Your first weeks in Panama: the order the counters themselves prescribe

What do you do first after arriving in Panama? Register with the immigration service, because every following counter asks for proof of it. The finding at the source is how literally the counters prescribe that order: the DGI wants a copy of your valid card for the tax number, customs wants a paz y salvo from the DGI for the exemption, and the licensing service wants a valid migration card for the exchange. The pitfall is the only hard clock in these weeks: a tourist drives at most ninety days on their own licence, and anyone with residence may after that only drive with a Panamanian one.

Which clocks are running?

What	Deadline or amount	Source
Driving on your Dutch licence	at most ninety days as a tourist	ATTT, article 110
Overstaying your permitted stay	B/. 50 per month or part of a month	Migración
Filiación at Migración	B/. 5, two passport photos, online pre-registration	Migración
Tax number (RUC)	free, online only, with a copy of your valid card	DGI
Voluntary CSS affiliation	about six months processing	CSS
Pet at Tocumen	B/. 25 at MIDA and B/. 40 at MINSA, in cash	MIDA
Bank account	minimum deposit at the bank's discretion	Superintendencia de Bancos

Week one: the registration and the animal

The first trip is to the Servicio Nacional de Migración for the filiación: a pre-registration on the website, a queue ticket with the letter B, two passport photos, a copy of your passport details and of your last entry stamp, and B/. 5. If your residence application runs through your lawyer, the notarised power of attorney is added. Keep track of the date of your entry stamp: anyone who overstays their permitted stay pays B/. 50 per month or part of a month.

If you travel with a dog or cat, that chain already starts at the airport: past MIDA and MINSA, with the certificate at most thirty days old and the notice you sent three to five working days earlier. How that works is in your pet coming along to Panama.

Weeks two to four: the cards and the number

After your residence is granted, Migración gives you a card, and the Dirección de Cedulación of the Tribunal Electoral the residence card, at a regional or district office with photo service. Then the DGI: the registration as a natural person in the Registro Único de Contribuyentes is online only via e-Tax 2.0, is free and asks for a copy of your valid card; from age seventy a statement of your own is added. Anyone without a card yet applies for the NT with their passport and a travel record from Migración. Why that number counts, even without Panamanian tax, is in registration and numbers in Panama.

Ninety days, and the clock runs from your entry stamp. The exchange of your driving licence asks for a valid migration card and a certified copy of your Dutch licence with apostille. Anyone who only arranges that certification in Panama gets into a squeeze. Request it in the Netherlands, together with your other apostilles, and put the exchange straight after the card; it costs B/. 40 and there is no exam. The details are in driving licence in Panama.

Then: the bank, healthcare and customs

With the card in hand, the bank is the next stop. The regulator confirms that a bank may require a minimum deposit and that foreigners get their document list at the counter of the state banks; what you bring and how your AOW arrives is in bank and payments in Panama.

Meanwhile healthcare runs on the policy you took out before departure. If you want the Caja de Seguro Social added as a voluntary member, start now: the service names a processing time of about six months, a medical of B/. 47 and a base of at least B/. 300. And the container waits for the file: the customs exemption for household goods asks for a statement from Migración and a letter from your lawyer, the pensionado one also for a paz y salvo from the DGI. Anyone who has the container arrive earlier pays storage; see household goods to Panama and taking your car to Panama.

What do you deliberately leave?

Buying. In the first year you rent, under the rent law and with the deposit at MIVIOT, and only then do you decide on a home; see renting in Panama. And the discounts: they work from the day you have your card, on presentation, and the utility discounts only on bills in your own name. The order of these weeks, with the deadlines watched, is in the step-by-step plan for Panama.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Panama or go straight to step 5.1 in the open plan.