Many foreigners end up working on the sly. A tourist visa is valid for 90 days and renewable for another 90 at the immigration office for $16. Restarting the clock on a tourist visa is as easy as a weekend in neighboring Costa Rica. Penalties for overstaying a visa start at $20 for the first month and increase $10 per month after that. Enforcement is inconsistent.

To go the legal route can be painstaking. Work visas cost $100 and require a copy of your contract, a criminal background check from your country of origin (in the U.S. these are free and can usually be easily had from your local police before you leave), and a Certificado de Buena Salud, which one can get from a local doctor for a brief consultation that costs around $5-$10 plus an HIV test. Additionally, the work visa applicant must present two letters: one to Immigration (Dirección Nacional de Migración y Naturalización) requesting a work visa for a visiting expert and a second to the Labor Ministry (Ministerio de Trabajo y Desarrollo Laboral) for a work permit (Permiso de Trabajo en Calidad de Tecnico o Experto). Both letters justify the need for a Panamanian company to hire you as a foreigner who provides a service or expertise that could not be provided by a Panamanian citizen. Both these letters must be drawn up by a lawyer, and the fees can be expensive. A majority of the foreign teachers I met never bothered with the whole process, prefering a weekend in Costa Rica or a fine upon their departure from Panama.