Look inside
The plan for Panama, from the inside
These are all 29 steps of the Panama journey, exactly as they appear in your personal plan — with the lead time and the costs next to them. Not a brochure: this is the file that feeds the platform. Pick another country below if you're heading elsewhere.
For which country?
Every country has its own steps, its own order and its own clocks. Switch as often as you like.
- Steps
- 29
- Phases
- 5
- Official sources
- 30
- Only for your situation
- 8
Phase 1
6 steps
Orientation
Panama gives pensioners what almost no country gives — permanent residence from day one — but the honest story has two sides: the Netherlands simply keeps taxing, and the single person's AOW takes a serious hit.
- 1.1
Understand the system: permanent from day one, with a lawyer
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 1.2
Know what happens to your income and your healthcare
- Lead time
- an evening of research
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.3
Explore the regions: city, highlands or beach
- Lead time
- weeks, preferably in the rainy season
- Costs
- a scouting trip is a serious cost item
- 1.4
Get a picture of what it's going to cost
- Lead time
- 1-2 hours with the calculator
- Costs
- none
- 1.5
The family conversation
- Lead time
- weeks, not hours
- Costs
- none
- 1.6
Choose your target date
- Lead time
- decision moment
- Costs
- none
Phase 2
5 steps
Your visa
The application runs compulsorily via a Panamanian lawyer — so choose them carefully, and have them confirm beforehand that the Dutch certificate of conduct suffices in the file. Whoever only discovers that in Panama loses months.
- 2.1
Choose your route
- Lead time
- decision moment after reading
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.2
Choose your lawyer — and ask the VOG question beforehand
- Lead time
- 2-3 weeks of comparing
- Costs
- lawyer's fees US$ 1,000-5,000 — ask for a fixed price
2 official sources
- 2.3
Collect the documents: apostilles and Spanish translations
- Lead time
- 4-6 weeks
- Costs
- apostilles and sworn translations per document
1 official source
- 2.4
Travel to Panama and lodge
- Lead time
- approval on average 3-6 months
- Costs
- fees about US$ 250-300 per person, plus the trip
1 official source
- 2.5
Permanent from day one — and what that does and doesn't mean
- Lead time
- reading step at the approval
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Phase 3
8 steps
Closing the Netherlands
The familiar list with two hard lessons: the healthcare acceptance comes before every irreversible step, and outside a treaty country the single person's AOW falls back to the married rate.
- 3.1
Arrange the healthcare transition — acceptance first
- Lead time
- 3-6 weeks — and the acceptance question first
- Costs
- the premium of your new policy; bridging cover for the first period
2 official sources
- 3.2
Know where you'll pay tax
- Lead time
- one good conversation with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours — depending on your situation
1 official source
- 3.3
Deregister — and know the AOW sum
- Lead time
- deregistering is possible from 5 days before departure; the whole takes 4-8 weeks
- Costs
- limited — cancellation costs per contract
2 official sources
- 3.4
Arrange your money lines and your DigiD
- Lead time
- 1-2 weeks
- Costs
- none
- 3.5
Partner comes along without a job of their own
- Lead time
- an evening together, then a few things to arrange
- Costs
- none — the consequences are in the article
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 3.6
Living partly in the Netherlands: the eight-month rule
- Lead time
- one decision, before you commit to anything else
- Costs
- none
4 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 3.7
The house in the Netherlands: sell, rent out or keep
- Lead time
- one conversation with the mortgage lender and one with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours; when renting out possibly an interest surcharge from the bank
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 3.8
Children staying in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the house
- Lead time
- an evening, and after that one report a year
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
Phase 4
4 steps
The move
The household contents go by sea container, the car you usually buy there — and the pet here has a window of ten days and forty days of home quarantine after arrival.
- 4.1
Choose your form of move and request quotes
- Lead time
- quotes 2-3 weeks; the crossing itself weeks
- Costs
- according to your moving choices
Only if this applies to you
- 4.2
The car: usually buy there — with the pensionado exemption as an option
- Lead time
- decision moment
- Costs
- when taking it along — shipping and port charges; buying locally is usually simpler
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 4.3
Pet coming along: the ten-day window and the home quarantine
- Lead time
- 4-6 weeks of preparation, ending tightly in the last ten days
- Costs
- per animal — certificates, legalisation and air freight run into the hundreds of euros
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 4.4
Book the crossing and your first accommodation
- Lead time
- book before departure
- Costs
- falls under "the first months" in your budget
Phase 5
6 steps
Arrival in Panama
The order is the lesson here: first the cédula, then the bank, then the driving licence — and only after that do the statutory discounts really start working.
- 5.1
Collect your cédula and only then open the bank account
- Lead time
- 2-4 weeks
- Costs
- fees for the card; banks ask for a minimum deposit
1 official source
- 5.2
Activate your healthcare
- Lead time
- 1-2 weeks
- Costs
- the premium runs from now on
1 official source
- 5.3
Exchange your driving licence — straight away
- Lead time
- days, after the authentication route
- Costs
- fees plus the eye and hearing test
1 official source
- 5.4
Put your discounts to work
- Lead time
- ongoing — with your cédula in your pocket
- Costs
- none — this is the step that yields money
1 official source
- 5.5
School for the children
- Lead time
- make contact with schools before the move
- Costs
- public free but Spanish-language; international thousands of dollars a year
Only if this applies to you
- 5.6
Landed
- Lead time
- it's done
- Costs
- none
8 of these steps aren't always there. They appear only when your answers call them up — a pet, a car, children staying behind. That's the difference between a plan and a checklist in which you have to work out yourself what applies.
Look inside
This is what one step of your plan looks like
Not a brochure but the real thing: this is one of the steps of the Panama journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 3.3 of your plan
Deregister — and know the AOW sum
- Lead time
- deregistering is possible from 5 days before departure; the whole takes 4-8 weeks
- Costs
- limited — cancellation costs per contract
Deregistering from the BRP (the municipal population register) you do at your municipality, shortly before departure — and report the move to the SVB. This is where the sum belongs that almost no site mentions: Panama is not a treaty country under the BEU Act. For couples little changes, but single people fall back from 70% to the married rate of 50%, and the AOW supplement lapses. That's not a detail but twenty percentage points of your basic income — it was already in your budget from phase 1, and here it becomes definitive.
Beyond that the ordinary list: benefits stop, AOW accrual stops (apply for voluntary continuation within one year), giving your pension funds your new address, arranging post.
This is step 3.3 of 29. The other 28 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.
And what you don't see here
This page shows the content. What a page can't show is the work the platform does for you afterwards:
- The clocks that start running the moment you begin, and a nudge at the moment something is asked of you — not earlier.
- Your documents in one place, with their expiry dates watched, so nothing lapses while you wait for something else.
- The ticking off, together with your partner on the same journey.
- The steps that drop out or appear based on your answers, so your plan holds only what really applies to you.
Ready to start on Panama?
All 29 steps, set to your situation and with the deadlines watched. € 399 once, no subscription.
The departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Panama: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that one question about where your plans stand, and beyond that only a short update when something in Panama really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Ready to begin?
Thirty-six journeys are fully ready — Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Canada, Panama, United States, Suriname, China, Dubai, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand: your step-by-step plan, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.