Leaving from Belgium?To the Belgian plan →See the plan for Belgians moving to Panama →This plan is for people leaving the Netherlands.
Panama · Visa required
Emigrating to Panama
For Panama you arrange a pensionado visa: with a pension of US$ 1,000 a month you get permanent residence from day one. Two facts belong with it that are often left out. The Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW and your pension. And the AOW you've built up comes along in full, for single people too. This page shows how it really works.
€ 399 one-off · 32 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Visa: permanent residence from day one
- The route
- Pensionado: a pension of US$ 1,000 a month. A lawyer is compulsory
- Note
- NL keeps taxing AOW and pension. The AOW you've built up does come along in full
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Will your departure date work? Check it in the free step-by-step plan →
Five phases, from the route choice to the discounts
The biggest job here isn't the move but the visa journey. It's also the biggest item: the lawyer the law makes compulsory, the apostilles (international stamps of authenticity on your documents) and the Spanish translations. Against that stands a calm outcome: permanent residence, for an indefinite period. But you do the sums honestly up front: the Dutch taxation that continues and the age trap of the health insurers (above a certain age they no longer accept you).
- Orientation
Permanent from day one, and two sums the brochure leaves out
In this phase you do the two sums that carry your decision, and you explore the country. The pensionado visa gives immediate permanent residence with a lifelong pension of US$ 1,000 a month. You don't renew every year and you don't pay a deposit. The first sum is the tax. Under the treaty the Netherlands keeps taxing AOW and pension. What you gain are the premiums and the legal certainty, not the tax. The second sum is the AOW. The export treaty of 2004 lets the AOW you've built up come along in full, the single person's rate too (the higher amount for single people). The SVB may check whether you really live alone. Also explore the three Panamas: the city, the highlands of Boquete and the beaches.Read more
- Your visa
The compulsory lawyer, the certificate-of-conduct question and three to six months
In this phase you arrange your visa. Every application legally runs via a Panamanian immigration lawyer. Choose them carefully, because they're the most important purchase of the journey. Have the lawyer confirm in writing beforehand that the Dutch certificate of conduct (VOG) suffices as a criminal record statement. That's the stumbling block for Dutch people. Then come the pension statement from SVB and pension fund with apostille, sworn Spanish translations and lodging in person. Approval takes three to six months on average. The Friendly Nations visa still exists too, but in its post-2021 form: two years of temporary residence, via an employment contract, US$ 200,000 in property or a deposit of US$ 200,000.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
Healthcare acceptance first, and the AOW sum becomes final
In this phase you wind up the Netherlands. Besides the familiar list, two hard lessons apply here. The first is healthcare. There's no CAK route (the arrangement through which pensioners stay insured via the Netherlands), and the insurers apply entry limits: local up to about 65, international up to about 74. So ask whether an insurer will accept you first, before any irreversible step. The second is the AOW. Panama has had an export treaty since 2005, so the AOW you've built up comes along in full, as a single person too. Besides that you do the ordinary work: deregistration, the M form (the tax return for your emigration year), the protective assessment (a tax assessment the Netherlands fixes on departure but doesn't collect straight away) and activating the DigiD app before departure. That last one counts extra here, because the embassy is in Costa Rica.Read more
- The move
The container, the car you buy there and the thirty-day certificate
In this phase you move your household contents, the car and the pet. The household contents go by sea container. The exemption for removal goods hangs on your residence status. So the order of your papers matters more than the sailing. The car you usually buy in Panama. The pensionado does have an exemption from import duties on one car every two years. The pet has no long lead time here but a fixed slot: the certificate is at most thirty days old on arrival. You notify the animal three to five working days ahead.Read more
- Arrival in Panama
Cédula → bank → driving licence, and then the discounts start working
In this phase you arrange your cédula, your bank and your driving licence, in that order. The cédula is your Panamanian identity document. Then comes the bank. The reference letter from your Dutch bank is only good for thirty days. Then convert your driving licence right away. As soon as you have residency (your residence status), your Dutch driving licence is no longer valid. After that the legal discounts of Law 6 from 1987 get to work: 25% on flights and restaurants, 50% on hotels on weekdays, 25% on electricity and phone, and 20% on hospitals, consultations and medicines. You can enforce them, with your cédula as the key.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Panama journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 3.3 of your plan
Deregister and tell the SVB: your accrued AOW comes along in full
- Lead time
- deregistering is possible from 5 days before departure; the whole takes 4-8 weeks
- Costs
- limited — cancellation costs per contract
With this step you've officially left the Netherlands, and your AOW simply keeps running in Panama.
