Resident permit... work - need clarification

Dear all,

My wife and I are planning to move to Mauritius in 2014 to create a company.

Because of the initial investment required to acquire the "investor" Occupation Permit that is above what we can do at this moment, we are thinking I would go as Self Employed.

My wife can follow me with a Resident permit. Will she be able to work with such a visa?

Also, I assume that it is valid for 3 years, the length of my "occupation permit", after which both can be turned into Permanent Residency for 10 years.

Could someone clarify the work situation for my wife and confirm (or not) the validy of the visas?

Many thanks for your help in advance.

Kind regards

Romain

Hi Romain and welcome to Expat.com!

Hope that you'll soon be advised.

Do not hesitate to take a look at the different threads of the forum, it may help.;)

Harmonie

Hi,

if you can get a self employed permit, your wife will get a dependent permit and she won't be able to work. She will have to find a job here and get an occupation permit as a professional (or ask another self employed occupation permit).

Getting a permanent resident permit is not that easy, there are a lot of conditions which can be found on the BOI website (and well, we can't say if the conditions will remain the same for the next 3 days).

What's sure is that the Authorities want more foreign investors and professionals on the island

hope this helps,

Julien

Self-employed, if I may add, targets service providers and professionals.  If there is a commercial (sales of products, for instance) authorities might ask you to turn to investor permit and operate under a company.  The biggest constraint in BOI permit is the letters of intent.  You need to give letters of interest from potential clients. Might be tricky.

Please do also consider the Work permit scheme operated under the Ministry of Labour.  This scheme has no investment condition and neither a minimum turnover obligation. But they don't give access to Permanent Residency (which still is very difficult even with the BOI).

Dear Nadeem,

Thank you very much for your very interesting input!

We are planning to be "service providers" (concierge, event planning...), no goods/ commercial products for sale.

I did not find anything about the letter of intent from potential clients... It seems very tricky considering that we cannot start prospecting until we step foot there!

We will study further all this as we are VERY motivated!

Kind regards

Romain

It's no surprise that you couldn't find anything about the letter of interest. These are things, unfortunately, that you will only come to know when you present yourself at the BOI counter (after you've paid your flight to the island, booked your accomodation...& sometimes sold everything in your country.

I still don't understand why this is not listed in their list of required documents! They seem to stick to it, so why not include it as compulsory. Well, sometimes you just to abide - makes them happy. :-)

Good luck Romain - stay motivated.