Retiring to Panama: the Pensionado and the Rentista Retirado
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Mexico on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Mexico to Panama · Residency as a retiree
Panama has two retirement routes and they are not variants of each other. The pensionado takes a lifetime pension of at least B/.1,000 a month from a foreign government, an international body or a private company, and it is the one route that escapes the two-year provisional stage: the permit is granted indefinitely and needs no renewal. The rentista retirado is a different animal - it asks for B/.850 a month of interest from a fixed deposit held at the Banco Nacional de Panamá or the Caja de Ahorros for at least five years, and the regulation as amended in 2009 calls it a temporary residence permit. Both carry the statutory discounts of Ley 6 de 1987, and both carry a prohibition on working.
At a glance
- Pensionado minimum pension
- B/.1,000 a month, for lifeas of 2009-03-11
Set in the regulation as amended in 2009 and unchanged since. Panama is dollarised, so this is a dollar figure.
- Pensionado with Panamanian property
- B/.750 a month
Available where the applicant owns Panamanian property in their own name worth more than B/.100,000.
- Property needed for the lower pension
- B/.100,000
Held personally, not through a company, per the parágrafo to article 200 of the regulation.
- Per dependant
- B/.250 a month
The 2009 amendment turned this from a one-off payment into a monthly solvency test, which is a real change in what an applicant has to show.
- Pensionado permit term
- Indefinite, no renewal
The only permanent-resident subcategory we found that skips the two-year provisional stage article 21 of the decree-law imposes on the rest.
- Rentista retirado income
- B/.850 a month of interestas of 2009-03-11
The regulation originally said B/.2,000 and the special law of 1987 says B/.750. The 2009 amendment put the figure at B/.850 and made the permit a temporary one.
- Rentista retirado deposit term
- 5 years minimum
- Rentista retirado permit term
- 5 years, renewable once for the same
- Where the deposit must sit
- Banco Nacional de Panamá or Caja de Ahorros
Two state banks only - unlike the B/.300,000 solvency route, which accepts any general-licence bank.
- Work
- Prohibited, with three exceptions
- Household goods allowance
- B/.10,000, once
Under Ley 9 de 1987 article 2.1, which writes the figure as B/.10.000.00 in the Spanish convention. Dollar amount.
- Imported vehicle
- One every 2 years
Requirements
- Pensionado: a certified lifetime pension of at least B/.1,000 a month from a foreign government, international organisation or private company
- Pensionado: B/.250 a month of additional solvency per dependant, provable by further pension or a local bank reference
- Pensionado: where the pension comes from a private company, letters from the foreign pension administrator and proof of the fund's existence and standing
- Rentista retirado: B/.850 a month of interest, from a fixed deposit at the Banco Nacional de Panamá or the Caja de Ahorros, unencumbered, for at least five years
- The common requirements of article 28 of the decree-law, although the pensionado is exempt from the repatriation deposit by special law
- Application through a Panamanian lawyer
In detail
Why the pensionado is the one route that does not serve two provisional years
Article 21 of the decree-law is categorical: applicants for the permanent-resident categories get a two-year provisional permit and only then may ask for permanence. Every requirement sheet the Servicio Nacional de Migración publishes for the economic routes repeats it. The pensionado sheet does not, and it is right not to: article 203 of the regulation, as substituted in 2009, grants the permit 'de manera indefinida sin necesidad de prórroga'. The authority for that is the special law - Ley 9 de 1987 - which says the pensioner's visa authorises indefinite residence, and which the decree-law in turn preserves by assimilating Ley 9 holders into the permanent-resident category while keeping their fiscal benefits.
Three numbers for one rentista, and the agency applies the middle one
The retired annuitant is the clearest case in Panama of an instrument and its amendments disagreeing. Ley 9 de 1987 article 7 sets the minimum monthly annuity at B/.750, from a fixed deposit at the Banco Nacional de Panamá, for a first term of five years. The 2008 regulation raised it to B/.2,000 and added the Caja de Ahorros as a second permitted bank. Decreto Ejecutivo 26 de 2009 substituted the article again and set B/.850 - lower than the regulation it replaced, higher than the statute it implements - and recast the permit as a temporary residence. The Servicio Nacional de Migración's current requirement sheet quotes the 2009 text, so B/.850 is what is actually asked for. The category of the permit, though, is still disputed inside the agency's own materials: it is listed on the website under Permanent Resident and the sheet below the link calls the holder a temporary resident.
