Panamanian Citizenship

About the Panamanian Citizenship

Panamanian citizenship (Naturalization) is granted to permanent residents who have fulfilled the minimum residence requirement (3 to 5 years) from the moment the Panama Immigration Office issues the resolution to certify permanent residence.

This is the first requirement to start the naturalization process, according to Article 10 of the Panamanian Constitution.

It is important to clarify that immigrants holding a temporary or provisional residence status, or immigrants with the crisol de razas program, are not eligible to apply for citizenship.

Furthermore, Panamanian permanent residence does not guarantee a path to obtain Panamanian citizenship. If you intend to eventually become a citizen (e.g. hold dual citizenship) and obtain a Panamanian passport, you must verify that the visa granting your permanent residence gives you also the right to apply for citizenship.

An eligible permanent resident of Panama has three alternatives to become naturalized:

To have lived for five (5) years as a PERMANENT RESIDENT
To have lived for three years (3) as a PERMANENT RESIDENT, married to a PANAMANIAN or having PANAMANIAN CHILDREN with a PANAMANIAN PARENT
To have been born in a Latin American country or Spain, and to have fulfilled the same requirements that Panamanians would have to meet to become naturalized in their country of origin. This is known as Reciprocity, and allows for a shorter permanent residence time frame required of citizens from these countries:

1 year: Colombia, El Salvador
2 years: Argentina, Ecuador, Spain, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru
3 years: Uruguay

Process Timeframe

While the process to obtain Panamanian residence usually involves the Immigration Office only, the process to obtain citizenship involves many other entities such as the Ministry of Government and Justice, the Ministry of Public Services, the Electoral Tribunal, the Government Office, and the Presidency.

All these entities will review the application, and any of them may require additional paperwork, may delay the process for internal reasons, or may actually deny the application. Besides, it is the Panamanian president who ultimately approves and signs all applications.

For that reason, the process to obtain citizenship very rarely takes less than 1 year, and it could take anywhere from 2 to 5 years to be approved.

Application Requirements

The application for Panamanian Citizenship requires:

Police records issued by Panama and the applicant’s country of origin
Certification of immigration status
Authenticated copy of permanent resident ID card
Authenticated copy of the permanent resident resolution
Authenticated copy of the e-cedula
Proof of economic solvency
Income statement from DGI
Copy of passport, authenticated by the consul of the country of origin
Certificate of good health

Additional requirements: After submission, the Electoral Tribunal will schedule an appointment with the applicant at a later time to test his command of Spanish and his knowledge of Panama’s history, geography, and civil rights. You can review the official study guide for the citizenship test here (in Spanish).

Resignation

Once the Presidency issues the letter of naturalization to the Governor for swearing, the applicant shall manifest he/she will abide by the Constitution of the Republic of Panama and thus, resigns to all civil and political links with his/her country of origin.

Nevertheless, the judicial system is many countries such as the United States regards this swearing as not significant. For instance, Americans will not renounce their citizenship unless they make such request before the U.S. Department of State.

Disclaimer

Kraemer & Kraemer strives to provide clear information in all immigration-related subjects; however, please be advised that our firm takes a VERY limited number of naturalization cases and the base legal fee for this process is $5,000 USD.