Panama: a special passport for investors, not citizenship

With Ley 493 of 28 October 2025, Panama amended its 2013 passport law.

Alongside passports for Panamanians and the diplomatic and official passports, the law now provides for special passports for two groups of foreigners: investors holding permanent residence in the Qualified Investor subcategory, and retirees of independent means with residence under special rules, in each case together with their dependants.

What matters most is what this passport is not. The law says so itself: the special passports are valid for as long as the residence permit, do not replace the ordinary passport and confer no nationality.

Panama issues the ordinary passport to Panamanians only. If you hold the special passport, you remain a foreigner, with a Panamanian travel document in your pocket.

The law took effect on promulgation, and Art. 5 calls for an implementing regulation within six months. That regulation has not been published. Among its procedures, the passport authority lists the ordinary passport, the passport for minors and naturalised citizens, the diplomatic and official passports and the passport for retirees of independent means, but no passport for investors.

The fee and the period of validity in years are therefore still open. You can apply for the special passport only once the regulation and the procedure are in place.

Decree 17 of 2026 is not that implementing regulation, by the way. It reshapes Qualified Investor residence, which is the prerequisite for the special passport.

The split between new and resale property is industrial policy: the lower figure for first sales is meant to drive new construction. Segregation, a declaration of improvements, a transfer into a trust or a corporate reorganisation do not turn an old property into a first sale.

The qualifying figure is the lower of the price actually paid and the documented market value, minus any mortgage or other lien (Art. 5). You may finance the part above the minimum, but no charge on the property may push the net figure below it.

The cadastral certificate of the land authority ANATI stays mandatory.

Where there is doubt about the price, the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) can demand an independent appraisal, issued within the previous six months by an appraiser recognised by Banco Nacional de Panamá or Caja de Ahorros, at your cost (Art. 6). An inflated contract price no longer carries an application.

Buying off-plan

A promise of sale on a property still under construction qualifies at 300,000 balboas (Art. 7).

The money goes into a trust with a licensed Panamanian bank or trust company, or you pay the developer in full and hold a bank guarantee or standby letter of credit from a bank licensed in Panama until the property is registered in your name.

If the developer fails to deliver, you have 180 business days to switch to another qualifying investment, and a second promise of sale is allowed only once. Residence may rest on promises of sale for no more than three years in total; after that the permit is cancelled.

Joint ownership

Where an investment is held jointly, each main applicant must reach the minimum alone (Art. 3). A couple buying one apartment together does not give two main applicants residence; a spouse and dependants included in the same application can share the one investment.

The decree sets deadlines for the state too. MICI issues the investment certificate within 15 business days of admitting the file, and the immigration service decides within 30 business days of receiving the complete file (Art. 15). The investment certificate itself is valid for three months (Art. 3), so the order in which you collect documents matters.

You can file through a lawyer before entering Panama; biometric registration is required before any residence card is issued (Art. 16). A spouse married, or a child born or adopted, after approval can be added later on the same terms (Art. 17).

• Files already lodged are decided under the rules in force when they were filed (Art. 19).
• Investments completed before the decree can still use the old rules if the application is filed within six months of its entry into force.
• Economic solvency residents have twelve months to switch into the Qualified Investor subcategory if they meet its minimums; investments made before 15 October 2020 do not count (Art. 18).

A genuine Panamanian passport comes only through naturalisation. Decree 17 confirms this route expressly: after five years of uninterrupted residence, Qualified Investors and their dependants can apply for the Carta de Naturaleza. The Constitution requires an express renunciation of your current nationality, a command of Spanish and a basic knowledge of Panama's geography, history and political system.

Panama applies reciprocity to some nationalities, whose citizens can be naturalised sooner; check whether your country is one of them. For most investors the special passport is a bridge across the five years to naturalisation, not a substitute for it.