Panama has applied the Convention since 1991 and splits the authority three ways by the kind of document: a court document is certified at the Supreme Court, a notarial document at a ministry, and every other government document at Foreign Affairs. This page explains the 1991 date, the three doors, the electronic certificates started by the judiciary in 2023 and by Foreign Affairs in 2025, the absence of an electronic line for notarial documents, and the commercial exclusion that shapes Turkish corporate files.
Thirty-five years of apostilles: the Panama row since 1991
Panama deposited its instrument of accession on 30 October 1990, and the HCCH status table shows 4 August 1991 in the Panama row. No state objected within the six-month window, Panama has objected to no accession, and it does not appear in the Kosovo note. The full status report shows no exception between Türkiye and Panama; Türkiye had applied the Convention since 1985, so the date that counts between the two countries is Panama’s own. Panama appears on the HCCH list of Members and has not acceded to ETS 063, CIEC 16 or CIEC 17.
Supreme Court, Government and Justice, Foreign Affairs: Panama’s three doors
The HCCH authority page, updated on 16 June 2026, defines three doors. Judicial documents are apostilled by the Secretary of the Supreme Court; notarial acts and notarised private documents by the administrative services directorate of the Ministry of Government and Justice; other government documents by the Consular and Legalisations Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The fee line splits the same way: the court channel is listed with no charge, and the other two state a fee in balboas with a dollar equivalent on the HCCH page, not repeated here. A Turkish office reading a Panamanian document expects the signing body to match the kind of document: the court secretary on a judgment, the ministry directorate on a notarial power of attorney, the Foreign Affairs department on a diploma or civil record.
April 2023 for the courts, May 2025 for Foreign Affairs: two Panamanian e-apostilles
The e-APP chart of 13 August 2026 gives Panama two lines. The Órgano Judicial, the judiciary, has placed electronic certificates since April 2023, verified by QR code; the chart gives no register address for that line, the code produces its own verification link. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has placed electronic certificates since May 2025, with a register at apostillaelectronica.mire.gob.pa queried by link. The two-year gap between the starts shows the electronic switch in Panama moving institution by institution. A Turkish office scans the code on a Panamanian court document and opens the address for a Foreign Affairs certificate; whether the two feed a single register was not verified here.
Notarial documents from Panama: the authority the e-APP chart leaves out
The chart’s two lines cover the judiciary and Foreign Affairs; the directorate of the Ministry of Government and Justice that certifies notarial documents has no line, so no electronic certificate or register is recorded for a Panamanian notarial power of attorney or notarised private document. Where one file holds both a notarial document and a Foreign Affairs-certified registry extract, the two are checked in different ways. Whether the directorate has since moved to electronic certificates is a matter for the e-APP chart; this page follows the chart and adds nothing beyond it.
Turkish company papers for Panama and the commercial exclusion
For Turkish corporate documents bound for Panama, the limit in article 1 of the Convention becomes relevant: a signature circular, a power of attorney or a notarised board resolution is a notarial act and travels with an apostille signed at any valilik or kaymakamlık, the provincial or district governor’s office; an administrative document directly connected with a commercial or customs operation falls outside the Convention, and for that document the legalisation route of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for documents that cannot be apostilled is asked about. Belonging to a company is no obstacle by itself; the test is whether the document is directly connected with a customs or commercial operation. The original of a court judgment is certified by the adli yargı adalet komisyonu başkanlığı, the judicial commission at a high criminal court seat; a criminal record extract and a civil registry extract can go through e-Apostil, the official Turkish electronic apostille system. Whether a Turkish electronic certificate is accepted in Panama was not verified. The apostilled document does not pass through the Panamanian mission.
Spanish translation on a Panamanian corporate file and what was not asked
Under whose signature Panamanian institutions accept a Spanish translation was not verified in this site’s survey; in corporate files the registry or bank that will receive the document is asked in advance. A translation made in Türkiye passes through a notary, and the notarisation receives its own apostille, which confirms the notary’s signature and seal and gives no assurance about the translated text. A Panamanian document is translated into Turkish after the certificate is placed; on a court certificate the verification data produced by the QR code, on a Foreign Affairs certificate the register address, goes into the translation. Points not asked and not verified here: whether the two electronic registers are merged, the date of any electronic switch for notarial documents, which authority certifies ship registration documents, the form in which a Turkish e-Apostil is accepted in Panama, and the translation language. A translation office carries the text across and gives no legal opinion on whether a document falls under the commercial exclusion.