🇵🇦Panama — Qualified Investor — special-passport legal entitlement

Principal, spouse and two children aged under 12. Eligibility, age definitions and dependency rules apply.

Recognised dependants may request a special passport under Law 493. Migration approval, family eligibility and separate procedure requirements apply; no family contribution or fee total is consolidated.

The ministry’s 21 September 2026 statement confirms B/.300000 first-sale property and B/.500000 resale/state-bank options for residence. Law 493 covers Qualified Investors and recognised dependants. The special passport confers no nationality and does not replace an ordinary passport. The legal provision and the application procedure are separate stages.

Presence

Obtain Qualified Investor permanent residence and the SNM status resolution before the passport process.

Travel-document recognition and visas

Do not assume the recognition or visa-free access of an ordinary Panamanian citizen passport. Confirm the specific document, nationality recorded, visa and destination requirements.

Holding / ongoing duties

Maintain the qualifying status for the passport entitlement.

This route does not establish ordinary national-passport privileges. Short visits; personal circumstances and entry conditions apply. Each rule retains its own check date.

UK visits

Visa required

For UK entry using this non-national document, a visa is required under the non-national travel-document rule. Separate UK immigration-status exemptions and airside-transit rules can apply. Document recognition is a separate requirement.

Checked 2026-10-24.

• UK visa requirements: non-national travel documents ↗UK Visas and Immigration · Government guidance · Checked 2026-10-24
  What this source supports

  The non-national/refugee document section requires a visa for UK entry on a non-UK non-national document. Airside transit has separate nationality and exemption rules.

Schengen visits

Recognition varies by state

The register marks Panama’s Pasaporte Especial as recognised by Germany and Spain but not France. Match the issued document to that category; recognition alone is not a visa exemption.

Checked 2026-10-24.

• Travel-document recognition register, published 19 October 2026 ↗European Commission DG HOME · Government document register · Checked 2026-10-24
  What this source supports

  Notifications through 16 October. Panama special-passport recognition differs by state; Tuvalu investor-passport recognition is limited to exit back to Tuvalu in Germany, Austria and Romania.

USA visits

Nationality-based eligibility

This noncitizen document does not itself qualify the holder for the US Visa Waiver Program. The traveller needs a separate qualifying nationality, passport and ESTA, or the applicable visa or status.

Checked 2026-10-24.

• Visa Waiver Program nationality and passport requirements ↗US Department of State · Government guidance · Checked 2026-10-24
  What this source supports

  VWP requires participating citizenship/nationality, a qualifying passport and ESTA. A noncitizen investment document does not itself establish those requirements.

Canada visits

Visitor visa required

IRCC requires a visitor visa for alien-passport holders and stateless travellers, subject to separate status-based exemptions. The document must also be accepted. Citizenship-based eTA eligibility is not acquired by a noncitizen passport.

Checked 2026-10-24.

• eTA eligibility: alien passport and stateless travellers ↗Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada · Government guidance · Checked 2026-10-24
  What this source supports

  Alien-passport holders and stateless individuals travel with a visitor visa; Canadian status and US permanent-resident exemptions remain separate.

Global category counts, where shown above, are attributed publisher snapshots. The selected destination rules here use government evidence. Recognition of a document is separate from visa exemption.

Checked means the cited material was reviewed, not that the authority published a new rule that day. Source authority and retrieval limitations are recorded below.