The government of Panama has reduced from seven to two years the timespan for granting Permanent Resident immigration status to professionals in the country.
As explained by the Director of Immigration, Javier Carrillo, the measure seeks to reduce the timeframe and make the process easier. It applies to foreign personnel hired by private companies within 10% of the regular staff and contracted for their technical expertise or within 15% of specialised personnel allowed by law.
An extraordinary migratory regularization process, called " Panamá, Crisol de Razas” (Panama, the Melting Pot) will be reactivated from 3 to October 7, 2011.
The country has large numbers of foreigners with irregular migratory status, and this will be the seventh time that this process has been activated The process aims to grant residence permits to foreigners who have been in the country for a year or longer, for which they must show entry stamps from when they came to the country.