Panama: Knowledge Base profile
Published 18 August 2025
© Crown copyright 2025
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Version 3.0
About: Panama
This document contains useful information about Panama which will assist His Majesty’s Passport Office staff process passport applications.
Contacts
If you have any questions about the guidance and your line manager or senior caseworker cannot help you or you think that the guidance has factual errors then email HM Passport Office’s Guidance team.
If you notice any formatting errors in this guidance (broken links, spelling mistakes and so on) or have any comments about the layout or navigability of the guidance then you can email the Guidance team.
Publication
Below is information on when this version of the document was published:
- version 3.0
- published for Home Office staff on 13 August 2025
Changes from last version of this document
This document has been updated with formatting changes.
Panama: names
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about names in Panama.
Names in Panama consist of:
- up to 2 forenames
- father’s first surname
- mother’s first surname
Panama follows the Hispanic naming convention, which carries on the paternal and maternal family name. Panama citizens cannot drop a surname or add a hyphen to their surname.
If both parents are not Panama citizens the Registry Officer may follow the law of the parents’ country, this means the child could have a single surname.
If the father is not known or the father does not recognise the child as his own, the surname will be the same as the mother’s or will be her paternal surname twice.
Change of name
Names changes are allowed in Panama.
Married women normally keep their own surnames. In some cases they add their husband’s first surname to their first surname using the word ‘de’, for example, Carmen Pérez Rodriguez marrying Juan García López, would become Carmen Pérez de García.
Panama: nationality
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about nationality in Panama.
Dual nationality is allowed in Panama.
Panama: legitimacy and parental responsibility
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about legitimacy and parental responsibility in Panama.
Legitimacy
Panama recognises a difference between legitimate and illegitimate births
A child will be considered:
- legitimate if the:
- parents are married at the time of birth
- parents marry after the date of birth
- father is named on the child’s birth certificate
- illegitimate if the:
- parents never marry
- father is not named on the birth certificate
Parental responsibility
Parents have parental responsibility in Panama if they are named on the child’s birth certificate.
Panama: adoption
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about adoption in Panama.
Adoption is legal in Panama.
Panama: surrogacy
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about surrogacy in Panama.
Surrogacy is illegal in Panama.
Panama: gender recognition
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about gender recognition in Panama.
Transgender citizens are recognised in Panama.
Panama: civil partnerships and marriage
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about civil partnerships and marriage in Panama.
Civil partnerships and same sex marriages are not legal in Panama.
Civil marriages are legal in Panama.
Panama: documents
This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about documents from Panama.
Documents in Panama are issued in the region where a person applies for them.
Birth certificates
A birth certificate is issued for every birth in Panama. If a birth certificate is lost or damaged a replacement is issued.
Marriage certificates
A marriage certificate is issued when a marriage is registered in Panama.
Death certificates
A death certificate is issued when a death is registered in Panama.