The discounts are statutory, and they attach to status rather than age
Ley 6 de 1987 is what people are describing when they call Panama the best place in the world to retire, and it is worth reading rather than summarising. It gives Panamanians and foreigners resident in the country who are 55 and over if women, 60 and over if men, and all retirees and pensioners regardless of age: 50% off admission to cinemas, theatres, sport and public entertainment; 50% off hotels Monday to Thursday and 30% at weekends; 25% off an individual restaurant meal; 15% at fast-food franchises; 15% off a private hospital or clinic bill where the person has no hospitalisation insurance; 10% off prescription medicines; 20% off general and specialist medical consultations, 15% off dentistry and optometry; 20% off professional and technical fees; 25% off domestic air fares and 30% off intercity buses, trains and boats; 50% off closing costs on personal and commercial loans; 50% off the price of a passport; 25% off electricity where the bill is in their name and under B/.50. Because the entitlement attaches to being a pensioner as well as to age, a pensionado-visa holder in their forties has it from the day the permit is granted.
Retired means retired
Ley 9 de 1987 prohibits the pensioner and the retired annuitant from working in Panama, and carves out only three things: supplying specialised services the state cannot get from Panamanians, investing substantially in a private company with the labour ministry's authorisation, and sitting on the board of a company you have invested in. The same law allows them to invest money freely. It also excludes anyone holding an immigrant visa from its benefits unless they renounce it, with an exception for people pensioned from service in the Canal Area.
Country-level policy
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.
Panamanian statutes and decrees write money in balboas, with the symbol B/. - a tourist must show B/.500, a pensioner needs B/.1,000 a month, the own-means route costs B/.300,000. None of those is a sum you would ever need to convert. Panama has no circulating banknote of its own: its Constitution forbids forced-tender paper money, and what circulates is the United States dollar, with the balboa surviving as coinage and as the unit in which the law is written. The migration regulation makes the equivalence operational without ever stating it: where an applicant's document is in a foreign currency, the regulation requires a conversion into dollars, while every threshold it sets is expressed in balboas.
Whatever route you take, the same frame applies. The application goes in through a Panamanian lawyer - the decree-law makes that compulsory, with two exceptions - and it carries the same five common requirements and the same two payments: B/.250 to the Treasury and a B/.800 repatriation deposit. Almost every permanent-resident route then gives you two provisional years before permanence can be asked for. The migration service has sixty working days to decide and fifteen to let you fix an incomplete file. Once you have permanent residence, two years out of the country can take it away.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Mexico
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Podrán solicitar este permiso el extranjero que reciban jubilación o pensión por parte de gobierno extranjero, organismo internacional o empresa privada, que ingresen al territorio nacional para radicarse en él y cuenta con suficientes medios económicos para sufragar todos sus gastos de subsistencia y los de sus dependientes en el país. La renta o pensión mensual no podrá ser inferior a mil balboas (B/.1,000.00)»Our translation - not official
This permit may be applied for by the foreigner who receives a retirement pension or pension from a foreign government, international organisation or private company, who enters the national territory to settle in it and has sufficient economic means to meet all the costs of subsistence for himself and his dependants in the country. The monthly income or pension may not be less than one thousand balboas (B/.1,000.00)
Article 200 itself was not amended in 2009; article 201, which carries the documentary requirements, was.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The legislature's normative archive. Each PDF carries a header naming the instrument's type, number, year, date, gazette number and publication date, which makes it the most reliable way to date a Panamanian instrument precisely.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It archives the act as filed and does not record later amendments on the face of the document, so it must not be cited for what an instrument says now: its copy of the 2008 migration regulation still shows B/.2,000 for the retired rentista, a figure superseded in 2009. Its older scans are also recognitions of pictures rather than text - its copy of Ley 52 de 2012 renders the words for one hundred and eighty-three as ciento coberta y tres - so anything pre-2010 should be treated as a scan until shown otherwise.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Parágrafo: En el caso de que el solicitante pruebe que ha adquirido una propiedad a título personal en el territorio nacional por una suma superior a los cien mil balboas (B/.100,000.00), la pensión podrá ser por un mínimo de setecientos cincuenta balboas (B/.750.00).»Our translation - not official
Paragraph: Where the applicant proves that he has acquired property in his own name in the national territory for a sum greater than one hundred thousand balboas (B/.100,000.00), the pension may be a minimum of seven hundred and fifty balboas (B/.750.00).
