Residency

There is no legal requiremment for work permits, If yo can convince the immigration officer you have funds to provide for yourself .  Legal representation is not required. Ask the guy at the Immigration office it may surprise you to know they appreciate your trust in their knowledge.
You do not need any outside persons to apply for you ask for the forms to fill in once you have the uninterupted 12 months  resident requirement  ( not more than a total of 14 days outside of Belize. Includng day trips over the border to either Guatemala or Mexoico.)  in that 12 months.
There are Medical, and police reportsrequired  to file with the forms and once the papers are in it is a case of patiently waiting while continuing the monthly misery that is Immigration day.
Do NOT PAY anyone who tells you that they have a speeded up process.  Many have paid Expiditors to do it all for them and found several months later the paperwork was never registered, and have to start again from scratch.

Thank you for your quick response.  What I really need to know is do you have to get your work permit before you get your residency?  They are telling us we need a work permit in order to apply for residency.  Doesn't sound right if I don't plan on working.  Would be paying for I don't need nor will use.

You don't need a work permit.

Thank you.  I, we, didn't think so.  Just didn't make sense.

Question.  Did you apply for your residency?

My son has now got residency, but he has never had a work permit.
If you are within the age Bracket for QRP, some pressure, often  gently applied, for you to go that route instead of residency. that could be what is happening if you are over 45 years.

Thanks for the info.  If they try to push me the QRP, I'll just drop trying for residency.  I don't want to put that kind of money in the bank here.

cayecaulkergirl wrote:

They are telling us we need a work permit in order to apply for residency.  Doesn't sound right if I don't plan on working.  Would be paying for I don't need nor will use.

Who is the THEY you are referring to?

If it is government officials, talk to a different office without mentioning work permits, I am sure you will get a different response.

If it is someone offering to help I am sure they are doing it to add their own fees to the transaction.

However there is one possibility, if you told the  THEYs you were going to be building your own house, or remodeling an existing property, technically it might be correct. If that is the case, I suggest not mentioning doing your own work on a property as you go through the residency process.

In the four years since I retired, I bought an existing Mennonite house as a 2nd home in Belize, and we spend about 6 months over several trips down from Texas each year. I have had local folks do major work on the place, and have done many things myself. It has been mentioned to me, that doing some of my own work, I really should get a work permit...

Because we spend more than 14 days each year outside Belize, we are not eligible to apply for residency, and are quite happy with our current flexibility.

The "That kind of money is $2k us per month". It is still all your own money to spend in Belize as you wish, to pay your day to day bills .
The Banks in Belize that have had problems were INTERNATIONAL banks not Belize based banks. The most recent Atlantic international bank was not a Belize bank, it was Honduran.
if you are renting at the moment and taking money from an ATM in small chunks you are making lots of profit for your homeland banking system as well as that of the banks in Belize you take it from.  If you are living on substantially less than that sum while renting on the Cayes I am impressed.
If you have no intention of wishing to work in Belize ever, and wish to have the freedom to come and go from the country as you want then The QRP could work for you plus you could then import your goods and a vehicle,boat, or small aircraft ( if you are qualified pilot) without the costly customs duty this not a perk if you just get residency.
The main perk of Residency is the freedom to either be self employed or to become an employee within Belize if that is not on your radar then apart from removing the monthly immigration visit there is not a lot of advantages. My son took 2 and a half years after the first paperwork went in to get his Residency, he was far too young to go QRP but given the chance and had he qualified, he would have done so happily, as that would have speeded things up so much. As Will said if you are taking advice from an outside source   titled as an expeditor  it is not needed you can do this easily, with a large amount of patience, an expeditor is just an added cost, and unlikely to speed up anything. If it is just pressure from  a particular immigration official try to see a different official.

terrific wrote:

The "That kind of money is $2k us per month". It is still all your own money to spend in Belize as you wish, to pay your day to day bills .

For me if I were to ever go on the QRP, I would open an account with one of the three remaining Belize International Banks.

https://www.centralbank.org.bz/financia … onal-banks

My reasoning is although I can put US dollars into a Belize domestic account, I can only withdraw it in Belize dollars. Belize dollars can't really be spent outside Belize. US dollars can be withdrawn from a Belize international bank account. Perhaps having both a domestic and an international account would be the way to go, if the associated fees are not too bad.

However the above link brings up a question.
Quoting from the above link "Belize's international banks offer traditional banking services in foreign currencies exclusively to non-residents,". The question is, is someone on the QRP ever considered a Belize resident? If so, then it looks like at some point they could no longer use a Belize international bank account.