Summary: Foreigners can work in Panama with two approvals: an immigration category from the Servicio Nacional de Migración and a labor permit from MITRADEL. Five main routes lead there, and one of them covers remote jobs only. Local firms may hire staff from abroad within 10% or 15% of their payroll, and most of the employment-based ones take 3 to 9 months once the paperwork is finished.
At Kraemer & Kraemer, we have a team of attorneys specialized in immigration and labor law who provide the legal and administrative support you need for living and working in Panama, and to get started efficiently and securely. What matters most to us is giving you as much clarity as possible about the process, backed by personalized service tailored to foreign professionals, employers, and multinational companies.
Can You Work in Panama as a Foreigner?
Yes, foreigners can work in Panama, but a tourist stay or residency alone does not allow it. Executive Decree No. 6 of April 13, 2023 governs labor permits for nationals of other countries: MITRADEL sorts them by profile, such as regular employee, specialist, trusted personnel, or staff covered by particular laws, while the National Immigration Service handles the visa side.
Two institutions take part: the Servicio Nacional de Migración grants the visa category, and the Ministerio de Trabajo y Desarrollo Laboral (MITRADEL) issues the job authorization. A person living and working in Panama for a local company needs both approvals, in a fixed order: immigration status first, then the permit tied to the position itself.
The rule is identical whatever the passport. US citizens and other expats can work in Panama once they hold a visa that allows employment plus the labor permit, and the route open to Americans still ends with that separate approval. Tourists and residents with retiree status cannot take a position at a Panamanian company under that category, and a handful of professions, including law, medicine, and engineering, stay reserved for Panamanian nationals.
What Are the Main Ways to Work in Panama?
Five main routes let people from abroad work in Panama: a job at a local firm, the Foreign Professional Visa, Friendly Nations, Panama Pacifico, and Digital Nomad for remote tasks alone. The Labor Code caps overseas hires at 10% of a company’s payroll for ordinary positions and 15% for specialist, technician, or confidential roles.
- Ordinary positions: capped at 10% of the company’s total payroll
- Specialist, technician, or confidential-staff positions: capped at 15% of the payroll
- General specialist permit: minimum salary of roughly $850 a month
- Executive position, at a company that has operated in Panama for at least a decade: minimum salary of $2.000 a month
An employer at the 10% or 15% ceiling cannot sponsor another hire from abroad until it adds Panamanian staff, unless the applicant qualifies through one of the routes below. The caps bind everyone who takes a job with a local company, whatever the passport.
When a Panamanian company decides to hire a foreign worker, the employer takes charge of the process from the first step: it issues the formal job offer, gathers its own corporate documentation, and coordinates both the labor permit with MITRADEL and the residency visa with the Servicio Nacional de Migración.
For expats working in Panama on a local contract, this is the route that applies.
The Foreign Professional Visa requires a university degree in a field that is not reserved exclusively for Panamanians, with the diploma duly validated (nostrified) before Panamanian authorities. After two years, this route grants permanent residency along with the corresponding labor approval.
It does not require a prior job offer, so it suits applicants interested in working in Panama on their own.
A related category, the Regular and Specialized Foreign Personnel Visa, works as a two-year provisional permit and requires a minimum salary of USD 850 a month.
Citizens of around 50 countries with commercial ties to Panama can apply for the Friendly Nations Visa to work in Panama. The package needs, among other items, a notarized job letter from a Panamanian company, that employer’s Public Registry certificate, and a labor permit petition submitted to MITRADEL at the same time.
Someone who qualified through real estate or a bank deposit, rather than employment, still needs a separate labor permit before working in Panama legally, even years after residency was approved.
For an executive or specialist who applies to work in Panama under a company in Panama Pacifico, the steps match any other route: the employer submits the offer, and the candidate follows the usual permit and residency sequence with MITRADEL and the Servicio Nacional de Migración.
Not every foreigner working in Panama through Panama Pacifico falls outside the 10% or 15% caps: the Type 3C-1 permit, for example, is granted within the 10% limit of the firm’s regular employees. The exemption is clear in two cases governed by special laws: executives of companies in the Colón Free Zone and researchers, faculty members, or technicians hired by an authorized entity in Ciudad del Saber, in Fort Clayton.
No, the Digital Nomad Visa does not cover a local job. It lets a person live in Panama for up to 9 months, with one renewal of the same length, while working remotely for an employer or client based outside the country, provided the applicant shows a minimum income from abroad of $36.000 a year.
Working in Panama for a Panamanian company falls entirely outside that scope, and anyone who shifts their plans toward local employment has to apply through a different route that allows for a labor permit.
MITRADEL groups labor permits into five further categories under Executive Decree No. 6 of 2023, each for a narrower situation. Working in Panama through one of them follows its own rules, and the list below summarizes each one:
- Special laws: foreign workers of companies in regimes that a dedicated law created, such as the Colón Free Zone, Ciudad del Saber, Panama Pacifico, and the EMMA scheme for multinational firms.
- Micro and small companies (MIPE): a business with up to nine workers, the applicant among them. That person must be the only foreigner on the staff.
- Protection: refugees, asylees, stateless persons, victims of trafficking, and people with temporary humanitarian standing, who can work in Panama under that category.
- Special conditions: students and people going through a migratory regularization process.
- Temporary permits: technicians, athletes, artists, and nightlife workers, granted for up to 3 months and extendable up to 3 times for the same term.
What Is the Difference Between a Work Visa and a Labor Permit in Panama?
A work visa is the immigration category that allows foreigners to live in Panama through employment, while a work permit is the authorization MITRADEL issues for a specific job. Working in Panama as a foreigner takes both, because legal status alone does not qualify anyone to hold a position.
A foreigner with a visa but no current labor permit is present in the country but not legally employed, and working in Panama anyway risks fines for both the worker and the hiring company.
How Do You Start Living and Working in Panama?
Living and working in Panama legally begins with choosing a route, and the five steps below apply to those tied to a job offer. The Digital Nomad Visa is the exception: it is a short-term category that does not go through MITRADEL. In all the others, the employer starts the process.
- Step 1: The employer issues a signed job offer stating the position, salary, and who covers repatriation costs if the job ends.
- Step 2: The applicant joins Panama’s national migrant-labor registry and obtains a Documento de Filiación before anything else can be filed.
- Step 3: A licensed attorney submits the visa application to the Servicio Nacional de Migración, along with a notarized passport copy, a criminal background check, and a health certificate.
- Step 4: The same attorney files the labor permit application with MITRADEL, typically in parallel.
- Step 5: Once approved, the applicant appears in person for fingerprinting and to collect the physical permit card.
Companies with 20 workers or fewer can submit a simple payroll copy at this stage; larger ones need Social Security records verified by an accountant.
How Much Does It Cost to Work in Panama Legally?
Government charges to work in Panama come in two parts: payments to the National Treasury and the National Immigration Service for the visa category, and the MITRADEL card for the labor permit, which has its own renewal fee and a price that depends on its type. Digital nomads skip MITRADEL entirely because their process does not involve that agency.
Apostilles, translations, notarizations, and legal fees are billed separately, and the lawyer’s rate scales with the agencies and filings the case touches.
