Panama Cédula Verification API (CCPA): Accepted Formats and Name Lookup

Updated November 2026

This guide shows how to verify a cédula in Panama with Verifik’s API: the endpoint, its parameters, a request you can paste into a terminal, the documented response and errors, and what to watch for when you put it in production. Everything below comes from the official endpoint documentation.

About the cédula in Panama

Panama’s cédula de identidad personal is issued by the Tribunal Electoral. Its number follows the pattern first segment – libro – tomo, and the first segment tells you how the holder obtained it: a province code from 1 to 13 for people born in Panama, PE for Panamanians born abroad, E for foreign residents, N for naturalized citizens, and the AV and PI suffixes for the pre-2006 series and indigenous registrations.

Verifik’s endpoint uses the document type CCPA and normalizes these variants server-side before looking up the registered name.

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How to call the Panama cédula API

Endpoint: GET https://api.verifik.co/v2/pa/cedula. Send your token in the Authorization: Bearer header. Parameters, as documented:

Request example with placeholder values (replace them with your user’s data):

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.verifik.co/v2/pa/cedula?documentType=CCPA&documentNumber=8-1234-12345' \
--header 'Accept: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>'

200 response from the docs (personal data masked):

{
  "data": {
    "documentType": "CCPA",
    "documentNumber": "8-****-**29",
    "firstName": "R******",
    "lastName": "M*******",
    "fullName": "R****** M*******"
  },
  "signature": {
    "message": "Certified by Verifik.co",
    "dateTime": "January 16, 2024 3:44 PM"
  },
  "id": "PA001"
}

A successful call returns HTTP 200 with a data object containing: documentType, documentNumber, firstName, lastName, fullName. Every response also carries a signature (timestamp and “Certified by Verifik.co”) and a unique id you can store as evidence of the check.

Documented errors for /v2/pa/cedula

• 400 INVALID_DOCUMENT (“Invalid document number”): the document number failed validation; ask the user to re-check it before retrying.
• 401 UNAUTHORIZED (“Authentication required”): the token is missing or invalid; check the Authorization header.
• 409 MissingParameter (“missing documentNumber”): a required parameter is missing or has an invalid value; fix the request instead of retrying it as is.
• 500 InternalServerError (“Server error”): a server or source error; retry with backoff and log the request id.

Integration tips

• Send the complete cédula. Values are trimmed, uppercased and separators (spaces, /, _, ., dashes) collapsed to a single hyphen; 10-AV-1234-12345 becomes 10AV-1234-12345.
• Libro has 1–4 digits and tomo 1–6 digits. Province codes above 13 are rejected.
• Keep the value as a string. Some HTTP clients turn values like E-8-197698 into scientific notation; use proper URL encoding.
• An incomplete value returns 409 with a message such as Format incorrect: documentNumber.

Personal data and terms of use

Identity lookups process personal data. Use the API only for a lawful purpose you can document, such as onboarding, fraud prevention or contract checks, collect consent where the local law requires it, and keep only the fields you need. Usage is governed by the smartCHECK terms and conditions.

Pricing

Each successful request consumes credits from your Verifik plan. Current plans and per-endpoint costs are on the smartCHECK pricing page.

Related guides and documentation

• Panama RUC company lookup API
• Costa Rica cédula verification API
• Endpoint documentation (English)
• Documentation in Spanish

Start testing

Create a Verifik account to get your API token, or book a meeting if you want to review coverage and volumes with the team.