Tourist visa change frustrates many

Here we go again with another change in the immigration regulations. In their efforts to stop the flow of illegal Colombians and other unwelcome interlopers, the immigration office issued a new regulation earlier this week. It may be retroactive from what sources are telling me. I will have more on this next week.

Tourist Visa valid only for 30 days

As of last week Article 36 of Law 15 of Migration came into effect, that lowered from 90 to 30 days the validity of granted visas to the tourists who visit the country.

The director of the institution, Ricardo Vargas, explained yesterday that before this new regulation, the visas of tourists were worth up to 90 days and could get an extension twice. Now, however, they will be possible to get an extension for one time and they will have validity up to 60 days. (La Prensa)

What this means is that the current 30 day visitor visa stays in effect, but your ability to extend the visa for an additional 60 days has been shortened to only 30 days. This gives you a 60 day window in order to stay in the country without some form of immigration status. My sources tell me that there has been a lot of corruption in the immigration offices where dubious foreigners were paying off officials to get extensions. Unfortunately, this makes it more difficult on some retirees who have been staying in Panama indefinitely on a tourist visa by just leaving the country for a few days and then coming back for another 90 days.