Panama: visa and entry rules
What you need to get in, how long you may stay, and what an overstay costs
Panama's borders: every crossing point
Other 3
Panama's land border crossings, listed by neighbour:
With Costa Rica: Paso Canoas on the Pacific side, the main crossing; Sixaola on the Caribbean coast; Rio Sereno in the mountains.
With Colombia there is NO road. The Darien Gap - a stretch of impassable jungle around a hundred kilometres long - breaks the Pan-American Highway, and it is the only break on the whole route from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
The road ends at Yaviza, with no way through further south.
People reach Colombia by plane or by sea - either shipping the car in a container to Cartagena, or on a yacht through the San Blas archipelago.
The Panama Canal is not a border, but the bridges over it are bottlenecks on the highway.
Driving to Panama
By land you can only enter from Costa Rica - there is no road on the Colombian side.
Temporary import is processed at the border, and a note is entered in your passport: you will not be able to leave without it.
Check the maximum import period for Panama in advance. An overstay on the car is dealt with separately from your visa and costs more.
Insurance is compulsory and has to be bought locally, purchased right at the crossing.
A national licence is valid for 90 days from entry. An International Driving Permit is not required by law, but it doubles as a Spanish translation at police checks.
Travelling to Panama with a pet
An import permit is required, arranged in advance.
A rabies vaccination must be valid on the date of entry.
An international veterinary certificate is required.
Home quarantine applies - the animal is kept at your place of residence under veterinary supervision.
Check the timings for import into Panama with your country's veterinary service before you buy tickets.
Overstaying your visa in Panama
A fine is charged for exceeding your permitted stay and is paid on departure.
The fine is charged as you leave the country, and it cannot be worked out in advance. The tariffs in Panama change and there is no single published schedule. Cash at the border is essential.
An extension at the migration service is cheaper than an overstay.
The record of the imported car matters more than your length of stay: without closing it you will not be let out even if you are on time.
What else to check before you go
Updated
Entry rules change faster than anything else on this site, and they change without notice. We cross-check every page against several sources and state the date it was verified, but that does not replace the main step: before you travel, check an official source — the country’s consulate, its immigration service or its e-visa portal. Especially if more than a couple of months have passed since our check.