Panama City: urban life in the tropics, one flight from home

Most expats do not. Transit costs about $30 a month, the metro reaches the airport, the Metrobús network fills in around it, and Uber is everywhere. Congestion is severe enough that driving often makes a trip slower. Buy one only if you plan regular runs to the beaches or the interior.

Hot and humid all year, with no winter at all and an annual average around 79°F (26°C). Rain totals roughly 80 inches a year (2,024 mm), most of it arriving as heavy afternoon downpours between May and November. The dry stretch runs about December through April, and January to March is close to rainless.

One person needs roughly $2,100 a month here, a couple about $3,100, and a family around $4,800, in U.S. dollars, Panama's currency. Rent averages about $1,200 for a one-bedroom in the center, $850 outside it. An inexpensive restaurant meal runs about $10.

Private healthcare is the draw. Pacífica Salud, still widely known as Hospital Punta Pacífica, carries a Johns Hopkins Medicine International affiliation, and Paitilla is the other hospital expats name first. English-speaking, often U.S.-trained specialists are easy to find. Most expats carry private or international insurance, though enrolling past age 65 gets hard. Medicare does not cover treatment in Panama.

Panama City scores 53 on the safety index with a crime index of 47. Of the seven places we track in Panama, that is the lowest reading, well below Boquete at 72. The gap is mostly geography: San Francisco, Costa del Este, El Cangrejo, and Clayton are calm, while El Chorrillo, Curundú, and parts of San Miguelito are not places to wander. Casco Viejo is patrolled inside the restored core, much less so on the blocks just outside.

Yes, and Panama makes it unusually easy. The Pensionado visa asks for about $1,000 a month in guaranteed lifetime pension income, and Social Security qualifies. It grants permanent residency plus discounts set in law on healthcare, dining, and travel. Against a budget of roughly $2,100 a month for one person, an average Social Security check plus modest savings covers it.

Enough to get by. English turns up constantly in banking, medicine, and business, and the long American presence from the Canal era left a mark you can still hear. Government offices and daily errands run in Spanish, so you can land without it but you will want to learn.

Americans enter visa-free as tourists. For residency the usual routes are the Pensionado visa for anyone with a lifetime pension, and the Friendly Nations visa, which since 2021 expects about $200,000 in Panamanian property or a fixed-term deposit, or a job with a Panamanian employer. A remote worker permit exists too, but it is capped at 18 months, not a path to residency. Residency filings have to go through a licensed Panamanian immigration attorney.