Family moving to Barbados from US. So many questions!

Atlantic Shores is a family neighbourhood.

You should look carefully at the homeschool rules i.e. will your children need student visas, to attend primary and secondary schools they do - not clear on homeschooling.

Oddly, the option of homeschooling will close the door on the way people with school age childrdn develop a social circle.

The other option is churches if you are religious.

Do not expect to find lots of children wandering the neighbourhood. It is a curious fact of life here that right up to eighteen expat children here seem to get ferried from place to place. The only place I have seen congregations of them is at the yacht club at Carlisle Bay.

If you do have work (with a permit!!) that would give some links too, if you are coming down speculatively and do not plan to try to go "off-grid" you will only be able to stay for 26 weeks total in any year - so that would disrupt the process too - generally it takes a year or so to really settle in.

Good luck.

I know this is an older post but I appreciated the response.

I'm coming down next week for an interview as an executive. My wife is coming to do recon regarding neighborhoods, schools and anything else there is to learn. We have 4 kids, 9-14. We'll only be there for 4 or 5 days and I'll be in the office for 2 days. We are treating this as a work trip and we aren't planning to do any tourist activities.

Any recommendations for what someone who will be employed should do to learn more about life on Barbados as an expat?

Hi. We have been living here for 8 months and I would be happy to email or message with you directly to answer any questions you may have.  I have been homeschooling our 10 & 13 year old children. It has been a wonderful year! We are moving back to the states though. If you want to send me a private message here I would be happy to respond.
Best of luck to you and your family

If you would like to meet while you are here let me know a name and where you are planning to stay.

I can go through life here.

This is year thirteen for me and think I have good grip on things.

So these responses were going to the spam folder. Wish we were able to connect while we were there.

It ended up being a very busy week. I spent most of my time in the office while my wife made calls and visited as many places (schools, grocery stores, a mall? and some neighborhoods) as possible. We also got to visit with some expats and locals. We didn't see any of the major sites or beaches but did make a trip around the island . Our flight was delayed a day so we missed the Oistin market on Sat which we hear is a great place to meet other expats as well as get perishables for less. We learned of a good butcher to get meats for much less than the grocery store.

We got a good (albeit, short) impression of life on the island. Hardly complete though. Schooling is the harder part. The offer I received wouldn't allow us to afford Codrington which we liked the best. Providence seemed decent as well.

It feels about 2x cost of living which has wondering just how drastically we will have to change our habits. We thought living in st george, away from the beaches, would be cheaper but that appears to not be the case. It's still our preference as it's in the middle. (My wife still has a slight preference to live on a beach. ) Still need to figure out cost of vehicles (lease?) as well.

I'm waiting on my work permit. Would you be able to give some information about how the process went? time? etc

For a long-term permit, assuming you are in a short supply occupation - six to seven months is typical.

For a short-term permit having been on a long-term permit for five years, having immigrant status and being in an in-demand profession and three degrees it took fourteen months - but since then it usually takes four days to renew. I am on short-term permits since I have immigrant status and I was told "don't bother with long-term you will get your interview soon and have permanent residence" so SEVEN years later, and TWO years after the interview I am yet again on a short-term, yup took FIVE years to get the interview AFTER I had been here for FIVE years.

Think someone is saying he keeps paying each year so string it out. Oddly, I have been told I do not have to pay National Insurance when on a short-term permit - one gets no benefits from it, if I was on a permanent resident's stamp - I would be paying more money to GoB than the cost of a permit - but the NI is a separate fund.

Now's here's the funny thing I'll be retiring soon!

So you will, wait and wait and wait. Apparently, I am a good "candidate" for PR - unmarried no children - if you're 35 with a few ankle biters you will potentially cost the county a fortune in health and education care (ok, expats, private etc but got to look at worst case) forget it:(

I have been to BIM more than 6 times as a USA tourist and I am planning to retire there in 2019.  From the budget standpoint it is a bigger budget than living in the USA.   But it seems that the quality of life is higher.  Fresh fish, local produce and local meats are possible.  Nice people of a diverse population are present not in question.  Hospitality and safety high.  Did I mention some of the most beautiful uncrowded beaches. But cheaper than the US, no.  Better quality of life, definitely. 

If I was moving children I would definitely put them in school in BIM.  The literacy rate in BIM is 100%.  Have a conversation with locals, you may find they are very conversant and intelligent, can't say the same in my home state, I live in Maryland. 

Dawn

I know this is a bit off topic but, i am 38 yrs old and looking to travel to Barbados and stay for the winter months and maybe get some random or side jobs while im there, find a cheap place to stay.  Does anyone recomend this or is there any other info people could give me?   

Thanks

We've applied for work permit in January 2018. We registered a company over there but still waiting. Our final letter to the Immigration Office was signed in January 2019 and nothing happened since. The bad thing is ; we paid off the full amount to the lawyer when we started.