Immigration – Visas have arrived, finally
Posted by Lee on May 12, 2007
We finally have received our Jubilado Visa’s gone are the monthly trips to immigration for renewal of temporary Visas.
The Jubilado Visa is a permanent tourist visa. It allows a holder to stay in Panama indefinitely without exiting the country. In fact exiting requires another visa entirely. As a holder you are not an immigrant in any real sense, just a tourist with some benefits.
One major benefit not listed below is that you do not need to leave Panama every 90 days for 3 days to re-enter as a tourist.
Here is the official list of benefits.
. Discount of 50% of price charged for entrance to recreation and entertainment activities, such as movies, theaters, sports and other public productions. This discount is not applicable for those events marked as benefits for the youth, homeless or those specifically authorized by the competent authorities.
2. Discounts for the following means of public transportation:
1. Inter-Urban buses, 30%
2. Trains, 30%
3. Launches and boats, 30%
4. 25% discount in air fares in public and private national and foreign Airlines.
3. A minimum discount of the regular prices of hotels, motels and pensions:
1. 50% from Monday to Thursday
2. 30% on Friday, Saturday and Sunday
4. 25% discount of food consumed by the individual in all restaurants except for the Fondas which do not require license to operate.
5. 15% discount in those rapid food establishments.
6. 15% discount in the total cost for services of hospitals and private clinics.
7. 10% discount in pharmacies for those medications obtained with a medical prescription.
8. Discounts in the following medical services:
1. 20% in consultation fees of general medicine doctors and medical and surgical specialists.
2. 15% for dental services.
3. 15% for optometry
9. Insurance companies that include in their policies health benefits for illness shall adjust their fees to include the necessary adjustment so that the benefits of these discounts are transferred in the payment of the premiums when the insured is 55 years old if female, and 60 years old if male and to the Pensionados & Jubilados.
10. 20% discount for technical and professional services.
11. 20% discount for all prosthetic devices as well as those items and accessories of personal assistance.
12. (12, 13,14, 15, 16, 17 pertain to commercial transactions, loans, etc. and require a better translation than I can give.)
13. 50% discount in cost of passports.
14. 25% discount in monthly electrical consumption of private or public entity up to 600KW’s and the normal tariffs will be applied to anything above that amount.
15. Discus’s discounts to properties owned by associations of jubilados and pensionados and the different discounts they are entitled.
16. 25% discount to the basic phone service charges when:
1. the phone service is in the name of the individual
2. is for a residential phone
3. is for one and only one phone. The normal tariffs will apply for anything more.
17. 25% discount in the water bill as long as:
1. the consumption does not exceed $30.00
2. by bill is in the individuals name
3. the bill is residential and is the prime residence. The normal tariffs will apply to all other residences.
General Requirements and Documents
1. All visa applications must be made through a Panamanian lawyer.
2. There is no age limit required for applying for any of these visas, save for the minimum legal age of 18 years. Youngsters under 18 will qualify for a visa as dependents of their parents.
3. All overseas documents to be presented to the authorities in Panama must be authenticated by a Notary and by the Panamanian consulate nearest you, or by a notary and the Apostille. The Apostille (The Hague Convention of 1961) is a faster way of authenticating documents and is normally obtained through the Secretary of State in your home state (in the United States) or through the Foreign Office (in Britain). For Canada, please check with the Panamanian Embassy or consulate nearest to your home city.
4. All documents must be fresh (within two months of visa application) and passports must have at least one year to run.
5. Dependents: Bring a marriage certificate. If your children under 18 are to be covered by your visa, you’ll need to bring fresh birth certificates.
6. All visa applications require that you obtain a health certificate and HIV test in Panama.
Now the reality
These are the documents we needed to provide, all apostilled by the appropriate US State, Secretary of State.
1. Copy of Marriage license
2. Copy of letter showing a retirement income
3. Proof that the entity from which I retired was real, in my case from the Arizona Corporation Commission.
4. Report from Local law enforcement showing any arrest record. (I have been told they have added an FBI report now, we did not need one)
5. Current Passport with at least one year to run on it.
6. A physical examination in Panama by a Panama licensed doctor, we were not tested for HIV.
7. A lawyer and money. Our fee per visa was $500 plus the $100 visa cost
8. Patience…
Nothing in Panama happens quickly. If you are going to do this the first step is get a good lawyer and have them give you the list of what you will need.
You need to collect the documents in the States, have them notarized, then take them to the office of the Secretary of State for the State from which the documents originate and have them apostilled, think International Notary.
Then you need to come to Panama to apply physically at the immigration office.
The entire application process once all the documents are in hand is short. They will stamp your passport and off you go for 30 days. In 30 days you need to go back to immigration with a passport photo and $10 for a 30 day extension and continue doing that every 30 days until not only you are approved but you actually have your card in hand. In our case we applied October 2006, we were approved in March 2007, our cards arrived yesterday 11 May 2007.
I now can feel for the lines of people I often saw standing at the Immigration Department in the Federal Building in the US.
Soon our trip to get drivers licenses.
Comments
9 Responses to “Immigration – Visas have arrived, finally”Leave a comment, and if you'd like your own picture to show up next to your comments, go get a gravatar!
Congratulations on getting your visas!
Congratulations!
What is the difference between the Jubilado and the Pensionado?
Editor: Two words for the same Visa type. It is a legal perpetual tourist Visa with the benefits allowed to Panamanian Retirees.
I read (in my little spanish) from the acta awarding me this status that I have to report yearly to the Migracion to prove that I had no changes in my status (I earn the same or more; that I am alivek etc.) It this correct? My VISA es de Pensionando Permanent? Tks, RTJ
This is the visa where you have to prove a certain amount in a monthly pension correct? I wish I had that or any of that but I don’t. I want to get out of my country but I just don’t know where to go because I didn’t know even latin american countries are so bureaucratic like Canada and will turn people away from living there after a few months if they don’t have the “proper” proof to their questions and have at least what $500 or something per month and have all sorts of paperwork, bank references, etc.
On “I now can feel for the lines of people I often saw standing at the Immigration Department in the Federal Building in the US.”…
You said it well. Some people that rant about Immigration have never been a resident out of their country before. As bad a Panama Immigration is, it takes applying for visas elsewhere to have a measurement standard.
I look forward for your driver license update, as many Panamanians are going through that burrocratic gauntlet.
Hi there! I was wondering about allergies in Boquete or David. Are they severe? Thank you!
Jim