We wrote about investment opportunities in Panama some weeks ago. Panama is, however, not just the country where you can successfully invest. Panama offers some of the most attractive possibilities of getting permanent residency fast and easy.
On the map, the country might not look big, but it offers everything one can expect: good infrastructure, high quality of life (one of the highest in Latin America), vast nature areas rich in flora and fauna and happy people around you, just as an example.
Let’s now have a closer look at the options for getting a permanent residency in Panama. First of all, Panama distinguishes between Friendly Nations (mainly countries in North and Latin America, EU/ EEA and a couple of others, like Hong Kong, Montenegro, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea…) and all other applicants not belonging to the first group. If you are a national of a friendly nation, the required qualification thresholds for certain kinds of application will be lower for you.
Since the law changed back in 2021 it is not possible to apply by just having a local company and being its shareholder and director. The remaining options are:
- Investment into real estate
- Investment into local stocks
- Local fixed-term deposit
- A working contract with a local company
- Investment into the local agricultural enterprises (based on the priority areas of Panamanian government)
- Pensionado visa
As you can see, even with the removal of the previously available company option, Panama still keeps a lot of selection for you to easily become a permanent resident there. On top, it is not excluded that you could engage yourself as an employee in your own company. The process would be more complicated than just having a company. But it’s still feasible on the path of your own company in this way.
If we look at the most affordable and cheaper options, these would be:
- Visa pensionado
- Investment into agriculture
- Investment into real estate
To get permanent residency as a pensionado, you need to prove a regular pension of 1000 USD per month and above. This does not need to be a governmental pension but can also be a private pension from an insurance company or even your own company. But it needs to be certified as a life-long pension in order to be considered for the application as pensionado.
By the way, you do not need to wait until a pension age to be acknowledged as pensionado in Panama. From the age of 18 (!) you can have this status with a proved life-long pension in your pocket and benefit from a lot of perks Panama offers to pensionados. Even if you did not apply as a pensionado, but reach the age of 55 years, you can automatically benefit from all the advantages of pensionados. Just show your local ID with your birth date. The specific pensionado benefits we’ll speak about a bit later in this article.
The second affordable option for the permanent residency in Panama is the investment into agricultural projects in the country. In this case, the minimum investment amount starts from 80.000 USD to be invested into selected projects. From the investment amount, this one is similar to the offer of permanent residency in Philippines, just that in Philippines you have a direct path to the second nationality from day one of your PR in Philippines.
The third option worth mentioning is the investment in local real estate. If you anyway plan to diversify your investments and to invest in the real estate in Panama, getting a permanent residency along with your investment would be just a kind of a collateral benefit. Here, you can feel the difference between the Friendly Nations and those from other countries: while you need the minimum investment of 200.000 USD being from a friendly nations country and wishing to apply for the permanent residency by investment in real estate, the threshold for other applicants was recently increased from 300.000 USD up to 500.000 USD.
Compared to other countries the required investments remain rather moderate and Panama itself remains very attractive as a second residency option (or even the first residency): it does not tax your revenues received from outside of the country, you can maintain your permanent residency just by coming to the country once every second year, if you wish to discover the world in the meantime, your property in Panama is well-protected by the local law (sometimes it is better protected than in regions like EU), the private foundation law in Panama is one of the best-evaluated in the world adding an additional and discreet protection layer to your wealth.
Coming back to the pensionado visa and its benefits: the Panamanian government values people coming from abroad to spend their pension time in the country and provides a lot of perks to you in this case.
The most valuable incentives are:
- Exemption from the import tax for your household goods
- Exemption from the import tax for your imported car (once every two years)
- 50% discount on entrance to movie theaters, cultural and sporting events
- 50% discount at hotels during Monday to Thursday, 30% on weekends
- 25% discount on airline tickets and 30% on other transportation
- 25% discounts on utility bills
- 20% discount on bills for professional and technical services
- 20% discount on doctor’s bills 15% on hospital services if no insurance applies
- 15% off dental and eye exams
- 10% discount on medicines
- 15% discount on loans made in your name
- 1% reduction on home mortgages for homes used for personal residence
You get discounts up to 25% even for public services, like when paying fees for the local ID card (cedula) at the city office.
Also eating out can benefit you with up to 25% discounts on your restaurant bill when you flash your pensionado ID or another ID proving your age above 55.
Panama keeps even more interesting investment and residency opportunities for you. If you are interested to know more about Panama and its opportunities, do not hesitate to contact us.
