Issued by Panama Purpose Identification | Type of document Passport Eligibility requirements Panamanian citizenship | |
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Date first issued 01/06/2014 (biometric passport) Expiration 5 years after acquisition | ||
A Panamanian passport is the passport issued to citizens of Panama to facilitate international travel. Panamanian citizens enjoy visa-free access to 125 countries and territories.The passports are issued by the Passports Authority of Panama.
Contents
Design
The cover of the passport has a dark blue background. The front part of the cover has the words "REPÚBLICA DE PANAMÁ" (Republic of Panama) on top, the coat of arms of Panama in the middle, and the word "PASAPORTE" (passport) on the bottom in Spanish, English and French. All of this is outlined in a grey color. The back part of the cover only has the blue background. The biometric passport symbol appears at the bottom of the front cover under the word "PASSEPORT".
As of January 2016, Panamanian passports are still issued with Panama's old coat of arms, having 9 stars instead of 10. This change took effect in January 2014.
Identity information page
The Panamanian passport includes the following data on the identity information page:
Languages
The identity information page is printed in Spanish and English.
Visa pages
The passport contains 32 pages for visas. Each with a construction or project of the 2009-2014 government of the Panama. The pages include the following:
Passport message
All passports contain the following message:
In Spanish:
In English:
In French:
Visa requirements
In 2015, Panamanian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 127 countries and territories, ranking the Panamanian passport 36th in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.
Electronic passport
Panama unveiled an electronic passport, in late 2012, with a supposed implementation in 2013, in either March, or October. Because of this, it was necessary to present a travel reservation to request a passport for the first time; older, expired passports (with expiration dates after December 2007) merely had their validity extended.
In January 2014 Panama finally started issuing electronic passports to its citizens. Its cost increased from $50 to $100, and the inside contains images of recent government projects.
Types
Pavlo Lazarenko scandal
In 1998 Pavlo Lazarenko, the former Prime minister of Ukraine was arrested as he tried to enter Switzerland. He was found to be carrying an apparently valid Panamanian passport, although Ukraine did not permit dual nationality.