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Getting Organised:  Your Immigration Documents 

Perhaps one of the most important things for you to do before you get to Panama, if you are planning on applying for residency or a visa, is to get together all the documents you need BEFORE you arrive here. 

Personal experience tells me that it is not easy to get the documents from your country of origin once you are here, without a trip back.  

Which documents do you need to bring: 

As mentioned on each of the individual pages, there are documents you should bring from your country of origin, and these need to be properly authenticated in order to be presented it.  The principal documents are birth certificates, marriage certificates and police records. However, each immigration programme is a little different, so you may want to inquire at our office whether there is anything further you will require. 

If you have questions as to what documents you need to bring with you, just send us an email. 

Please (and that's a BIG PLEASE) do not arrive in Panama without these documents or with the documents, but not authenticated.  This makes our job so much harder (and it takes a LOT longer and costs you more money).  

If you are a US citizen, a helpful page is www.usbirthcertificate.net The person to contact there is Richard McAdams.  Phone: 888-736-2692.  Fax. 713-974-2221.  I have used their services only once, so I would not go so far as to vouch for them.  But I found him to be very helpful and knowledgeable about the requirements of each state.

Please note - you will need to have your credit card handy, and it's possible that the birth certificate will be sent to your credit card billing address (rather to where you are at the time you request it). 

If possible, request these documents in advance.  I would not suggest requesting these the week before you are travelling - this should be done at least a month in advance.  His office can help you also with getting the marriage certificate.  

Police Records - these should be requested from your local police station. In the US, most police stations actually provide you with an FBI record, although some simply provide you with a letter.  You should, at the time you request the record, indicate that you need to Apostille the letter, and that therefore it needs to be Notarised.  After you've had the police record notarised, then you can proceed to have it Apostilled by the Secretary of State's office - Notarisation and Legalisation Department.  

If you are from England, I understand that your Police Records have to be requested in person from your local police station (I also understand you can request them from Scotland Yard). You will need to allow for a reasonable amount of time for the wheels of bureaucracy to get the document back to you.  It then needs to be authenticated.  

Legalisation of the documents

Each country has different procedures as to how to legalise the documents for presentation in another country.  Most countries are a member of the Hague Convention for Legalisation - the Apostille.  More information regarding the Apostille can be found here:  The Hague Convention.   If you are not sure how to Apostille the document after seeing the relevant information, please feel free to contact us.  

However, if the country which you are in is not a member (or if in your country it is very difficult to get the documents to be Apostilled), it may also be possible to authenticate them at the Panamanian Consulate or Embassy.  If you would like details of the closest consulate or embassy, please just drop us a line: email.  

Prepared by Beth Anne Gray J.

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