Entering Panama as a Tourist
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Belgium 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 Belgium to Panama · Visiting as a tourist
Ninety days is the whole of it. Panama's migration decree-law fixes the tourist period at no more than ninety days and the regulation repeats the figure for both the stamped visa and the tourist card issued to nationals who need no visa, so the number a reader plans around is the number in the instrument rather than an officer's allowance. There is no cumulative annual ceiling of the Peruvian or Colombian kind. The one extension the law offers is not an extension of the holiday: it buys up to sixty extra days, and only to finish assembling a residency application, against a fee and a deposit you forfeit if the application is not filed in time.
At a glance
- Maximum tourist stay
- 90 days
- Cumulative annual ceiling
- None in the instrument
Neither the decree-law nor the regulation counts tourist days across trips, which is the opposite of Peru's 183-in-365 and Colombia's 180-in-365.
- Extension as a tourist
- Only up to the 90-day ceiling
Where a shorter period was granted. The ninety days cannot be extended into a longer stay.
- Extension to change category
- Up to 60 extra days
Granted only to complete a residency application, and applied for through a lawyer ten working days before the tourist period ends.
- Cost of that extension
- B/.250 plus a B/.500 depositas of 2008-08-08
The B/.250 is the migration-category fee the decree-law already charges, paid early; the deposit comes back only if the residency application is filed complete and on time. The balboa is fixed one to one with the US dollar, so these are dollar amounts.
- If the residency application is not filed in time
- Deposit forfeited, 5 days to leaveas of 2009-03-11
- Minimum funds
- B/.500
Set by the regulation in 2008 and repeated unchanged on the agency's current requirement sheet. Dollar amount - Panama is dollarised.
- Passport validity
- 3 months
Minimum remaining validity at the point of application, on the agency's own requirement sheet and in the 2008 regulation.
- Tourist visa service fee
- B/.50
Payable to the Servicio Nacional de Migración on presentation. Dollar amount.
- Work
- Not permitted
Requirements
- A passport or travel document valid for at least three months
- A confirmed onward or return booking, shown as an itinerary or an electronic ticket
- Proof of funds of at least B/.500, by certified cheque, bank certification, credit-card statement, pay slip, pension slip or tax return
- Entry for recreation and similar purposes only, with no intention of settling or of giving up the residence you came from
- A visa obtained in advance where your nationality is not covered by a visa-waiver agreement; the Servicio Nacional de Migración charges B/.50 for the service
- Departure within the authorised period, or a change of migration category applied for before it runs out
In detail
Ninety days, and nothing cumulative
Panama counts a tourist stay the simple way: each admission is for up to ninety days and the law keeps no running total across the year. That is the opposite of its southern neighbours. Peru allows 183 days but adds them up inside a rolling 365-day window counted from your first entry; Colombia does the same arithmetic at 180. Panama's ninety is shorter on any single trip and, on the face of the instruments, unlimited in the number of trips. Nothing we read sets a minimum interval between admissions, which does not mean an officer must readmit you - article 50 lets the Servicio Nacional de Migración refuse entry on its own list of grounds.
The sixty-day extension is a bridge to residency, not a longer holiday
Two different extensions sit close together in the regulation and they are routinely confused. Article 21 lets someone who was given less than ninety days top up to ninety - it cannot take anyone past the ceiling. Article 23 is the one people mean: up to sixty extra days, granted at the director's discretion, specifically because you intend to apply for temporary or permanent residence and are short of a document. It is applied for through a Panamanian lawyer, ten working days before the tourist period expires, and it costs the B/.250 category fee paid in advance plus a B/.500 guarantee deposit. File the residency application complete and in time and the deposit comes back; miss it and the deposit goes to the Migration Trust Fund and you have five calendar days to leave the country.
The list of who needs a visa is no longer published
Every country in this comparison publishes a table of which nationalities need a visa. Panama used to: a PDF called 'Países clasificación de visas' sat on the Servicio Nacional de Migración's own site. It is gone, and the link the agency now offers for tourist requirements goes to a login page. What remains public is the rule rather than the list: article 18 of the regulation says nationals of countries with no visa-waiver agreement must obtain a tourist visa 'según lo señale el listado que apruebe la autoridad competente', and article 19 says the rest get a tourist card. We do not reproduce a list we have not read.
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 Belgium
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
«Turistas. Los que llegan al país exclusivamente para recreo y otras actividades establecidas en la reglamentación del presente Decreto Ley, por un término no mayor de noventa días, sin perjuicio de lo que establezcan los acuerdos internacionales ratificados por la República de Panamá y los principios de reciprocidad.»Our translation - not official
Tourists. Those who arrive in the country exclusively for recreation and other activities laid down in the regulation of this Decree Law, for a term of no more than ninety days, without prejudice to what the international agreements ratified by the Republic of Panama and the principles of reciprocity may establish.
The closing clause hands the real number to any applicable agreement, exactly as Peru's does - but unlike Peru, no agreement we could read lengthens it, and the regulation repeats ninety days rather than qualifying it.
