and that sum appears on no schedule of fees. The rest of the list runs to three photographs; a duly attested copy of the passport, notarised or authenticated.

A criminal record certificate; a health certificate; a sworn declaration of personal background. The application form carrying the applicant's own undertaking to bear the costs of return or repatriation.

A copy of the medical insurance policy, which must maintain coverage in Panamanian territory for the whole period of stay. A certification of the foreign company's existence where it is registered; and the company letter carrying a second undertaking on repatriation costs.

One overarching rule is easy to miss when budgeting time and money: every document issued abroad must meet the requirements of Article 247 of the Executive Decree.