andrew9799
English expat in Mauritius
Forum posts
52
Contacts
3
About me
English
Lives in Moka
Speaks English, conversational Mandarin, poor Spanish...
Registration: 29 May 2022
UK mobile network with roaming for Mauritius by andrew9799
Does anyone know which UK mobile networks provide roaming service for Mauritius?
Great, thanks for your help Raj, I've ordered an EE SIM Read More
UK mobile network with roaming for Mauritius by andrew9799
Does anyone know which UK mobile networks provide roaming service for Mauritius?
Thanks for the feedback. Actually I need the UK SIM to activate a UK Tiktok account (it checks the SIM in the phone to decide on the account location). On the EE / T-Mobile link is has a long list of countries but Mauritius is not one of them, same ... Read More
UK mobile network with roaming for Mauritius
Does anyone know which UK mobile networks provide roaming service for Mauritius? Read More
Converting a NON-SA Commonwealth driving License by peterg123
I will want to convert my Kenya driving license to a MU one at some point. We don't have police clearance certificates like SA I have read about. We are just a typical commonwealth type driving license here in Kenya. Does anyone know the regs and ...
@Mahjong thanks for that info Read More
Converting a NON-SA Commonwealth driving License by peterg123
I will want to convert my Kenya driving license to a MU one at some point. We don't have police clearance certificates like SA I have read about. We are just a typical commonwealth type driving license here in Kenya. Does anyone know the regs and ...
@JP0001$$ Ah, ok, good. That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification Read More
Converting a NON-SA Commonwealth driving License by peterg123
I will want to convert my Kenya driving license to a MU one at some point. We don't have police clearance certificates like SA I have read about. We are just a typical commonwealth type driving license here in Kenya. Does anyone know the regs and ...
I am reading on this thread about "converting" a foreign driving licence to a Mauritius driving licence. Does "converting" mean you actually lose your original driving licence? I am from the UK and have a UK driving licence. But previously I've also ... Read More
School Admission by jharna0625
We are planning to move to Mauritius as a Job Change probably in mid of March'24. My son studying in India under the CBSE board in class 8th grade and his session will conclude in March'24.My ward is 13 Year old and need admission in 9th Grade. ...
Le Bocage school in Moka is generally considered to be the best English language International school for that age group. There are other students from India there too. It will depend somewhat upon where you will be living, but there are school ... Read More
Dependent eligibility to work in Mauritius by W1lliam123
I am in the process of applying for a retirement visa. My 10 year old son will accompany me, and will complete his schooling in Mauritius. Will he be allowed to follow a career in Mauritius once he has completed his studies?
I just noticed you are from South Africa, therefore a Commonwealth Country. I think this may be relevant for you:REGISTRATION OF COMMONWEALTH CITIZENSUnder section 5 of the Mauritius Citizenship Act a Commonwealth citizen may be registered as a ... Read More
Dependent eligibility to work in Mauritius by W1lliam123
I am in the process of applying for a retirement visa. My 10 year old son will accompany me, and will complete his schooling in Mauritius. Will he be allowed to follow a career in Mauritius once he has completed his studies?
Check this with the relevant authorities in Mauritius as I'm not totally sure it is the same situation for children, but it is my understanding that once you have been resident in Mauritius for 7 years (or 5 years if from a Commonwealth country), ... Read More
Laptop rental or borrowing by andrew9799
Does anyone know anywhere that will rent out / lend a laptop for just 3 - 4 weeks? We've recently bought our daughter a new Chromebook but this is not suitable for her exams. She needs a laptop with i5 CPU processor (minimum). This will be kept at ...
Hi, thanks all. I got one from laptop.rent Read More
Laptop rental or borrowing by andrew9799
Does anyone know anywhere that will rent out / lend a laptop for just 3 - 4 weeks? We've recently bought our daughter a new Chromebook but this is not suitable for her exams. She needs a laptop with i5 CPU processor (minimum). This will be kept at ...
@yugirht Thank you, I'll check that out Read More
Laptop rental or borrowing
Does anyone know anywhere that will rent out / lend a laptop for just 3 - 4 weeks? We've recently bought our daughter a new Chromebook but this is not suitable for her exams. She needs a laptop with i5 CPU processor (minimum). This will be kept at ... Read More
Stonefish at Flic and Flac by andrew9799
My wife and I nearly stood on a stonefish in the roped off swimming area at Flic en Flac beach today. It was lying on the bottom in about 40cm of water. Luckily it had it's fins out which are brightly coloured so that how my wife noticed it. Anyway, ...
