If you’re looking at second residency options (and are tired of living in a cold climate!) you might want to consider taking a close look at Panama.
Panama Offers what’s known as a “Friendly Nations Visa”.
With this VISA there is nothing to invest midterm or long term, you just need to:
(a) create a company in Panama where you will be the President and Shareholder and claim that it will be used for professional services in Panama; and
(b) open a bank account in your name in Panama. (This bank account would have to be funded with a minimum of $5,000.00. If there are dependents to be included with the main applicant, then $2,000.00 per dependent needs to be added).
Most of the bank account opening process can be done without you needing to visit Panama, so we can advance 90% with that and, once you arrive in Panama, finalize everything so that the account is opened in approximately 2 weeks.
You will need to travel to Panama at least twice.
On the first trip you will need to meet the bank and finalize the account opening, sign the power of attorney empowering us to file the application and have your passport registered with the Immigration Service.
Once the bank account is open you will need to send funds to activate the account and obtain from the bank a letter of reference and/or a statement of account stamped by the bank. Once you have that we can then start the process of incorporating the company (it takes roughly 5 days to incorporate a company in Panama). The account would need to be funded with $5,000.00 and $2,000.00 extra per dependent if such is the case.
If you’re able to stay in Panama for an extended period, we can file the application right away and obtain the provisional residence permit and multiple entry and exit permit (this last one is necessary to leave the country while the visa is being processed as otherwise upon the return of you can be penalized with a fine of $2,000.00).
On the second trip, ie once the Visa is approved, you will need to travel to Panama to obtain your permanent resident card.
Our legal fees are $4,500.00 + 7% service tax for the main applicant, plus $400.00 + 7% service tax per dependent. The fee includes the company formation.
The approximate expenses are:
$1,690.00 for main applicant and $1,300.00 per dependent. (Children under 12 years of age are exempt from the repatriation deposit of $800.00).
Our legal fees for the attainment of the Multiple Entry and Exit Permit is $200.00 + 7% service tax (per applicant) + $100.00 (per applicant) in costs payable to the Immigration Service.
To open the account, you will need to travel to Panama and meet the bank, and bring with you the following documents:
- Reference letter from a bank
- Reference letter from a lawyer, accountant or other professional
- Reference letter from a business partner
- Copy of your entire passport (the bank will make a copy)
- Copy of a secondary ID such as a driver’s license
- Proof of income, which can be provided in the form of payment stubs from your current employment or by submitting the last three tax returns you have filed.
These documents can all be submitted in English.
For the Visa, it is imperative that you have the bank account, so after the bank account has been opened we can move forward with the Visa application.
The documents each applicant needs to bring with him/her for submission as part of the Visa application are:
- Valid passport
- Police record issued by the FBI, RCMP or equivalent authority in your country (except children under 18)
- Marriage certificate (applicable if legally married and spouse is applying as dependent of main
applicant)
- Birth certificate (applicable if children of the applicant under 18 years of age are applying as dependents of the main applicant).
The rest of the documents can be obtained in Panama, including the Declaration form of personal background information.
Any and all documents issued abroad have to be legalized by means of a Panama Consulate or via Apostille and duly translated into Spanish.
Translations prepared abroad would also need to be legalized via Consulate or be Apostilled.
Would you like to know more? Then please Contact Us:
info@offshorecompaniesinternational.com
