I just read in the Panama Ex Pat discussion group that Panama has changed their Tourist Visa policy.

Essentially, it has been that when you arrive in Panama you pay immigrations $5 for a 30-day Tourist Visa...no big deal. At, or near the expiration of 30-days you can request, at any Panama Immigration office, an extension to 60 or 90-days. I've never done this, but I heard you must provide basic justification and sufficient proof that you are able to financially support your stay. After 90-days you must leave Panama for 72-hours...some people slip acrossed the border into Costa Rica, then return and buy another 30-day Tourist Visa.

Recently a member of the Ex Pats in Panama discussion group said that when he went to extend his tourist visa he was denied because as of April 7th the policy in Panama changed. (Incidently, the President of Panama recently had an office call with George Bush...Hmmm, wonder what they talked about?).

Normally I don't stay in Panama beyond two weeks, but when I retire I might like to extend my stay beyond 30-days.

Also within the discussion group there was talk that passports into Panama and back to the states would be required soon...maybe even pre-approved Visas that could take weeks or even months to get...let's hope not!

I'll keep following this story and report back as I learn more.

However, any hombres soon heading to or those in Panama now...we'd like to hear what the story is with the Tourist Visas.

Alec

I live in Panama and this issue has been very controversial. Seems as if the gov't put this out as a trial balloon to see the reaction. Tourist groups, development companies etc. lobbied against it. The latest news that I heard is that if you are here for 90 days you have to prove you have $1,500 in cash or equivalent; credit cards won't cut it. At this moment I don't think that this issue has been finalized.
Bear in mind that this is a new gov't still trying to find it's way around. As you no doubt know a president has only one term in office and the current president is the son of former dictator Omar Torrijos. He came to power on a "0" corruption platform as if that is possible in a 3rd world country.
The gov't has been tweaking the immigration program trying to entice retirees. For example if you can demonstrate a pension of $500 per month you can get permanent residency. It was working so well that they decided to adjust it. If you don't qualify under the pension program you can post a CD for $100k and come in under economic independence; recently this has been raised to $200k. The gov't now thinks that the world is beating a path to Panama so they can raise the bar but this is still 3rd world; ie. police cars with no turn signals or tail lights etc.
The new program has been a contradiction. On one hand you get retirees living on a shoestring retiring here with a $500 per mo. pension and on the other hand you get some quite wealthy people retiring here. The low life's on the $500 per mo. pension have an easier time to get in than the wealthier people. Here like all such countries there are mountains of paper to crawl over and many inefficiencies and lots of ineptness. Still Colombians who account for a large percentage of the crime here have few difficulties getting in.
In short they do a half assed job and get things only half right. Some areas are prepped up for US and Canadian retirees and other areas like giving good communications are completely forgotten or overlooked.
As for G. W.'s interest here, El presidente was in Washington a few weeks ago to meet with G.W. The canal is real important and the Chinese have bought the container terminals at both ends of the canal. China has taken a keen interest in Panama and as you can imagine Washington is less than delighted. In 10-20 yrs China will be the superpower in the world and the Pentagon has to be worried. In order to keep their finger in the pie, the US has sent in tons of reservists or Corps of Engineers or whatever that are running around building roads, schools etc. Politicans here love these freebes because they don't have to divert the funds from their pockets to do those things.
In short the 30 day tourist card will disappear and the 90 day tourist thing will return but will be modified in some fashion just to show the gov't is proactive.

Cayrick -

Ex Pats in Panama posted that the Tourist Visa issue has been resolved...too many people are impacted...language schools in Panama who have foreign customers coming in for more than 30-days were cancelling their courses...tourists with booked airline tickets beyond 30-days were being charged $100 or more to change their departure..etc., etc., so one arm of the Panamanian govt challenged the immigration arm and overturned the ruling.

However, I heard that effective Jan 1, 2006 we will be required to have a passport to get back into the US after visiting Panama. I always travel with a passport...but those of you who don't...you had better get your passports ordered soon.

Alec