Obtaining Residency in Belize

There has been a lot of buzz about living in or retiring in Belize so I thought it would be useful to share my recent experience with applying for residency in Belize. In order to apply for residency in Belize as an American you must stay in the country for 12 consecutive months with the exception of 14 days. This can be quite a task depending on your situation and because of that there are other programs available for people retiring to Belize such as the Qualified Retired Persons program as well as obtaining a work permit if you will be moving to Belize to work or start a business. If you choose to go the basic residency route then the process involves getting an extension stamp from your local immigration office every 30 days. This costs $50BZD ($25USD) for the first 6 months and $100BZD ($50USD) for the following months until you have obtained a residency stamp from the immigration office in Belmopan.

The process to obtain residency is a fairly simple one in theory but can turn in to quite a process. Once a person has fulfilled the time requirement and has the appropriate amount of extension stamps given by the immigration offices in Belize there are a few things you will need to get together before actually submitting your application (all required forms can be found at the immigration offices);

• Police Report: This report is ordered through the police department. The report costs $15BZD to order and you will have to have two passport sized pictures to go along with the application. This report typically takes at least a month to arrive for your use so it is suggested to order this a month or two before your 12 months is up. Month 9 or 10 should be an adequate amount of time to have your report ready for your application at month 12.
• Health Certificate including an AIDS test: This certificate (get the form from the immigration office) can be completed by any local doctor. The fees will vary based on the doctor you choose.
• 3 Passport Pictures: There are several photo stores that will be able to provide you with these photos. This cost will also depend on the shop you choose.
• Statement from your bank or financial institution: This will be required if you are not employed or retired.
• Birth certificates for minor children, marriage certificate/declaration of support
• A work permit or trade license if applicable

Once you have all of these pieces you may submit your application to the immigration offices. The cost to obtain residency for a US Citizen is $1,000USD along with a $125USD residency card fee once approved. Once the application has been submitted the approval process can take anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks and you must continue to get passport extension stamps from the immigration office until the residency process is complete.

My mom and I are currently qualified to apply for residency and were as of November 2009. We made the unfortunate mistake of trusting someone to expedite this process. We were quoted a slightly higher price to have our applications expedited and we went for it. A few months into the wait it was clear that something was up – we would have had our residency without expediting anything by that time. This person was working with his uncle (a Belizean minister), information which we had verified, but something was fishy based on the time it was taking, and then he started telling us we needed additional requirements before the applications could be approved. So we played his game for a few more months with absolutely no results – we had also paid this guy money so now we were pretty certain the whole thing had been a scam. We finally cut the whole thing short and realized it was definitely a scam. We cut our losses and now have to start all over with the whole process. This man had never even put our applications through the correct channels. So we were both out time and money.

I wanted to share this experience in hopes that it may help someone else who finds someone to expedite their application. It is possible to do this but please ensure that you are working with legitimate people and do your homework on the whole process. Don’t make the same mistake we did. Now we also have to worry about all our private information being stolen along with the fact that we are out money.

Please feel free to share if you have had any experience, good or bad, with obtaining your residency in Belize.