A checklist for clearing a private yacht into Panama, office by office: Migración, the AMP port captain, then Aduanas and health where they are posted. Use it on the passage in, and fill it in at each window. Have your registration certificate, crew list, passports and the zarpe from your last port ready, with three or four copies of each.
Fill in the fields below, then print the worksheet or download your entries as a text file. Entries stay on this page until you leave unless you download them. Don’t enter passport, card or medical details; keep copies of those separately.
How to fill it in
Fill in the top four lines before you arrive. Fill in the rest at the windows, in the order you visit them. Write the office name and the date on every line, and staple the receipts to the back of the sheet.
Which office does what
- Migración (Servicio Nacional de Migración) stamps passports and records the crew list. At Shelter Bay, cruisers report Migración comes first, then the port captain.
- AMP Capitanía de Puerto clears the vessel in and issues the cruising permit. Porvenir in San Blas had no port captain as of March 2025, per noonsite, so you finish the permit later at Puerto Lindo or Colón.
- Aduanas records the boat as a temporary import. We could not confirm on an official page how it dates that admission, so ask at the window and get the period in writing.
- Health (MINSA) appears at some ports, such as Bocas and the Chiriquí side, and is often absent elsewhere.
Tips
- Copies. Cruisers consistently report needing three or four copies of each document. Shelter Bay has a print shop. Elsewhere, print before you arrive.
- Fees. No official yacht clearance tariff is published. Most charges are paid in cash at the office that levies them. Write down what each office actually charged and keep the receipt. Confirm current figures with the AMP on +507 501-5000.
- Weekends. Expect overtime charges outside weekday office hours.
- Single window. Decreto Ejecutivo 4 of 2025 tells Migración, Aduanas and the AMP to work from a Ventanilla Única at marinas. Plan for the office-by-office routine anyway.
- Canal only? Noonsite reports a canal-transit-only yacht does not need a cruising permit. Canal paperwork is separate; use the canal transit checklist.
Ports and the offices at each are in ports of entry by sea. Capital-city addresses are in marine offices and contacts.
Read the companion guide
Before using this resource, read Arriving in Panama by boat: how to clear in.
Use it alongside these guides
Arriving in Panama by boat: how to clear in
Clear into Panama at a port of entry: fly the Q flag, see Migración, then the AMP port captain for your cruising permit; Aduanas and health where posted.
Panama cruising permit (permiso de navegación)
Panama's cruising permit is issued by the AMP port captain to foreign yachts that stay and cruise: who needs it, what it costs, validity, renewal.
Foreign yacht in Panama: temporary vs full import
A foreign-flag yacht stays in Panama on temporary admission tied to its cruising permit. Selling or chartering locally means full import via Aduanas.
Panama visa rules for yacht skippers and crew
Yacht crew arriving in Panama are stamped in by Migración as visitors. Stay limits by nationality, crew changes, flying in to join a boat, overstays.
Zarpe in Panama: domestic vs international clearance
A zarpe is the AMP port captain's clearance to sail to a named port. You need an international zarpe to leave Panama, sometimes a domestic one.