Do you need an onward ticket for Panama?
Required
Panama requires a return ticket conditionally — the statute attaches it to the migratory category you are entering under.
An official page or statute states this condition. The wording is quoted below and the source is linked.
Last verified 5 August 2026 · Central America
“pasaje de retorno … cuando la categoría migratoria lo requiera”return ticket … when the migratory category requires it
What the rule actually says
The conditional clause is the whole point and it is routinely dropped when this rule is repeated. The obligation exists, but it is scoped to the category you are admitted under rather than applied flat to every arrival.
Requirement 6 of the same article states a solvency condition, but it states it generically — it names no figure.
The widely-quoted B/.500 solvency number does not come from that article. It comes from the US State Department and appears in Panama's tourist-visa application requirements, which is a different document from the general entry article. Do not treat B/.500 as a statutory entry threshold.
Who checks
A statutory entry condition, so an immigration officer can ask for it where the category requires it. No Panamanian page describes airline check-in screening.
A note on airline enforcement, because almost every page on this subject states it as fact: airlines screen these rules through IATA Timatic, a paid business product with no public interface. Nobody outside the industry can check what it says for a given route on a given day. New Zealand is the only authority in this set whose own published text names the check-in desk.
Sources
- Panama travel advice: entry requirements (UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office — another government's summary, used because the destination's own page could not be retrieved)
Airports in Panama
Elsewhere in Central America
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