About this source
The legislature's normative archive. Each PDF carries a header naming the instrument's type, number, year, date, gazette number and publication date, which makes it the most reliable way to date a Panamanian instrument precisely.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It archives the act as filed and does not record later amendments on the face of the document, so it must not be cited for what an instrument says now: its copy of the 2008 migration regulation still shows B/.2,000 for the retired rentista, a figure superseded in 2009. Its older scans are also recognitions of pictures rather than text - its copy of Ley 52 de 2012 renders the words for one hundred and eighty-three as ciento coberta y tres - so anything pre-2010 should be treated as a scan until shown otherwise.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Solvencia económica adicional de doscientos cincuenta balboas (B/.250.00) mensuales por cada dependiente, la cual puede justificarse con pensión adicional o con referencia bancaria local»Our translation - not official
Additional economic solvency of two hundred and fifty balboas (B/.250.00) a month for each dependant, which may be evidenced by a further pension or by a local bank reference
The 2008 text of the same numeral required a payment of B/.250 per dependant to the Servicio Nacional de Migración. The 2009 substitution turned a one-off fee into a recurring income requirement.
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
«El permiso de residente permanente en calidad de pensionado y jubilado se otorgará, de acuerdo con las leyes especiales que rigen la materia, de manera indefinida sin necesidad de prórroga.»Our translation - not official
The permanent resident permit as a pensioner or retiree shall be granted, in accordance with the special laws governing the matter, indefinitely and without need of renewal.
This is the exemption from article 21 of the decree-law, which otherwise gives every permanent-resident applicant two provisional years first. It is granted by the regulation as amended, by reference to Ley 9 de 1987.
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
«Podrá solicitar este permiso de residente temporal en calidad de rentista retirado, el extranjero que acredite devengar una renta mensual de ochocientos cincuenta balboas (B/.850.00), que provenga exclusivamente de intereses producto de depósito a plazo fijo en el Banco Nacional de Panamá o la Caja de Ahorros»Our translation - not official
This temporary resident permit as a retired annuitant may be applied for by the foreigner who shows a monthly income of eight hundred and fifty balboas (B/.850.00), arising exclusively from interest on a fixed-term deposit at the Banco Nacional de Panamá or the Caja de Ahorros
Three different figures exist for this route in three instruments. Ley 9 de 1987 article 7 says B/.750, the regulation as made in 2008 said B/.2,000, and this 2009 substitution says B/.850. The 2009 text is the one in force and the one the agency applies.
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
«El permiso de residente permanente de rentista retirado se otorgará, de acuerdo con las leyes especiales que rigen esta materia, por un periodo de cinco (5) años, el cual se puede prorrogar por igual término»Our translation - not official
The permanent resident permit of a retired annuitant shall be granted, in accordance with the special laws governing this matter, for a period of five (5) years, which may be extended for the same term.
Article 196 as amended calls the holder a temporary resident and article 199 as amended calls the permit a permanent resident permit, in the same decree. The agency's own site reproduces the contradiction: the route is listed under Permanent Resident and the requirement sheet opens by quoting article 196's 'residente temporal'.
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
«Franquicia arancelaria total para la importación de artículos de uso doméstico o personal por una sola vez hasta por la suma de diez mil balboas (B/. 10.000.00).»Our translation - not official
Total tariff exemption for the importation of household or personal articles, once only, up to the sum of ten thousand balboas (B/.10,000.00).
About this source
A commercial legal aggregator reproducing the legislature's records, including the gazette facsimile text, for instruments that are hard to reach on government hosts.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited where a government source exists, and never as evidence that a text is current: it is a reproduction with no amendment tracking of its own. It is used here for one 1987 law that could not be found on any government host, and both records resting on it say in the data that their source is an aggregator.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Franquicia arancelaria total cada dos (2) años para la importación de un vehículo automotor para uso personal o familiar.»Our translation - not official
Total tariff exemption every two (2) years for the importation of a motor vehicle for personal or family use.