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. One thing that the police said, which I have now thought about further, is that the fish will swim away if anyone gets near to it. And to reverse the situation, if someone was to actually try to step on a fish ... Read More
Stonefish at Flic and Flac by andrew9799
My wife and I nearly stood on a stonefish in the roped off swimming area at Flic en Flac beach today. It was lying on the bottom in about 40cm of water. Luckily it had it's fins out which are brightly coloured so that how my wife noticed it. Anyway, ...
@Bhavna Because there were a lot of people around, and kids playing there too, I told the police and coast guard. But they didn't seem very concerned. The police said the fish is frightened of people and will move away if anyone goes too close. And ... Read More
Stonefish at Flic and Flac
My wife and I nearly stood on a stonefish in the roped off swimming area at Flic en Flac beach today. It was lying on the bottom in about 40cm of water. Luckily it had it's fins out which are brightly coloured so that how my wife noticed it. Anyway, ... Read More
Driving licence convertion: attestation letter from issuing country by StéfS
Hello, I wonder what is the attestation letter from issuing country, requested to get a mauritian converted driving licence. I don't have such document, I only have my french driving licence. Is this attestation letter mandatory? If yes, how to get ...
@yeti1952 Where can this be downloaded please? Read More
Requirements to open a bank account and best bank by GuestPosterS2506
Hello all.I am Sara. I am looking for some information about opening a bank account in Mauritius.What are the requirements and which is the best hassle free bank for expats with/without residency permits?TIA
Hi Sara, I notice there are HSBC branches in Kenya. If you open an account there, must be a Premium account, you can then contact HSBC in Mauritius (in Port Louis) and they will help you to open an HSBC Mauritius account while you are still in ... Read More
International school advice by SmyNJ
Hi, my husband and I and my daughter are planning to move to Mauritius next year and we will start on building our house in the south east coast of Mauritius.I would like to get some recommendations for international schools in the south please?Also ...
By the way, Le Bocage and West Coast school are the nearest international schools to Mahebourg for kids 11+ (both about the same distance I would think). Le Bocage is generally considered to be the better school. Read More
International school advice by SmyNJ
Hi, my husband and I and my daughter are planning to move to Mauritius next year and we will start on building our house in the south east coast of Mauritius.I would like to get some recommendations for international schools in the south please?Also ...
If you contact Le Bocage they should be able to provide you with the contact details for the companies they use for the school bus services, and you can then ask directly (I would think there would be one for the Mahebourg area but don't know for ... Read More
Premium Visa - Return Flight Ticket by GuestPoster1723
Hello,I have been searching for a return flight ticket from 27th July 2023 to 25th July 2024 without success.How have you managed to prove the return flight ticket that lasts a year?
Have you considered buying a one way flight ticket and renting the return part. And then buying the outbound ticket that you will actually use nearer the time? There are quite a lot of places to rent these now like bookonwardticket .com, ... Read More
Ice cream van moint choisy ripped off by Laura91
Hi guys,Want to share my experience yesterday and ask you how you deal with a situation like that. So we ordered a ice cream from the ice cream van at moint choisy we have two kids and the seller says 250 mur ok we thought fair enough overpriced but ...
@prospectorland Actually I've only lived in Mauritius just for over 3 months, so too early to get much insight into it here yet, I've not had any issues with anything so far. The immigration department was really great, much friendlier than I have ... Read More
Ice cream van moint choisy ripped off by Laura91
Hi guys,Want to share my experience yesterday and ask you how you deal with a situation like that. So we ordered a ice cream from the ice cream van at moint choisy we have two kids and the seller says 250 mur ok we thought fair enough overpriced but ...
@prospectorland My observation was in a context of Mauritius because that is what this forum is about, but it can be applied just as easily in a person's home country too, doesn't actually make any difference where it is (or whether it is about an ... Read More
Ice cream van moint choisy ripped off by Laura91
Hi guys,Want to share my experience yesterday and ask you how you deal with a situation like that. So we ordered a ice cream from the ice cream van at moint choisy we have two kids and the seller says 250 mur ok we thought fair enough overpriced but ...
@prospectorland Not sure this is a recommendation, maybe more of another observation. But say we are overcharged 100MUR for an ice cream. We get a double hit from this - one, we have lost 100MUR, and two, our perception of how we feel about that. ... Read More
Ice cream van moint choisy ripped off by Laura91
Hi guys,Want to share my experience yesterday and ask you how you deal with a situation like that. So we ordered a ice cream from the ice cream van at moint choisy we have two kids and the seller says 250 mur ok we thought fair enough overpriced but ...
