Panama's investor residency was born on 15 October 2020, the date of the decree that created it, and for six years every price quoted for it rested on that text and its amendments. Anyone still quoting those rules is quoting a dead regulation.
On 8 September 2026, Panama's government signed Executive Decree No. 17, published in the Gaceta Oficial No. 30613 on 16 September. Its article 20 replaces in full Decree 722 of 15 October 2020, the regulation that created the Inversionista Calificado subcategory, together with its amendments of 2022 and 2024. Article 21 puts the new decree into force from its promulgation. Five weeks on, it is the only rulebook for the route.
The headline is simple. $300,000 still works, but only for new property bought from the developer. Almost everything else either costs more, lasts longer or now has to be proved again every year.
What the route is
The Qualified Investor route is a permanent residence permit for economic reasons, granted under Panama's migration law, Decree Law 3 of 2008. Unlike most of Panama's residence categories, it does not start with a temporary permit. The investor receives permanent residency on the basis of a certified investment, and the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) checks that the investment stays in place.
Article 2 sets the general floor at B/.300,000 (the balboa trades at par with the US dollar). The money must come from abroad, must be the applicant's own funds, and cannot be a gift: the decree states that donations and other gratuitous transfers from third parties do not count toward the minimum. The investment can be held personally or through a company or private interest foundation, as long as the applicant is shown to be the beneficial owner.
The route is small by Panama's own standards. As the Brief showed in its look at Panama's official residency numbers, investor approvals run at a few hundred a year in a system that approves tens of thousands. MICI says it issued 268 investment certificates between July 2025 and June 2026, covering B/.113.6 million, up from 193 certificates the year before, according to its statement of 21 September.
The real estate split: new versus resale
Article 4 is where the decree draws its most important line. Real estate now comes in two submodalities:
- First-sale property, minimum B/.300,000. The initial purchase of a new, unoccupied property transferred by the developer.
- Secondary-market property, minimum B/.500,000. Any property that has already been sold, occupied, rented or transferred to an unrelated third party.
The decree closes the obvious workarounds in both directions. Segregation, a declaration of improvements, a transfer into a trust, a merger or a corporate reorganisation do not turn an old property into a first sale, and do not count as a prior sale either, provided no unrelated buyer is involved. The authority keeps the power to disregard sham transactions designed to get under the applicable minimum.
MICI explained the purpose in plain terms: the lower figure for new builds is meant to drive new projects and the construction, services and trade activity around them. In other words, the discount is industrial policy. A buyer who prefers an apartment that has already been lived in now needs two-thirds more capital to qualify.
Value is now verified, not declared
The most practical change for buyers is how value is counted. Article 5 says the qualifying figure is the lower of the price actually paid and the reasonably documented market value, minus any mortgage or other lien on the property. You can finance the part above the minimum, but no charge on the property may push the net figure below it.
Article 6 then builds a verification system around that rule. The cadastral certificate of the National Land Administration Authority (ANATI) remains required. Where the registered value does not reflect the property's condition, or where there is reasonable doubt about the price, the Ministry can demand an independent private appraisal, issued within the previous six months by an appraiser recognised by Banco Nacional de Panamá or Caja de Ahorros, at the applicant's cost.
Two sentences in the article matter more than the rest. No amount can be counted that was not actually paid to the seller, developer or trustee. And no amount above the reasonably documented market value can be counted where there are objective signs of a gap between the agreed price and the market. An inflated contract price, which some marketing schemes relied on, will not carry an application anymore.
Buying off-plan
Article 7 keeps the option of qualifying with a promise of sale for a property still under construction, at the B/.300,000 minimum. There are two ways to do it:
- paying the money into a trust with a licensed Panamanian bank or trust company, which releases it to the seller under the contract; or
- paying 100 percent of the price to the developer, in which case the investor must hold a bank instrument in their favour: an irrevocable standby letter of credit, bank guarantee or performance bond issued by a bank licensed in Panama, covering at least the full investment and kept in force until the property is built and registered in the investor's name.
If the developer fails to deliver, the investor has 180 business days to switch to another qualifying investment. A second promise of sale is allowed only once. And under no circumstances may residency rest on promises of sale for more than three years in total. If the property is not registered by then, the decree treats the requirements as unmet and the permit is cancelled.
