Panama Digital Nomad Visa: Requirements, Income & How to Apply (2026)

The decree covers two profiles: employees of a foreign company whose work takes effect abroad, and self-employed people working remotely for foreign clients. Either way the income must be foreign-source — you can't use this visa to work for Panamanian companies or the local market. Panamanian nationals cannot apply.

One procedural rule shapes the whole process: you cannot file it yourself. The application must go through a Panamanian lawyer acting under a notarised power of attorney, submitted at the National Migration Service's special processing window. Budget for legal fees on top of the government charges.

The threshold is US$36,000 a year, which the decree frames as an annual figure rather than a monthly one, working out to about US$3,000 a month. Because Panama uses the balboa pegged one-to-one with the US dollar, the number is effectively fixed in dollars and doesn't move with any local wage index. Income in another currency counts at the prevailing exchange rate.

You prove it with bank statements alongside a work contract or a certified letter confirming the source is outside Panama. There's no savings-balance alternative written into this visa — it's an income test — so applicants with irregular earnings should be ready to show the annual figure convincingly across the documentation.

Everything runs through your lawyer. They file at the National Migration Service's special window with your power of attorney, income evidence, insurance, criminal-record certificate, and the fees — US$250 to the government plus US$50 for the card. Processing typically takes 30 to 45 business days. Once issued, the visa is good for nine months, and a single extension request stretches it to the 18-month ceiling.

The lawyer requirement is not a formality you can skip: unlike Colombia's fully online portal or Costa Rica's Trámite Ya platform, there is no self-service route here, so factor the professional cost and the power-of-attorney step into your timeline.

Panama taxes on a territorial basis, meaning only Panama-source income is taxable and money earned from foreign clients or employers is exempt — even for a tax resident. Because this is a short-stay visa capped at eighteen months, most holders never cross into settled tax-residence territory anyway. The upshot is that, on foreign income, Panama is one of the cleaner destinations in the region. As always, your home country's rules on worldwide income still apply to you separately.

Panama and Costa Rica land on almost the same income figure — around US$3,000 a month — and both keep foreign income untaxed, but they diverge on everything else. Costa Rica gives you a year renewable to two, a fully online application, and a natural family route; Panama gives you nine months extendable to eighteen, a mandatory lawyer, and no dependant add-on. Colombia and Brazil undercut both on price and paperwork. Choose Panama if the territorial-tax certainty and dollar economy matter more to you than duration, and if you're applying solo.

The two things to plan for are the lawyer and the short clock. Because you must file through a legal representative, start by choosing a firm and preparing the notarised power of attorney — that step, plus apostilling your criminal-record certificate abroad, is usually what sets the real timeline, not the 30-to-45-day government processing. Watch the insurance detail too: a travel policy will be rejected, so buy proper international health cover valid in Panama for the whole stay. And go in clear-eyed that this is a base for up to eighteen months, not a settling-down visa — if you fall in love with Panama, you'll be switching to a different, heavier program to stay longer.