Expat Community > Panama

StanLeeee
Joined 2021
Posts: 727

Registration of Marital Status

3 years ago

Once again I am finding that I made incorrect assumptions regarding legal customs in Panama.

My wife and I decided to marry about two + years ago and we would have done that in Panama but I did some research and found some disturbing things related to US immigration at the time.

For one, if we were married they would almost certainly refuse to give her a tourist visa. Besides that they were refusing to grant spousal visas to a large percentage of applicants, particularly Hispanics.

So we applied for a tourist visa. Refused, although she had a full time government job and substantial property in Panama.

So we applied for a fiancée visa and after many months it was approved.

An extremely hostile immigration agent at the Houston port of entry tried to send her back to reapply for a tourist visa because we told the truth about our plan to live part of the year in both countries. They folded when I demanded the right to legal representation.

We were married shortly after arriving in the US and immediately applied for Adjustment of Status which was eventually granted, along with her work permit and social security card.

The rules are unclear but we were advised not to leave the US for more than a 60 day period or her permanent resident visa might not be renewed.

Anyway we’re back in Panama for 60 days and we want to register our marital status here. I assumed that this would involve a trip to the courthouse and a payment of maybe $20.

I assumed wrong.

When I found out that it would involve a trip to Panama City I decided that it would be easier and probably cheaper to have our attorney do it.

Wrong again. When he asked to see our documents before giving us an estimate I started to wonder... when I saw the estimate I knew that I had made faulty assumptions.

He thinks he can do it for about $870... this is almost as much as I paid for my permanent resident Pensianado visa.

OK, so how about we just forget all that nonsense and get married again right here?

No way Jose. In order to get married in Panama you have to prove that you’re not married already by presenting a “certificado de soltero.” We are both married so we cannot prove we’re single. The fact that we’re married to each other is apparently irrelevant.

I suppose we could lie but I’d rather not. In addition to the moral implications and the implied disrespect of a country that is kind enough to welcome me, there are probably ways that could result in problems later on.

Maybe we don’t really need to do this? We need to execute our last will and testament here, though. We have been advised that our will and trust documents in the USA will not be sufficient to ensure disposition of our property in Panama, so we need separate Panamanian wills to avoid a horrible probate mess in the future. Our official marital status in Panama may or may not affect the validity of our wills.

Perhaps I should just put everything in Panama under my wife’s name? It’s not like I’m nervous about her taking everything and dumping me... although this has been done by people we both know.

The possibility that I would outlive her is minuscule and even if that did happen, her daughters would inherit, which is fine with me.

So for the moment I guess the plan is to do nothing. When we are back in the USA we’ll translate our documents, get apostilles and plan on spending a few extra days in Panama City when we arrive on our next trip.

Kovalenko & Vera Attorneys at Law in Panama

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Expat Community > Panama

Registration of Marital Status

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