This is just a general observation. When we think about people within our home country (wherever we are from, UK , Germany, Mauritius, Morocco, USA, etc), we know that there are all different sorts of people, some really honest, some really ... Read More
Relocating to Mauritius by qcarelsen
Hi. Me and my wife with 2 kids are looking to relocate to Mauritius from the UK. I have got a British passport and my wife has got a European passport, the kids has got both. Me and my wife are directors of a well established company here. We will ...
There's the retirement visa (10 yrs residency), but depend on your age, one of you needs to be older that 50.... Read More
Ice cream van moint choisy ripped off by Laura91
Hi guys,Want to share my experience yesterday and ask you how you deal with a situation like that. So we ordered a ice cream from the ice cream van at moint choisy we have two kids and the seller says 250 mur ok we thought fair enough overpriced but ...
Interesting thread about ice cream vans! I have only had one run in with an ice cream van here, which was shortly after we arrived here a few months ago, and also happened to be on Mont Choisy Beach. Mine was the opposite experience. I was on the ... Read More
Procession time for Premium Visa (and other visa) by mail61
Hello everybody,Did anybody apply for a Premium Visa lately? I applied on December 30, last year, and they stated that the processing time would be at least 8 days, with an average of 23 days.I know that I am just a little over the average ...
Try onewayfly, toponwardticket or bookonwardticket. After reserving the ticket you should be able to go to the actual airline website, search for it, and find it there. Book only a few days before you fly in though as the reservations don't last ... Read More
Homeschooling pr Pods in Mauritius?? by peterg123
There are good schools available in the West Coast we want to have our kids attend and move to Mauritius for that. But there is a big problem of most schools are full and also we have to realign the Mauritian Jan to Dec International Curriculum ...
@peterg123 We had the same dilemma. The difference in the school year also means that even if you find homeschooling (which I know nothing much about), the kids will be in a new country for a long time (for them!) without any friends. We ended up ... Read More
GRAND BAY AFTER DARK by rubelle
after watching the beautiful rainbow people last Saturday and feeling very proud that the PM of Australia also joined the parade, we drove down to Grand Bay to continue partying. to our horror, we found creeps, pushers, druggies almost everywhere. ...
@rubelle Did anyone actually do or say anything to you that concerned you? Read More
Introduction from Traci :-) by traci79
Hello (hopefully soon-to-be-neighbours!)My partner and I currently reside in South Africa and have a future work opportunity in Mauritius (Black River area). I have gone through the guide for 2023 (very helpful - thank you!) but I still have a ...
We're in Moka which is fairly central, mainly here because our daughter's school is here. It's nice but not so near to the sea and around 4C cooler on average than the coast. Really depends on what you want. Perhaps get an airbnb for a while when ... Read More
Introduction from Traci :-) by traci79
Hello (hopefully soon-to-be-neighbours!)My partner and I currently reside in South Africa and have a future work opportunity in Mauritius (Black River area). I have gone through the guide for 2023 (very helpful - thank you!) but I still have a ...
Hi Traci, I can answer you on the language and internet parts. We've been here for just over 2 months, have almost zero French, and have not had any problems at all communicating in English only. Often in shops etc the person will speak to us in ... Read More
Retirement documents by oshudofsky
Hi there, are there a lot of documents I need to collect before starting the retirement visa process? Do they have to be in English because I am Dutch? Can I also come on a tourist visa and then apply for the retirement visa? Is it advisable to hire ...
@oshudofsky - A Premier account is just the name of the type of current account with HSBC (with this account they will help you to open an account in other countries). You'll only need it for a few weeks until the HSBC Mauritius account is open then ... Read More
Retirement in Mauritius by Pogespark
Hi All,I have been contemplating on retiring in Mauritius.So, from what I gather -To retire in Mauritius, you have to meet the following criteria:You have reached the retirement age of 50 years or above.You must transfer a minimum monthly amount of ...
Provided you are married and you are over 50 years old then the $1500 per month in total is good for both of you, one as the main applicant and the other as a dependent (children can be included too). You'll need $1500 per month to live in ... Read More
Retirement documents by oshudofsky
Hi there, are there a lot of documents I need to collect before starting the retirement visa process? Do they have to be in English because I am Dutch? Can I also come on a tourist visa and then apply for the retirement visa? Is it advisable to hire ...
If you can open a bank account in your home country with HSBC (must be a Premier Account), you can then open an account with HSBC in Mauritius and transfer the required funds before you even arrive in Mauritius. I did it this way and got my ... Read More
Cell service providers and sim cards by tashwilmot
Hi, when we land on the island we will need to buy a local sim card in order to get our cell phones working so we can use gps to get around. Can one simply purchase one of these on arrival? Pay as you go until we sign up to a long term contract? ...