That three-year ceiling is the clause off-plan buyers should read twice. Construction delays are common everywhere, and the risk of a late project now falls on the investor's residency status, not only on their money.
The non-property routes
Two other routes sit beside real estate:
- Securities, B/.500,000. Article 8 allows investment through a broker licensed by Panama's Superintendency of the Securities Market in private equity and venture funds registered there, Panamanian government bonds and treasury instruments, or other registered securities, including REITs, of companies with an economic impact in Panama. The capital must stay invested for five years. Market falls alone do not break the rule, as long as nothing was withdrawn, sold or pledged and the investor tops up within 90 days of being notified.
- Fixed-term deposit, B/.750,000 or B/.500,000. Article 9 sets B/.750,000 for a deposit at any licensed private bank, and B/.500,000 if the deposit is placed directly and solely with Banco Nacional de Panamá or Caja de Ahorros, the two state banks. Either way the deposit must stay free of any lien or pledge for five calendar years.
Five years, proved every year
Article 12 turns the investment into a five-year commitment. The investment must be maintained for at least five years. If it ends early, the resident has 30 calendar days to notify MICI and up to 90 calendar days to document an equivalent reinvestment; otherwise the migration service cancels the permanent residency.
On top of that, the resident must prove, through a Panamanian lawyer, that the investment is still in place every year until the five years are complete, filing within the 30 days before the anniversary of the migration resolution. For off-plan buyers, the annual filing includes either the trustee's certificate of payments or the renewed bank guarantee.
Costs, deadlines and the path to a passport
Article 11 sets the government charges: B/.5,000 to the National Treasury and a B/.5,000 repatriation deposit to the migration service for the main applicant, and B/.1,000 plus B/.1,000 for each dependant. A spouse married, or a child born or adopted, after approval can be added later on the same terms (article 17).
The decree also sets deadlines for the state. MICI has 15 business days to issue the investment certificate once the file is admitted, and the migration service has 30 business days to decide after receiving the complete file (article 15). The investment certificate itself is valid for three months (article 3), so the order in which documents are collected matters. Applications can be filed through a lawyer before the investor enters Panama, with biometric registration required before any residence card is issued (article 16).
Where an investment is held jointly, each main applicant must meet the minimum on their own. A couple buying one B/.300,000 apartment together does not give two main applicants residency; a spouse and dependants included in the same application can share the one investment.
Article 14 restates the long view: Qualified Investor residents and their dependants may apply for naturalisation after five consecutive years of residence, subject to the constitutional requirements, with MICI certifying that the investment was kept.
If you were already in the process
Article 19 protects files already lodged with MICI or the migration service: they are decided under the rules in force when they were filed, with any more favourable procedural rules applied straight away. Investments and binding contracts completed before the decree took effect can still use the old regime if the application is filed within six months of its entry into force. Certificates already issued keep their effect until they expire, and the new valuation rules do not apply retroactively except where there are objective signs of fraud or illicit funds.
Article 18 adds a twelve-month window for people holding, or applying for, permanent residency under the separate economic solvency category to switch into the Qualified Investor subcategory, if they meet its minimums. And it states one firm limit: investments made before 15 October 2020 do not count.
What it means in practice
Three conclusions follow from the text.
First, the $300,000 figure is now a new-build figure. Anyone shown a resale apartment at that price as a residency solution is being shown something the decree does not support.
Second, valuation risk has moved to the buyer. With the lower of price and market value counted, liens deducted and appraisals on demand, a property bought at a premium can fall short of the minimum even when the contract shows the right number. The Brief has written before about paper residency structures that fail under audit; Decree 17 makes the audit part of the route.
Third, the route is a five-year relationship. Annual proof, 30-day notification and a 90-day reinvestment window mean the investment has to be managed, not just made. That is consistent with the pattern the Brief described in golden visas being repriced rather than abolished: the entry price moves, the conditions tighten, and those already inside keep their terms.
Residency is also only half of the picture. How Panama taxes a resident's income depends on its territorial system and on the reforms discussed in the Brief's piece on Bill 641, and the home country's exit and residence rules decide what the move achieves.
Work with Sebastian
If you are weighing Panama's investor residency against other options and want the property, the timing, the family and the tax side planned as one decision, that is the kind of cross-border setup Sebastian works on with internationally mobile clients. Book a consultation.
