I want to move as a Self Employed - Guidance required

Hi Hashmiz,

Welcome on Expat-blog!

I suggest you to have a look at this article: "How to set up a business in Mauritius". You will find useful informations and links.

I wish you good luck,
Christine

Thanks for your reply. I checked that and have a few questions:

1) To work as a freelancer, annual income should be MUR:600,000 or more. Can i have dependents with me if working as a freelancer ?

2) When a Residential Permit is required ?

regards
Hashmiz

1) yes & yes. But presenting your project to the administration doesn't necessarily means that they will accept it

2) forget about the residence permit

Thanks for your reply Julien.

Is there any self assessment etc available ? like what it takes to get the acceptance ?

There are several freelance websites, and I have been working on 2 of them and have completed about 500 projects related to Web Development, and programming etc.

Is there any place etc where I can get an idea if they will accept ?

thanks
Hashmiz

Many people have got a Residential/Work Permit by incorporating a company. I think so. If you need more info you let me know. I will try my best to help you.

Thanks

check this site: http://www.gov.mu/portal/site/dhasite/m … rpermit%20

I'm going through the same process, I've been checking for sometime about this matter, I suggest you to check with a service company called Cer-Service, you can find their contact in the directory of Expat.com, they're very professional and can help you with everything,
If you want to do it yourself, the process is very complicated & I think Julien will agree with me,
Anyway for Self-employed category you should apply for occupation permit which is a combination of (work/residency permit) based on your project proposal to the Board of investment, upon approval you should incorporate a company with a minimum capital of 35,000 USD with an annual income more than 600,000 MRU ~ 20,000 USD

All the best!

It's very difficult (almost impossible) to know whether your application will be accepted or not prior to making the complete application.

For self-employed, I suggest that you put a strong business plan.  Still it doesn't bring any certainty to your case but it's kind of comforting if you put maximum information to the sight of BOI officers. 

Each case is now subject to examination of committee acting under the aegis of the PRime Minister's Office.

Ajace, for self-employed you don't incorporate a company.  You register your own name as business. IF you incorporate a company, then you will need to apply as Investor, for which you need to invest USD100,000 minimum and make annual turnove of Rs4 million

Thanks dear for the valuable information,
However I'm already in touch with BOI and it doesn't really seems to be very difficult, and yet you still can register any company name for your business based on Self-Employed Category,
Anyway every one has his own opinion & experience with all respect!!!

however "hashmiz" if Mauritius doesn't want people like us to establish their business even with small capital, we always have Countries like UAE, China, HK, Netherlands as an option!!
We give it a try and we respect their decision at the end!!!

Better you contact the BOI directly because otherwise you will keep hearing different opinions.
The Government established what so called "BOI" as one stop shop  to help people not to make their life complicated and ((Impossible))... they want money to come to the island even with small amounts like 35K USD,, and it's very smart idea I guess

I lived in Dubai for 10 years and now in Dubai the Government is making an offer for small investor to come to the country and establish a regular company with full residency permit for 3 years for 7K USD with as minimum as 1$ capital,,, this is how emerging countries are attracting people so the country grow & grow with these people,

Dubai been very smart attracting SMB's for a long time & this's why the country today is a regional business center,

I really wish Mauritius to be much better & Smarter than Dubai

Hi Everybody,

Its not only regarding this post but it concerns all the posts i read where people wanted to have infos on relocating to Mauritius, OP etc etc I see many people replying and not giving the right information. Will all respect, i want to say to those people to stop giving incorrect information to people if you are not even aware of what you are saying. And worst, if you have never been in the situation of the people who relocated and have struggle to obtain your OP...

Guys, the best way, use a professional or come to Mauritius on a tourist visa, have a look at the country, see if you like the idea of living here...Then drop in at the BOI, gather all information and requirements, apply for your OP.. Forget about bribes or things like that, do things according to the law and you will succeed... Going on the BOI website and copy/pasting information to people is not the correct way of doing things. Do you know for how long the website hasn't been updated? Laws are amended often in Mauritius.

To conclude, please guys, stop giving false information. Those people are struggling to come to Mauritius and to live peacefully here and do their business...Let them do it the correct way and they will succeed.

Hope i have not been rude in my comments,

Cheers

Chris's post is what we call Logic or common sense!!

Thanks!!

Ajace, I think that you mean to say a self-employed can register any name for his BUSINESS NAME AND NOT a COMPANY NAME.  A company is different to what a self-employed is.  A company is a legal entity with shareholders and director and a company secretary...it is a limited liability concept whereas a self-employed is personally liable. 

Chris, you are indeed very right...but to help us better, can you point which information are false? I share your opinion that people are struggling to come to Mauritius and have been defending this for the past decades!!  But if we need to correct everybody, the first one that need correction will be some fo the officers of the BOI... Completely with you Chris as regards copy pasting from BOI website, it has never been updated according to my observation. 

Everybody started to take themselves for professional relocation consultant when the BOI started the Business Facilitation Act in 2006.  I was, at that time,  with 10 years of experience and seen so many disillusioned foreigners.  Once BOI started requesting a business plan (which was not the case earlier), the number of consultant decreased.  With even more conditions, the has been more reduction in consultants...cause that was not their competence.  There are still some of this species surviving to date. The greed for foreign currency is such that it makes You try new professions even if not your field. The difference with real consultants is that it IS their profession... And they have a global view on business laws and immigrations law, which goes well beyond the BOI. Don't forget that the Ministry of Labour also has it's schemes...and this got nothing to do with BOI. How many of us know this, and know what it entails? This one of those silly questions that makes the difference. Another example:  Ask a BOI officer what are the requirements for a Pleasure Craft licence, he will tell you to go to Tourism Authority...a professional consultant will answer you on the spot...where is the one-stop-shop then?

You have not been rude Chris...but exact to the point.  People should stop advising others simply after reading one or two paragraphs on a website. After all, it affects the lives of people....like those senior foreign citizens who were made to believe that they will get Permanent residence after 3 years of Retired Occupation Permit, from official BOI document. After three years some are not even granted a renewal of their permit, they've sold everything in their country and need to go back again to start from scratch. 

Fortunately countries like Dubai, HK and others still exist...and Mauritian government seemed surprised in the decrease in foreign direct investment!!!!

I think that I need to state my disagreement on one point from Chris 'do things according to law and you will succeed' .  It does not work in all situation , sorry Chris.  I am now in presence of two cases where occupation pmit is not being renewed where all conditions were met.  These are cases where the persons are employing Mauritian people (8 employees, in one case).  Everything has been done legally....but still they are told to pack-up and go.  I'm not into bribery or illegal things...but simply wants to tell you that your statement doesn't stand in all cases, it would be naive to say such things if you really know what going on backstage...

Guys, this discussion fourm is not to prove that the opinion of the others are all wrong, it's to share and to know more!!

I think we should take it easy and relax and we don't need to turn this nice discussion into an argument,

For me I respect all the comments and all the opinions and I'm pretty sure that everyone here already cleared his point of view

Thanks to all.

I would like to just add my 2 cents worth here:

Permits and the likes is like playing Russian roulette with a single bullet only; if you get what I mean, you will understand what am implying!

Don't put all your eggs in the same basket; look for good opportunities everywhere!!

Yes, the forum is for sharing what you know and your experience.  But i think, since it is accessible to public and might lead to wrong-decisions, those who have knowledge have the duty to inform.

It all has been by well summarized by Alisa...permits are not from precise science...you might be all legal and good, and still not get it :-)