Be aware there are 2 types of SIMs in Mauritius, one is called a "Tourist SIM" (these are the ones generally sold at the airport) and this will only work for one month (can extend for another week or so but that's about all), after that you need to ... Read More
Retirement documents by oshudofsky
Hi there, are there a lot of documents I need to collect before starting the retirement visa process? Do they have to be in English because I am Dutch? Can I also come on a tourist visa and then apply for the retirement visa? Is it advisable to hire ...
BestofMusicRadio -"Be cautious on how you proceed with funds, otherwise you could be subject to tax in Mauritius."Please could you explain more about what you mean by this? ie, how to proceed with funds and not be subject to tax in Mauritius? Thanks Read More
Second Hand Furniture
Anyone know of any places that sell second hand, but still ok, furniture. We have rented partially furnished, but not sure how long we will stay there so don't want to spend too much. We need a desk, small table, set of draws and wardrobe for our ... Read More
Building Permit by Lolo190563
Hi,Does anyone have any good contacts for Lawyers or Solicitors that specialise in Land and Property matters from personal experience to recommend.I need some advice regarding an issue I have with the municipality in obtaining a BLP1.Any good advice ...
Sorry that this is not an answer, just a further question - does anyone know of a reasonably priced solicitor/lawyer/notary who can notarise and apostille some documents? Read More
Long term car rental by Diego Garcia 2
I need to rent a car long term, 8 months from March 2013.My budget is RS 15000 per month.The car must be:Fairly recent modelAir ConPower steeringMedium sizeGood tyres.InsuranceI will service and repair the car and take the cost off the rental or if ...
Thanks Bhavna Read More
SIM card for Hotspot use by andrew9799
Hi all, anyone any advice on the best SIM card to use in Mauritius for using the Hotspot to connect a laptop to the internet while out and about?
Great, thanks for your feedback everyone Read More
SIM card for Hotspot use
Hi all, anyone any advice on the best SIM card to use in Mauritius for using the Hotspot to connect a laptop to the internet while out and about? Read More
Long term car rental by Diego Garcia 2
I need to rent a car long term, 8 months from March 2013.My budget is RS 15000 per month.The car must be:Fairly recent modelAir ConPower steeringMedium sizeGood tyres.InsuranceI will service and repair the car and take the cost off the rental or if ...
Looking for an older (cheaper) car to rent for a month from 17th December 22, contact me here or whatsapp me on ***. Thanks, Andrew Read More
Home schooling in Mauritius by GuestPoster875
Good day All,We are looking at immigrating from Durban, South Africa. We are finding it difficult to get firm information on the possibility of continuing with home schooling when we arrive in Mauritius. It is not clear if ex-pats are allowed the ...
I looking into homeschooling in Mauritius around 6 months ago. Apparently homeschooling is not legal in Mauritius and all kids of school age (up to 16 years old) are required to attend a school by law. I can't remember where I originally found this ... Read More
Schools with population of Black children attending by blahblah123
Hi I’ll be moving to Mauritius in the next 6 months and want my daughter to go an international school with a good student population of Black African children so she has other children who are also black. She would be starting in primary ...
@ blahblah123 - on a side note, be aware that Northfields school year runs August - June. Whereas West Coast and Le Bocage use the southern hemisphere school year and run from January - November Read More
Commuting in Mauritius by Guest8045
Commuting without a car in mauritius is hard af. Literally want to explore the nightlife bt the local transport stops from 6pm, taxis are freaking expensive 😭. Not to forget, outing alone can be boring. Multiple dilemma!
This is from the Yugo website:"Your ride includes: The minimum Rs 150 base fare + the price of the travelled distance, calculated in Kms; Waiting charges if applicable; Supplement for night charges and public ... Read More
Commuting in Mauritius by Guest8045
Commuting without a car in mauritius is hard af. Literally want to explore the nightlife bt the local transport stops from 6pm, taxis are freaking expensive 😭. Not to forget, outing alone can be boring. Multiple dilemma!
Hi Niel, on the Yugo website it says that the prices are set before booking, in which case the taxi driver can only charge that set price. Or are you saying that prices on apps such as Yugo, (and taxiservicemauritius, motaxi etc, thanks Anou) ... Read More
Commuting in Mauritius by Guest8045
Commuting without a car in mauritius is hard af. Literally want to explore the nightlife bt the local transport stops from 6pm, taxis are freaking expensive 😭. Not to forget, outing alone can be boring. Multiple dilemma!
I'm not in Mauritius yet, but I read that there is a Uber type app called Yugo that can be used to get around - is that not the case? Read More