This is how you deregister:
- Deregister at your municipality shortly before departure. Then you're no longer in the BRP, the municipal population register.
- Also report the move to the SVB, which pays your AOW.
Then the sum many sites get wrong. Panama is a treaty country for the AOW. The export treaty of 2004 has been in force since 1 March 2005. Article 4 sets aside every restriction on payment based on where you live. That's why a single person too keeps the 70% rate, the higher AOW amount for single people.
Against that stands the enforcement the treaty regulates: the SVB may check in Panama whether you really live alone. The treaty expressly excludes child benefit.
Beyond that, the ordinary list:
- Stop your benefits.
- Your AOW accrual stops. Apply for voluntary continuation within one year.
- Give your pension funds your new address.
- Arrange your post.
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Panama.
This is step 3.3 of 34. The other 33 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 34 steps for PanamaWhat you get for € 399
All 34 steps to Panama, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for Panama
€ 399
one-off · 34 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
- Destination changes? Within 30 days I switch your plan to another country free of charge
- Stuck on a step? You get a personal answer within two working days
What will your move to Panama cost? Work it out →
Know someone moving to Panama? Give this plan as a gift →
Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Panama: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Panama change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Panama? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Panama starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
On 2 January we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Panama
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Working in Panama: the employer counts you in the ten percent, and the CSS wants you within six working daysWorking as an employee in Panama is only possible with a work permit from the Ministry of Labour, and that hangs on a quota: a company may have ten percent of its ordinary staff made up of foreigners, fifteen percent for experts and technicians, at a salary of at least B/. 850 a month. The employer registers you within six working days with the Caja de Seguro Social. Anyone working independently starts with a RUC. The quotas, the cards and the costs.
- Healthcare in Panama: no CAK, but a counter at the Caja de Seguro SocialPanama is not on the treaty country list, so your Dutch basic insurance stops when you leave and no CAK contribution takes its place. What there is: a voluntary affiliation with the Caja de Seguro Social for anyone not compulsorily insured, a medical of B/. 47 and a minimum base of B/. 300, and the statutory 20 percent discounts on consultations and medicines for pensionados.
- The residence routes to Panama: pensionado, the dead Friendly Nations myth and the order that worksThe pensionado residence gives permanent residence without renewal on a lifelong pension of B/. 1,000 a month, applied for through a lawyer with a notarised power of attorney. The Friendly Nations residence still exists, but as a two-year provisional residence with an employment contract or B/. 200,000 in property or a deposit. The routes, the amounts and the documents, from the immigration service's own requirement lists.
- AOW, pension and tax in Panama: why 'tax-free' is the wrong half of the storyPanama doesn't tax foreign income — that's correct. But the treaty of 2010 gives the Netherlands the right to tax your AOW (the Dutch state pension) and your pension, so the wage-tax withholding simply carries on. The accrued AOW itself does come along in full: the export treaty of 2004 keeps the single person's rate too. The real sum, article by article.
- Taking your car to Panama: the pensionado exemption, and why the bpm does not come backA retiree may import a car once every two years without import duty, against 5 percent selective consumption tax and 7 percent ITBMS, with a customs exemption that asks for your pensionado card and a paz y salvo from the tax authority. Then follow the DIJ inspection, the registration at the ATTT and the municipality's number plate. And the Netherlands refunds no bpm outside the EU.
- Your pet coming along to Panama: a thirty-day certificate, a notice in advance and B/. 65 at the airportFor a dog or cat Panama asks for a health certificate from the Dutch authority with apostille, at most thirty days old, a rabies vaccination given at least thirty days before the journey, and a notice three to five working days before arrival to the ministry of health. At Tocumen you pay B/. 25 to MIDA and B/. 40 to MINSA, in cash. No titre test, no kennel, but precision.
All 15 articles about Panama
- Your household goods to Panama: B/. 25,000 tax-free, with a customs broker and a letter from your lawyer
- Bank and payments in Panama: dollars in the account, euros on your AOW
- The pensionado discounts of Panama: law, not marketing, with the conditions attached
- Renting in Panama: the deposit goes to the ministry, and the contract is registered
- Your first weeks in Panama: the order the counters themselves prescribe
- Registration and numbers in Panama: filiación, residence card and RUC
- Driving licence in Panama: ninety days as a tourist, then exchanging for B/. 40
- School in Panama: your child's reports have to go past MEDUCA first
- Living, renting and buying in Panama: first the finca number, then the rest
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Panama: 34 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.