Country-wide policy
Panama Amends Its Migration Rules and Never Republishes Them
The rules that decide every Panamanian residence application sit in one 2008 decree that has been amended piece by piece ever since, and the state has never published a consolidated version of it. A single 2009 decree substituted fifty-six articles, added six and repealed parts of six more. Later decrees rewrote the forestry investor and created the remote-worker visa. The practical effect for a reader is that an article number alone proves nothing: article 196 of the regulation has said B/.2,000 and B/.850 at different times, and both texts are findable. Even the Servicio Nacional de Migración's own requirement sheets cite amendments to articles that were never amended.
Topics it changes
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency through investment
- Residency as a student
- Residency through marriage
- Residency through ancestry
- Visiting as a tourist
- Residency under a regional treaty
What it requires
- Check which decree last substituted the article you are relying on
- Treat the article number of an amending decree as an instruction, not as the rule
- Expect the agency's own requirement sheets to carry citation errors in both directions
At a glance
- Articles of the 2008 regulation substituted in 2009
- 56CALC (calculated by us, not published)
Our count of the articles listed in the closing article of Decreto Ejecutivo 26 de 2009.
- Articles added in 2009
- 6CALC (calculated by us, not published)
Articles 17-A, 41-A, 45-A, 105-A, 226-A and 256-A, counted from the same closing article.
- Consolidated text published by the state
- None found
Article 68 of Decreto Ejecutivo 26 de 2009, quoted here in two parts, lists the articles it modifies, adds and repeals and republishes nothing. What the state publishes for this regulation is the original decree and the amending decrees separately.
Why this is a fact about Panama and not a footnote about us
Some countries publish a consolidated text and a text as enacted at different addresses, so a reader can choose. Panama publishes only the acts: the 2008 regulation, the 2009 decree that rewrote a third of it, the 2021 decrees that rewrote the forestry investor and created the remote-worker visa, and the decrees that keep moving the Países Amigos list. Nobody republishes the result. The consequence for anyone reading Panamanian migration rules is that the article number has to be paired with a date, and a quotation without one is as likely to be the superseded text as the current one. The retired annuitant is the clearest casualty: article 196 says B/.2,000 in the 2008 decree and B/.850 in the 2009 one, and both documents are on government servers today.
The agency's own sheets get it wrong in both directions
The Servicio Nacional de Migración publishes a requirement sheet for every permit, each ending with a 'fundamento legal' line. Those lines attribute amendments to articles 21, 79, 191 and 192, none of which the 2009 decree touches, and one of them dates that decree to 11 March 2009, which is the date of the gazette rather than of the decree. None of this changes what is actually required - the figures on the sheets match the instruments - but it means the citation on an official sheet is not a safe substitute for reading the decree.
What the law says
«El presente Decreto Ejecutivo modifica los artículos 10, 13, 15, 17, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 61, 66, 74, 80, 82, 83, 97, 100, 108, 117, 118, 131, 132, 133, 144, 146, 149, 153, 172, 180, 196, 199, 201, 203, 222, el parágrafo del artículo 240, 245, 264, 290, 313, 314 y 315»Our translation - not official
This Executive Decree amends articles 10, 13, 15, 17, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 61, 66, 74, 80, 82, 83, 97, 100, 108, 117, 118, 131, 132, 133, 144, 146, 149, 153, 172, 180, 196, 199, 201, 203, 222, the paragraph of article 240, 245, 264, 290, 313, 314 and 315
The closing article is the only authoritative list of what moved. It is also what shows that articles 21, 79, 191, 192 and 193 did not, despite what the agency's requirement sheets say.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Panama's official gazette. An instrument takes effect on publication here and carries its gazette number as part of its identity, which is how the Friendly Nations list, the migration decree-law and every decree amending them are identified.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It publishes acts as enacted and never republishes the amended text, so it cannot be cited for consolidated law - and on Panama that bites hard: Decreto Ejecutivo 26 de 2009 alone substituted fifty-six articles of the 2008 regulation, and an article number inside an amending decree is an instruction to amend rather than the article of the resulting regulation. Worse, some issues are page images with no text layer: Gaceta 29335 of 2021 extracts only its contents page, which is why the current Friendly Nations property threshold cannot be stated. Anything quoted from a gazette must be checked for recognition damage first and declared as ocr where it is a reading of a picture.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«adiciona los artículos 17-A, 41-A, 45-A, 105-A, 226-A y 256-A, y deroga el numeral 3 del artículo 109, el numeral 4 del artículo 111, el numeral 3 del artículo 113, los numerales 3 y 4 del artículo 115, el numeral 5 del artículo 138 y el numeral 3 del artículo 142 del Decreto Ejecutivo 320 de 8 de agosto de 2008.»Our translation - not official
adds articles 17-A, 41-A, 45-A, 105-A, 226-A and 256-A, and repeals numeral 3 of article 109, numeral 4 of article 111, numeral 3 of article 113, numerals 3 and 4 of article 115, numeral 5 of article 138 and numeral 3 of article 142 of Executive Decree 320 of 8 August 2008.
About this source
Panama's official gazette. An instrument takes effect on publication here and carries its gazette number as part of its identity, which is how the Friendly Nations list, the migration decree-law and every decree amending them are identified.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It publishes acts as enacted and never republishes the amended text, so it cannot be cited for consolidated law - and on Panama that bites hard: Decreto Ejecutivo 26 de 2009 alone substituted fifty-six articles of the 2008 regulation, and an article number inside an amending decree is an instruction to amend rather than the article of the resulting regulation. Worse, some issues are page images with no text layer: Gaceta 29335 of 2021 extracts only its contents page, which is why the current Friendly Nations property threshold cannot be stated. Anything quoted from a gazette must be checked for recognition damage first and declared as ocr where it is a reading of a picture.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Everything stated here comes from the closing article of Decreto Ejecutivo 26 de 2009 and from reading the 2008 regulation and the 2021 decrees alongside it. We did not attempt to establish that no consolidated text exists anywhere, only that we did not find one at the Gaceta Oficial, at the Asamblea Nacional's Legispan or at the Servicio Nacional de Migración.
Decreto Ejecutivo 226 de 20 de julio de 2021 is the one instrument in this chain we could not read at all: the gazette that carries it reproduces the decree as page images with no text layer, and only the contents page is machine-readable.