What the agency that issues the exemption certificate actually charges is narrower than this; see the customs record.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
A commercial legal aggregator reproducing the legislature's records, including the gazette facsimile text, for instruments that are hard to reach on government hosts.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited where a government source exists, and never as evidence that a text is current: it is a reproduction with no amendment tracking of its own. It is used here for one 1987 law that could not be found on any government host, and both records resting on it say in the data that their source is an aggregator.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«estándoles prohibido trabajar en el territorio nacional,
excepto en los siguientes casos:»Our translation - not official
they being prohibited from working in the national territory, except in the following cases:
The three exceptions are specialised services not offered by Panamanians to the state or its decentralised bodies, significant investment in a private company with Ministry of Labour authorisation, and sitting on the board of a company they have invested in.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
A commercial legal aggregator reproducing the legislature's records, including the gazette facsimile text, for instruments that are hard to reach on government hosts.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited where a government source exists, and never as evidence that a text is current: it is a reproduction with no amendment tracking of its own. It is used here for one 1987 law that could not be found on any government host, and both records resting on it say in the data that their source is an aggregator.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Los panameños o extranjeros residentes en el territorio nacional que tengan cincuenta y cinco (55) años o más, si son mujeres; o sesenta (60) años o más si son varones; y todos los jubilados y pensionados gozarán de los siguientes beneficios:»Our translation - not official
Panamanians or foreigners resident in the national territory who are fifty-five (55) or over, if women, or sixty (60) or over if men, and all retirees and pensioners, shall enjoy the following benefits:
The benefits attach to retired or pensioned status as well as to age, so a pensionado-visa holder qualifies regardless of age.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
A ministry document library that republishes law it did not make. Its copy of the 1987 retirement-discount law is a consolidated text with footnotes naming the amending acts, which is the most usable version of that law available anywhere.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is a document library, not a legal-information service. It does not undertake to keep a consolidation current and its consolidation carries no date, so it must not be cited for whether a text is current or complete outside the ministry's own remit. Where a discount figure matters, the amending act itself should be read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Un descuento mínimo en los precios regulares de hoteles, moteles y pensiones así:
a. 50% de lunes a jueves.
b. 30% los días viernes, sábados y domingos.»Our translation - not official
A minimum discount on the regular prices of hotels, motels and guest houses as follows: a. 50% Monday to Thursday. b. 30% on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
About this source
A ministry document library that republishes law it did not make. Its copy of the 1987 retirement-discount law is a consolidated text with footnotes naming the amending acts, which is the most usable version of that law available anywhere.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is a document library, not a legal-information service. It does not undertake to keep a consolidation current and its consolidation carries no date, so it must not be cited for whether a text is current or complete outside the ministry's own remit. Where a discount figure matters, the amending act itself should be read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Descuento de 25% del valor del consumo individual de comida en cualquier restaurante»Our translation - not official
A discount of 25% on the value of individual food consumption in any restaurant
About this source
A ministry document library that republishes law it did not make. Its copy of the 1987 retirement-discount law is a consolidated text with footnotes naming the amending acts, which is the most usable version of that law available anywhere.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is a document library, not a legal-information service. It does not undertake to keep a consolidation current and its consolidation carries no date, so it must not be cited for whether a text is current or complete outside the ministry's own remit. Where a discount figure matters, the amending act itself should be read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Descuento de 15% de la cuenta total por servicio de hospitales y clínicas privadas cuando el titular del derecho no sea beneficiario de seguro de hospitalización.»Our translation - not official
A discount of 15% on the total bill for private hospital and clinic services where the holder of the right is not covered by hospitalisation insurance.
About this source
A ministry document library that republishes law it did not make. Its copy of the 1987 retirement-discount law is a consolidated text with footnotes naming the amending acts, which is the most usable version of that law available anywhere.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is a document library, not a legal-information service. It does not undertake to keep a consolidation current and its consolidation carries no date, so it must not be cited for whether a text is current or complete outside the ministry's own remit. Where a discount figure matters, the amending act itself should be read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Un descuento en las farmacias de 10% del valor de los medicamentos que adquieran bajo prescripción médica»Our translation - not official
A pharmacy discount of 10% on the value of medicines acquired on prescription
About this source
A ministry document library that republishes law it did not make. Its copy of the 1987 retirement-discount law is a consolidated text with footnotes naming the amending acts, which is the most usable version of that law available anywhere.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is a document library, not a legal-information service. It does not undertake to keep a consolidation current and its consolidation carries no date, so it must not be cited for whether a text is current or complete outside the ministry's own remit. Where a discount figure matters, the amending act itself should be read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«20% en los honorarios por consultas de medicina general y en especialidades médicas y quirúrgicas»Our translation - not official
20% on fees for general medical consultations and for medical and surgical specialties
About this source
A ministry document library that republishes law it did not make. Its copy of the 1987 retirement-discount law is a consolidated text with footnotes naming the amending acts, which is the most usable version of that law available anywhere.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is a document library, not a legal-information service. It does not undertake to keep a consolidation current and its consolidation carries no date, so it must not be cited for whether a text is current or complete outside the ministry's own remit. Where a discount figure matters, the amending act itself should be read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The age thresholds in article 1 of Ley 6 de 1987 are followed in the copy we read by a paragraph raising them to 57 for women and 62 for men from 12 January 1995. In the text as extracted that paragraph sits at the end of numeral 19, about electricity discounts, and we cannot tell from the copy whether it governs the article or only that numeral. Anyone relying on the age route rather than on pensioner status should read the point in the gazette.
