Aduana Office David | Customs and Immigration

February 6th, 2024 by chasing.vida

Picked up my van after just over 2 months away. Van in perfect shape, just as I left it. $68 in total. Under 45 minutes to do all the paperwork and get the keys. They wanted the form they gave me when I dropped it off and new insurance for the month. One of the employees told me they had someone there that I could have bought it from for the same price. $25/month. Everyone really friendly and helpful.

January 3rd, 2024 by vibededois

Fizemos aqui a renovação da autorização de permanência do veículo por mais 30 dias. Você precisa do seguro, do documento do veículo e do passaporte. Renovam apenas 2 ou 3 dias antes de vencer o prazo anterior.
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We renewed the vehicle's authorization to remain here for another 30 days. You need insurance, vehicle registration and passport. They renew only 2 or 3 days before the previous deadline expires.

November 27th, 2023 by chasing.vida

They are closed on weekends and all holidays. There are a lot of holidays in November.

Dropped my van off for bonded storage while flying out of the country. The older women were struggling with the system/using a computer, so it took a while. You get a form that says it’s in storage. I asked for a copy of the old TIP too. Make sure you go get them to stamp your passport entry stamp that says ‘this person cannot leave the country without their vehicle’, otherwise you may have issues at the airport.

They take your keys but they put it in an envelope and staple the hell out of it shut. They said they are not allowed to access the envelope. Fingers crossed.

November 21st, 2023 by chasing.vida

Renewed my TIP after going to FEDPA (pin just north of here) to get two more months of insurance.

They want your passport, TIP, and insurance. No fee. Took less than 5 minutes. Can only get 30 day extension and have to come back to do another 30 (for 90 total).

They also do bonded storage here. $1/day for the first month, $2/day for the second month. I will hopefully be dropping my van off there next Tuesday. Will report back if so.

October 12th, 2023 by info

Took 5 minutes to renew my TIP for the second time, so we could stay a total of 90 days in Panama. Easy and recommended! 👍

May 4th, 2022 by thekombichronicles

These guys are totally useless. Had to renew our tip here twice both times they made several mistakes. Women was super arsy and very slow. Took over an hour. TRIPLE check your papers.

March 18th, 2021 by outintonowhere

Said they would renew my TIP but would be 30 days extra from todays date. 10 days early so will come back and try later.

February 14th, 2020 by eric_on_the_road

Left the car for 2 months and I confess I was worried I could have things stollen, as you must leave the keys with them. The car was intact and exactly how I left it. Great experience! Paid $56 for 60 days, as they don’t count weekends nor holidays. Price still 1 Balboa for the 1st 30 days, and double that for the remainder days, being 6 mo the max you can leave your car there.

October 24th, 2019 by southboundseahags

Very quick. In and out in 10 minutes. Get insurance prior to arriving here. No cost.

August 2nd, 2019 by bruno

Overlanders, I'm putting 1 and half stars. just for the price of the parking. Because the women, Maria Isabela, who handled the foreign cars in custody is very incompetent. When I left the car I made it clear someone else was going to get it, because I was selling it, she said there would be no problem, that the buyer just have to come with the selling contract. And she confirmed it various times on phone. Then when the buyer came as planned, she made a totally different story, wanted him to pay the impuesto de nationalizacion, which is complete nonsense, and more than 2500usd!! She made him lose 2 full days, and didn't even want to talk to me on phone, she was cutting the calls. The buyer had to go to various offices, where he finally meet an official that was more intelligent and confirmed that it was nonsense to pay nationalization of the car, then Maria Isabela still wanted to make pay a fine of 200 to 500usd!!! complete nonsense, as we had all papers and made everything the way they initially said. In the end after fighting he could get the car without paying nothing except the parking, but that women made him lose lot of time to try to rob money... And in the end they also stole the protection I put on the van for the water not to enter, so it got really rusty after the month it was here... Take care and don't believe nothing they say, or make them write it. Safe travels guys.

April 8th, 2019 by holidayfromwhere

I suppose it depends on what you need done here but this was the easiest thing ever, took us less than 10 minutes and we were out of there with the new tip. It does not cost and we actually didnt have to do a single thing except sign 2 forms.

February 6th, 2019 by michaeldconnolly83

Super chilled out office but basically useless. Refused to renew our TIP until 3 days before it would expire which meant we would miss our inspection date due to the weekend. Wasted trip to David

May 7th, 2018 by ericswoyer

Epic incompetence. $500 fee because Aduana in Panama City sent me away with incorrect paperwork. The Aduana check two hours East of David was first I heard of it. Insisted on towing Moto to David, after six hour wait for a truck that arrived without ramp or straps. Six days stuck in David, then deported.

March 31st, 2017 by Calderescapes

Super fast and friendly service to renew TIP. In and out in less than fifteen minutes. Be sure to have insurance first and they need a copy of it to renew.

March 31st, 2017 by Calderescapes

ghhj

June 22nd, 2016 by of Mountains and Beaches

Dog owners: Panama "requires" a $130USD fee for your dog to enter, regardless of length of stay. To avoid this, don't bring the dog outside of the vehicle!! Tell a helper or, if you're feeling bold, bribe the aduana who checks your vehicle yourself. We paid the helper about $20 and he bribed the aduana with $2. Also, the vet who collects the fee is not around in the evenings (past 5 or 6) and apparently not on the weekends, either. This might be a better time for dog owners to cross. Cheers + good luck!

June 21st, 2016 by nicknameinternational.com

these guys are super nice and super helpful. if you are planning on leaving your vehicle in Panama while you travel to another location you need to leave it at a customs bonded location. in Spanish it's called a bondo privacy aduana. this customs office will allow you to register and leave your vehicle there for $1 per day for one month. and then the price goes up a bit. nice people and easy to work with.

June 21st, 2016 by PHOTOtrail

We renewed our car import permit here. First day the internet was down and couldn't do it , but second day it went fast in few minutes was ready.

June 17th, 2016 by RustyMiniVan

Took me 30 minutes to get my car into customs storage and freezing my permit.

Opens at 8am,
Maximum storage time 6 month,
First month 1$ per day, 2$ per day second and following month,
You will need your passport and the piece of paper you got at the border

June 24th, 2015 by intrepidfor10minutes

$52 for over 10 weeks parking ($1 per day excluding weekends and public holidays) bargain. Worth the 8 hours on a bus to Panama City ($15 per person each way). In fact the bus was a lot more comfortable than the Iberia plane we flew back to Madrid on). Just turn up and took 2 hours and car was stored. Took 4 to get out, but that included a walk almost back into town to get insurance ( insurance office is town side of police station, get this before you collect the car). We were in Panama 9 days before storing and they gave us 20 when we collected ( after explaining we were shipping from Colon).

March 4th, 2015 by stokesadrian

Despite it not officially being allowed, they made an exception for us and allowed us to keep our plates after re-exporting a Panamanian reg car and gave us tourist passes for us to allow us to drive into CostaRica, much to our relief after being refused at the border 2 days before.

March 4th, 2015 by stokesadrian

For all Aduana related stuff. Compared to the horrible, arrogant, ignorant staff in Panama city, have a bit of patience here and they have been quite helpful and informative.