Hire a Japanese Chef in Costa Rica or Panama: Work Permits

Costa Rica and Panama are small Japanese restaurant markets, but both grew between 2023 and 2025, and both put their labour ministry at the centre of any foreign hire. This guide covers what we could confirm from official sources in September 2026. Some parts of the process, including the migration authorities' own requirement lists, we could not access, and we say so rather than fill the gaps.

1. Two small markets that are growing

MAFF rounds country counts to the nearest ten, so treat the changes as approximate. With only a few hundred Japanese nationals in each country, the local pool of experienced Japanese chefs is thin. Most restaurants will be training local cooks, and our guide to training local staff in Japanese cuisine is the more useful starting point. A hire from Japan makes sense for the head chef who does that training.

2. Costa Rica: the labour ministry decides first

Costa Rica's General Law of Migration and Foreigners (Law 8764, in force since 1 March 2010) gives the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MTSS) a formal role in work-related migration. An MTSS technical report sets out the framework:

• Migration policy for foreign workers must be carried out without displacing national labour (Article 7(1) of the law).
• MTSS's role covers the special categories and temporary residences used for work. The special categories include cross-border worker, temporary worker and specific occupation worker (trabajador de ocupación específica, Article 94).
• MTSS publishes a list of occupations not recommended for the temporary residence and specific occupation worker categories. If an occupation is on that list, expect a negative recommendation.

On the labour law side, one point often repeated in older guides is out of date. Article 13 of the Labour Code, which set a proportion of Costa Rican workers, was annulled by the Constitutional Chamber in 1999 (vote 616-99). What remains is Article 69(b): employers must prefer Costa Ricans over non-nationals when circumstances are equal. In practice, be ready to show why the role needs the person you are hiring.

3. Panama: the 10% and 15% limits

In Panama, work permits for foreigners are issued by the Ministry of Labour and Labour Development (MITRADEL) under Executive Decree 6 of 13 April 2023. MITRADEL's labour migration page groups permits into classifications. The two that matter for a restaurant bringing in a chef:

• Type 2A: a migrant hired by an employer as ordinary staff, within 10% of the total workforce.
• Type 2B: a migrant hired as a specialist or technician, within 15% of the total workforce.

Both refer to Article 17 of the Labour Code. For a restaurant with ten employees, 10% is one person, so the size of your team sets how many foreign hires are possible at all. Whether a Japanese head chef counts as a specialist under 2B is a question for MITRADEL, not an assumption to build a budget on.

MITRADEL also lists permit types outside the percentages, such as those under special laws (for example free zones), and permits for people with long residence or family ties in Panama. It publishes a list of regulated professions and trades restricted for migrant workers; check it before you advertise.

4. What we could not confirm

• Costa Rica: the Directorate General of Migration and Foreigners (DGME) requirement sheets and the current MTSS list of occupations not recommended were not accessible to us, so we cannot say whether cooks appear on that list, or give fees and processing times.
• Panama: MITRADEL's page did not state permit durations, fees or document lists for types 2A and 2B, and we did not verify the residence permit side handled by Panama's National Migration Service.

Neither country has a working holiday arrangement with Japan on MOFA's list (as of 1 April 2026), so that route is not available.

5. Practical next steps

1. Search locally first, and plan to train local cooks under one experienced head chef.
2. Costa Rica: ask MTSS's labour migration department (Departamento de Migraciones Laborales) whether a cook or chef position can receive a favourable recommendation, then check DGME's current requirements.
3. Panama: count your total workforce, confirm with MITRADEL whether the role fits type 2A or 2B, and check the restricted professions list.
4. Use a local immigration lawyer for the filing. Our visa sponsorship overview explains what to ask.
5. For other Latin American markets, see our Mexico and Colombia guides.

General information gathered from official sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Several official requirement pages could not be accessed for this article; confirm everything with MTSS and DGME in Costa Rica and MITRADEL in Panama before acting.