Panama Approves Over 14,000 Work Permits for Foreigners

As of October, 14,029 work permits for foreigners have been approved. On the other hand, 1,105 applications have been denied, 879 of which are related to Executive Decree No. 6. For humanitarian reasons, 3,022 applications have been processed, followed by those from permanent residents, with 1,135. This is followed by permits issued for humanitarian reasons (2,793) and permanent residents (1,049). By October, the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development (Mitradel) had processed nearly 16,000 applications for work permits for foreigners. In the first 10 months of the year, 15,973 applications were submitted, averaging 52 per day. In this category, 42 permits were requested by October, 37 were approved, and one was denied. 28 applications related to the 10% quota for companies to hire foreign nationals were denied, and 22 were denied for the category of trusted employees. 73 migrants have been granted temporary protection permits. After a July when 2,121 applications were submitted, the average for the next three months has been around 1,800. The majority of permits were requested based on Executive Decree 6 of 2023, which regulates labor migration. From this group, 8,776 were based on Executive Decree 6 of 2023. As of last September, the National Migration Service had approved 25,038 residences, of which 10,549 were permanent and 8,598 were temporary. There is a work permit that is granted for family reunification cases. In smaller numbers, there were permits issued to foreigners married to nationals (475), nationals of specific countries (298), those covering the 10% of foreign labor force allowed to be hired (226), and foreign professionals (225). This recognizes the existence of seven categories for authorizing work permits: temporary, for humanitarian protection, under special laws, percentages authorized by the Labor Code, and special migration conditions, among others.