What does the Friendly Countries Visa allow me to do in Panama?

In our experience, there are basically two types of applicants for this visa; foreigners that wish to be established in Panama in order to open their own business, operate from Panama, manage their operations, invest, establish branches for their office for foreigners that wish to reside in Panama to be hired by companies and not only require the residency process but must also request a work permit.

In the first case, as was mentioned previously, the foreigner does not require a work permit, since they will not be hired as an employee by a company. What does need to be proven to the migration authorities in this situation is the investment, which is proven by opening a personal bank account with a minimum balance of US$5,000.00 as well as having opened a corporation where the applicant is the director – chairman and total shareholder (for more information visit https://www.delvallepanama.com/es/Sociedades-Anonimas/solicitud.html ).

It is important to mention that this corporation will not initially meet the conditions necessary to hire foreign personnel, and it is important for the client to understand that they will not be under the work contract modality with this corporation (in order to be able to hire foreign personnel there must be at least 10 Panamanians on payroll), on the other hand, the client will be under the owner, shareholder or investment modality. There is of course the possibility that in the future the company may have the legally required payroll and the shareholder may enter as an employee for his own company.

In the second case, when the applicant is going to be hired by a company that has met the necessary conditions and will require a work permit, they will not be required to open a corporation, but will require a personal bank account with the minimum amount (US$5,000.00).

In this case, the approval of work visa will be dependent on the approval of the corresponding work permit with the Ministry of Labor. In order to achieve this, a work contract or a promise to work contract will be required.