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
«No residente es el extranjero que ingresa ocasionalmente en el territorio nacional, que no tiene ánimo de establecer su residencia en éste ni de abandonar su residencia de origen mientras se encuentre en Panamá»Our translation - not official
A non-resident is the foreigner who enters the national territory occasionally, who has no intention of establishing residence in it nor of giving up the residence he came from while he is in Panama
The test is intention, not activity, and it is what the remote-worker visa had to be created to get around.
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
«Los extranjeros que ingresen al país bajo la categoría de turista, podrán solicitar el cambio de categoría migratoria, para lo cual podrá concedérsele una extensión de hasta sesenta días adicionales para completar la documentación para el cambio de estatus»Our translation - not official
Foreigners who enter the country under the tourist category may apply for a change of migration category, for which an extension of up to sixty additional days may be granted to complete the documentation for the change of status
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
«Las autoridades migratorias del Servicio Nacional de Migración expedirán visas de turismo válidas por un término no mayor de noventa (90) días»Our translation - not official
The migration authorities of the National Migration Service shall issue tourist visas valid for a term of no more than ninety (90) days
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
«Aquellos nacionales de países que se les exima de este requisito se les expedirá una tarjeta de turismo, la cual será válida para permanecer en el país por un término no mayor de noventa (90) días»Our translation - not official
Nationals of countries exempted from this requirement shall be issued a tourist card, valid to remain in the country for a term of no more than ninety (90) days
This is the provision that governs most Western passports: no visa, a tourist card, and the same ninety-day ceiling.
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
«podrá solicitar personalmente o mediante apoderado legal su extensión hasta completar un tiempo máximo de estadía de noventa (90) días»Our translation - not official
may apply, in person or through a legal representative, for an extension up to a maximum stay of ninety (90) days
An extension exists only for someone granted less than ninety days. It cannot carry a stay past the ceiling.
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
«De aprobarse la extensión se deberá adelantar el pago de doscientos cincuenta balboas (B/.250.00) por servicios migratorios establecido en el numeral 4 del artículo 28 del Decreto Ley, y consignar un depósito de garantía por la suma de quinientos balboas (B/.500.00) a favor del Servicio Nacional de Migración.»Our translation - not official
If the extension is approved, the two hundred and fifty balboas (B/.250.00) for migration services established in numeral 4 of article 28 of the Decree Law must be paid in advance, and a guarantee deposit of five hundred balboas (B/.500.00) lodged in favour of the National Migration Service.
Cited to the article of the regulation that results, not to the amending decree's own numbering: Decreto Ejecutivo 26 de 2009 article 6 is the instruction, article 24 of Decreto Ejecutivo 320 de 2008 is the rule.
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
«Si el interesado presenta la solicitud de permiso con toda la documentación pertinente en tiempo oportuno, se le devolverá el depósito de garantía, en caso contrario ingresará al Fondo Fiduciario de Migración, y el extranjero deberá abandonar el territorio nacional en un término de cinco (5) días calendario.»Our translation - not official
If the applicant files the permit application with all the relevant documentation in good time, the guarantee deposit is returned; otherwise it passes to the Migration Trust Fund and the foreigner must leave the national territory within five (5) calendar days.
The 2009 text is narrower than the 2008 one it replaced, which forfeited both sums and required immediate departure. Only the deposit is at risk now, and five days are allowed.
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
«Pagar por los servicios migratorios la suma de cincuenta balboas (B/.50.00), al momento de la presentación ante el Servicio Nacional de Migración»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
Practical notes
There is no health-insurance requirement and no vaccination requirement for tourists anywhere in the decree-law or the regulation; the entry conditions in article 43 of the decree-law ask for solvency, an onward ticket where the category requires it, and compliance with Ministry of Health rules. That is an absence in those two instruments and in the agency's current tourist requirement sheet, not an exhaustive survey of Panamanian entry practice.
Guidance circulating in English frequently says that some nationalities receive 180 days on arrival. Nothing we could read supports it: the decree-law and the regulation both say ninety. A Servicio Nacional de Migración resolution of September 2021 is widely reported to have restored a three-month limit after a longer period had been granted in practice, but the resolution was not retrievable from the agency's site when we looked and we do not state its contents.
The agency's own requirement sheet for the tourist visa has quietly narrowed one proof: the 2008 regulation accepts a bank or credit-card statement covering the last three months, while the sheet published today asks for the last month only. The sheet attributes article 17 to an amendment made by Decreto Ejecutivo 26 de 2009, which did substitute that article.
The same sheet attributes the extension rule to 'Artículo 21, modificado mediante Decreto Ejecutivo No. 26 de 02 de marzo de 2009'. Article 21 is not among the articles that decree amends - its closing article lists them - so the extension rule stands as written in 2008.
- issuesDecreto Ley No. 3 de 22 de febrero de 2008, Gaceta Oficial Digital 25986
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, que reglamenta el Decreto Ley 3 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
- administersRequisitos para solicitar visa de turista
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 solicitar extensión de visa de turista
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
- administersPermisos migratorios - catálogo de requisitos
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