The step-by-step plan for Panama

The pensionado visa is the reason Panama is the pension destination of the Americas: a demonstrable lifelong pension of US$ 1,000 a month — AOW (the Dutch state pension) plus occupational pension counts — gives permanent residence from day one. No annual renewal as in Thailand, no deposit as in Indonesia, no age requirement.

Two things belong with it right away. Every application runs compulsorily via a Panamanian immigration lawyer — that's laid down by law, so the lawyer's fees aren't a luxury but a fixed item. And the internet is full of dead information about the old Friendly Nations route ("directly permanent with a company of your own"): that was abolished in 2021. This corridor works with the rules of today.

"Living tax-free in Panama" is the promise of a thousand English-language sites, and it keeps quiet about the Dutch side. Panama indeed doesn't tax foreign income — but the treaty gives the Netherlands the right to tax your AOW and your pension, and so the wage withholding simply continues. What you gain is the contributions part and legal certainty, not the tax. The AOW itself does come along in full: the Netherlands and Panama have had an export treaty since 2005, so a single person too keeps the 70% rate.

Healthcare: no CAK route — you insure entirely privately, and the insurers apply entry limits (local up to about 65, international up to about 74). Read both articles before you plan any further; these are the two sums that carry the decision.

Panama is three countries in one. Panama City: a world city with the best hospitals and city prices. Boquete in the highlands: the expat village at 1,200 metres, around twenty degrees all year, cool nights. Coronado and the beaches: warm, humid, an hour from the city. Explore all three — and do it in the rainy season (May to November inclusive), because whoever knows only the dry season doesn't know the country.

Also look honestly at safety per neighbourhood (Panama is among the safest countries of Latin America, but the differences per district are real) and at the language: outside the expat enclaves Spanish isn't an option but a condition.

The calculator for Panama works on your own moving choices. The big one-off item here isn't the move but the visa process: lawyer, fees, apostilles and translations add up to thousands of euros per person. After that the country is affordable — certainly with the statutory pensionado discounts — and everything runs in dollars.

That dollar is the warning at the same time: your AOW and pension come in in euros, your life runs in dollars, and that exchange-rate risk is a permanent resident of your budget. Count with a margin, not with today's rate.

This is the step without forms, and yet this is where most journeys fail. Discuss with your partner and, depending on their age, your children: why do we want this, what are we giving up, and what is for each of us the condition for saying yes?

With Panama the heavy points are the distance — well over ten hours' flying, and family comes less often than everyone promises at the farewell — the language, and for single people the AOW sum from step 1.2: twenty percentage points less AOW is for some budgets the difference between ample and tight. Have that conversation with the real numbers on the table.

Close the orientation phase with a target date for departure. Not as a deadline — as a compass. The clocks that set the pace here: the healthcare acceptance (arrange before every irreversible step), the visa process of three to six months, and the document logistics with apostilles and sworn translations. A realistic picture: from serious decision to being settled, this journey takes most people six to twelve months.

You fill it in below in this card, and filling it in is completing the step. You can always adjust your target date — the planning adjusts with it.