The residence routes we hold for Panama, each requirement as its rule states it, and what a month costs in its cities. This page assesses no one.
This page describes the destination for nobody in particular. Answer a few questions and each requirement is set against your own answers, with a monthly budget for your household. Your answers stay in the address bar of your browser; nothing is stored.
Pensionado route with generous discounts; territorial taxation (foreign income untaxed).
Regional banking, logistics and canal economy.
Boquete offers a cool highland climate and an established expatriate community.
Good air connectivity (Tocumen hub).
Cons
Hot, humid, with a long rainy season.
Panama City is expensive for the region; traffic is heavy.
Inequality and weak public services outside the capital.
Bureaucracy and legal processes are slow; corruption concerns.
Spanish needed; limited sectors for a small foreign buyer.
Emigrator’s assessment, 6 October 2026. Where a point names a figure, the sourced data above governs.
Routes we hold for Panama
What each rule states, as we encoded it from the source. A money threshold that grows with the size of the household is shown for the reference household named under the costs.
Permanent residence — retiree or pensioner
Draft — not checked by us yet
We built these rules from the country’s own sources and have not finished checking them line by line.
Never checked · limit 45 days
We have encoded no rule for this route yet.
What the authority states and we cannot test
Quoted in the authority’s own words rather than summarised. No rule of ours tests these.
Certificación de su condición de jubilado o pensionado por gobierno extranjeros, organismos internacionales o empresas privadas, en la que se acredite que recibe una pensión vitalicia no inferior a mil balboas (B/.1,000.00) mensuales o su equivalente en moneda extranjera.
Our translation: Certification of their status as a retiree or pensioner from a foreign government, an international organisation or a private company, establishing that they receive a life pension of not less than one thousand balboas (B/.1,000.00) a month or its equivalent in foreign currency. — Emigrator, machine-assisted and reviewed against the source
Stated by Servicio Nacional de Migración, Ministerio de Seguridad Pública — Requisitos para jubilado pensionado (PRP-JP), requisito 7
Solvencia económica adicional de doscientos cincuenta balboas (B/.250.00) mensuales por cada dependiente, la cual puede justificarse con pensión adicional o referencia bancaria local.
Our translation: Additional means of B/.250.00 a month for each dependant, which may be evidenced by a further pension or by a local bank reference. — Emigrator, machine-assisted and reviewed against the source
Stated by Servicio Nacional de Migración, Ministerio de Seguridad Pública — Requisitos para jubilado pensionado (PRP-JP), requisito 8
A month here, for a reference household
Reference household: two adults aged 38 and 37, a one-bedroom home, no children.
Residence fees and health cover are those of Permanent residence — retiree or pensioner. The low, middle and high figures are the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles where a publisher states them; each line says who published it.
illustrative Money figures on this page are illustrative unless the figure names its publisher. The illustrative ones are arranged so the shape is right — a larger flat costs more than a smaller one, and the expensive cities are the expensive ones — and they are accurate in nothing. Do not plan on them.
City
P25
P50
P75
BoqueteThis total does not include Building or service charge, Statutory levies and licences, Residence permit renewals and Domestic help, which nobody publishes for this city. It is the sum of what we hold, not of what the household will pay.
€1,224
€1,657
€2,091
Panama CityThis total does not include Building or service charge, Statutory levies and licences, Residence permit renewals and Domestic help, which nobody publishes for this city. It is the sum of what we hold, not of what the household will pay.
Each cell: average daily high, monthly mean, average daily low, in °C. These are averages of daily values over 2001–2020, not records — the hottest day is higher and is not shown.
Each cell: average daily high, monthly mean, average daily low, in °C. These are averages of daily values over 2001–2020, not records — the hottest day is higher and is not shown.
How this country is governed
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2024, on a 0–100 scale the Bank publishes itself. They describe the country, not any city in it.
Political stability and absence of violence
70the World Bank governance score for political stability
Rule of law
52the World Bank governance score for rule of law
Control of corruption
37the World Bank governance score for control of corruption
Rule set 1.58.0-2026-10-11 · read on 26 October 2026. Every figure on this page was computed by the engine from versioned rule files. No language model produced any number here, and translation happens only after the calculation.