Ley 6 de 1987 has been amended repeatedly - the copy we read carries footnotes to Ley 15 de 1992 and Ley 10 de 1993 - and we read the consolidated copy published by the Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias rather than each amending act. The discounts above are quoted from that consolidated text.
Nothing in Ley 6 de 1987 makes the discounts conditional on a particular visa, and nothing we read creates the plastic 'pensionado card' that guidance often describes. In practice the entitlement is shown with the migration card.
The private-pension route needs letters from a foreign pension, trust, mutual fund, insurance or banking administrator confirming the fund exists, plus proof of the administrator's standing - which is what makes a self-directed retirement account harder to use here than a defined-benefit pension.
A dependent child's permit under the pensionado is temporary and ends at 25 even if studies continue, and expressly confers no right to permanence or to pensioner status. The one exception is a dependent child with a proven profound disability.
- administersRequisitos para jubilado pensionado (PRP-JP)
Servicio Nacional de Migración (Ministerio de Seguridad Pública)
About this source
Panama's migration service, under the Ministry of Public Security. It decides applications and publishes one requirement sheet per permit, which is the document an applicant and their lawyer actually work from.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law says. Its sheets' legal-basis lines are wrong in both directions - they attribute amendments to articles that the decree they name never touched, and date that decree by its gazette rather than its signature - and on the retired rentista the same agency files the permit under permanent residence while the sheet behind the link quotes an article calling it temporary. It is authoritative for what the agency will ask for, and that is where its value lies. It also no longer publishes the list of visa-required nationalities. Its URLs rot: links followed from search results were already dead.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- administersRequisitos para rentista retirado (PPT-RR)
Servicio Nacional de Migración (Ministerio de Seguridad Pública)
About this source
Panama's migration service, under the Ministry of Public Security. It decides applications and publishes one requirement sheet per permit, which is the document an applicant and their lawyer actually work from.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law says. Its sheets' legal-basis lines are wrong in both directions - they attribute amendments to articles that the decree they name never touched, and date that decree by its gazette rather than its signature - and on the retired rentista the same agency files the permit under permanent residence while the sheet behind the link quotes an article calling it temporary. It is authoritative for what the agency will ask for, and that is where its value lies. It also no longer publishes the list of visa-required nationalities. Its URLs rot: links followed from search results were already dead.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- issuesDecreto Ejecutivo No. 26 de 2 de marzo de 2009, Gaceta Oficial Digital 26238
Gaceta Oficial Digital de la República de Panamá
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
- consolidatesDecreto Ejecutivo No. 320 de 8 de agosto de 2008
Asamblea Nacional de Panamá - Legispan
About this source
The legislature's normative archive. Each PDF carries a header naming the instrument's type, number, year, date, gazette number and publication date, which makes it the most reliable way to date a Panamanian instrument precisely.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It archives the act as filed and does not record later amendments on the face of the document, so it must not be cited for what an instrument says now: its copy of the 2008 migration regulation still shows B/.2,000 for the retired rentista, a figure superseded in 2009. Its older scans are also recognitions of pictures rather than text - its copy of Ley 52 de 2012 renders the words for one hundred and eighty-three as ciento coberta y tres - so anything pre-2010 should be treated as a scan until shown otherwise.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- reportsLey 9 de 24 de junio de 1987, que otorga exenciones a jubilados, pensionados, personas retiradas de la vida activa y a rentistas retirados
Justia Panamá
About this source
A commercial legal aggregator reproducing the legislature's records, including the gazette facsimile text, for instruments that are hard to reach on government hosts.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited where a government source exists, and never as evidence that a text is current: it is a reproduction with no amendment tracking of its own. It is used here for one 1987 law that could not be found on any government host, and both records resting on it say in the data that their source is an aggregator.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- reportsLey 6 de 16 de junio de 1987, beneficios a jubilados, pensionados y de la tercera y cuarta edad
Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias (biblioteca de normas)
About this source
A ministry document library that republishes law it did not make. Its copy of the 1987 retirement-discount law is a consolidated text with footnotes naming the amending acts, which is the most usable version of that law available anywhere.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is a document library, not a legal-information service. It does not undertake to keep a consolidation current and its consolidation carries no date, so it must not be cited for whether a text is current or complete outside the ministry's own remit. Where a discount figure matters, the amending act itself should be read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source