Panama makes 300,000 dollar Qualified Investor Visa threshold permanent

Panama locked the $300,000 real estate threshold in place

Panama made its reduced real estate investment floor for the Qualified Investor Visa permanent. Executive Decree 193, signed Oct. 15, 2024, kept the minimum property buy-in at $300,000 instead of letting it snap back to the original $500,000 set under Decree 722 of 2020. The temporary cut, first introduced by Decree 109 in October 2022, was set to expire the same day; it didn't.

The other two routes were left untouched: $500,000 in securities through the Panama Stock Exchange or a $750,000 time deposit with a bank holding a general license. All three investments must be held for at least five years and immigration can check annually that the money is still parked where the application said it was.

What Decree 193 actually changed

Beyond locking the threshold, the decree added two practical openings for property buyers. Applicants can now meet the $300,000 minimum through a promissory purchase contract, either via a trust deposit with a licensed fiduciary or by paying the full price directly to the developer before construction or registration, backed by a compliance bank guarantee. Co-ownership of the qualifying property is allowed, but only between spouses or dependents. Unrelated investors can't pool funds into one QIV case.

Processing still runs 30 to 60 days from a complete filing to permanent residency, issued directly rather than through a temporary stage first. The physical presence rule remains light: one visit every two years to keep status active. Citizenship is a separate track with stricter time-in-country requirements under Panama's nationality law.

Who needs to move and the real cost

Anyone who was holding off on a QIV application hoping the $300,000 floor would survive can stop waiting. It survived. Buyers who had structured deals around promissory contracts or developer pre-payments, previously a documentation grey zone, now have an explicit legal path. Co-investors planning to split a property with a friend or business partner to hit the threshold, however, are locked out. Only spouses and dependents qualify.

The capital outlay is the headline number, but the statutory fees bite too: $5,000 to the National Treasury and $5,000 to the National Immigration Service for the principal, plus $1,000 to each agency per dependent. Legal fees sit on top. For nomads weighing Panama's residency options as a backup plan, the QIV is the fastest direct route to permanent status, provided the five-year investment lock fits the financial plan.