Panama Reforestation Visa | An Incomplete Guide

Overview:

The Panama Reforestation Visa is an residency by investment visa focused on the forestry industry: participants are required to invest funds in local tree planting and forest maintenance activities in exchange for long-term residency rights.

Currently, this visa program can be divided into two pathways based on the amount of investment and whether it grants residency permits or permanent residency rights: the regular process and the express process.

Regular Process:

The first available pathway for the Reforestation Visa is the Regular process: Under this pathway, you are required to invest at least $100,000 in the local forestry industry, of which at least $90,000 is used for tree planting and $10,000 for forest maintenance (which must be maintained for at least 8 years).

If your family members also want to obtain the visa, an additional $2,000 must be added to the minimum investment requirement for each secondary applicant.

The visa application process for the Regular process is divided into the following steps:

1. Investors need to first enter Panama, complete their investment, and then submit their visa application in person to the Panamanian Immigration Office;

Required documents include:

Personal information documents for the applicant: Including copies of all applicant passports and five passport-sized photos; birth certificates, marriage certificates, and other documents proving the relationship between primary and secondary applicants;

Adult secondary applicants over 18 must also provide proof of economic dependence and ongoing student status;

Application form: You need to fill out an application form and a personal background information statement letter;

Health examination certificate;

Criminal record certificate: All adult primary and secondary applicants must provide a valid criminal record certificate issued within the last six months;

Proof of completed investment: Including proof of funds transfer from an overseas bank and funds received by a local Panamanian bank; bank-stamped proof of fund transfer; financial confirmation from forestry industry stakeholders, etc.;

Proof of visa fee payment;

A Panamanian address: You need to provide a commonly used address where you can receive mail; this address can be the address of a hotel where you are staying in Panama, or a friend/intermediary’s address.

All documents from outside Panama must be notarized, and all non-Spanish documents must be translated into Spanish.

2. After a preliminary review of the applicant’s qualifications, the Panamanian Immigration Office will first issue a short-term residence visa to the applicant and their family;

3. The Immigration Office will complete all background checks and investment reviews within six months after the preliminary review and then issue a two-year Reforestation Visa to qualified applicants.

3. Two years later, if you continue to maintain your investment in Panama, you can apply for local permanent residency.

It should be noted that under this pathway, during the first 8 years of holding the Reforestation Visa, the visa holder must provide annual reports to the local Immigration Office to prove that they still own the invested forestry industry.

Express Process:

The second available pathway for the Reforestation Visa is the Express process: Under this pathway, you need to invest at least $360,000 locally, of which at least $350,000 must be used for tree planting and $10,000 for forest maintenance (the investment must be maintained for at least 8 years).

The application process for the Reforestation Visa via the Express pathway is almost identical to the Regular process. The only difference is that under this pathway, participants can generally obtain permanent residency in Panama directly and quickly within 60 to 180 days.

Dependents:

For the Panama Reforestation Visa, the main applicant’s spouse, children under 18, and financially dependent children aged 18 to 25 can also obtain permanent residency in Panama as secondary applicants.

Citizenship:

The Panama permanent residency card must be renewed every five years. This card does not have a minimum residency requirement; however, to demonstrate ties to Panama, you must stay in the country for at least one full day every two years.

Non-native Spanish speakers with permanent residency who have lived in Panama for five years (or three years if they have a Panamanian spouse or children), and have resided in the country for more than six months each year, can apply for naturalization after passing an interview that assesses their knowledge of Spanish, Panamanian history, geography, and civic rights.