Re: Relocating
#142846
05/14/02 09:48 PM
05/14/02 09:48 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 713 Fremont, CA, USA
susangg
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Forget living anywhere in Belize and especially on Ambergris Caye unless you either live off trust funds and investments (big ones) or enough capital to invest in a business (like a hotel or a factory) that will bring money into the Belizean economy (and you still need money because you will run in the red for a few years). The Belizean economy cannot sustain its own people, it surely cannot sustain gringos who come to play in the sun. You will not get a work permit to perform massage therapy unless you build a hotel and work in it yourself. As a capital investor you can easily get a work permit to run your own business. Bear in mind that living in San Pedro is far more expensive than living in most parts of the US. Suggest you take a hard look at your finances and then buy Lan's book "Adapter Kit Belize." If you have enough money saved to take a sabbatical and live off your savings for a few months, that's fine. The book will help you figure out how to do that.
Susan Guberman-Garcia, Attorney at Law. Phone: 510-792-2639 Fax/Voicemail:: 510-405-2016 Email: [email protected]
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Re: Relocating
#142848
05/18/02 07:52 PM
05/18/02 07:52 PM
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Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 1,157 San Pedro and Caye Caulker, Be...
silkpainter
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I don't really see where you're coming from susangg, your posts have taken on such a cynical tone, I used to enjoy reading your thoroughly researched responses. Good information ljacks. Like ljacks, I actually live here and have gotten my residency. I came with some money (not a lot though), and it wasnt trust fund money. I was very careful about who I did business with and where I spent that little nest egg. I would recommend at least a couple of trips here to check things out first before moving your family. I was lucky, I met some good people who gave me valuable advice and steered me away from the land sharks. I also wasn't in a big hurry to invest or buy property or build a house. Work permits are possible to get EVEN if you dont build a hotel and work in it yourself. If an employer wants you they WILL get you your work permit. Most massage therapists that I know work independent and went straight for their residency as a business person and skipped the whole work permit stage. You have to come here with enough money to live and not work while you are waiting for your papers. I did it, but my children are all grown and out of the house. You definitely pay for lifestyle here, and it didnt bother me to live in a less than luxurious apartment, but if you're looking to replicate your life in the U.S. you'll pay for it in San Pedro. SP is singularly the most expensive place to live in Belize, Belizeans come from the mainland to make what they consider top dollar here. I was just in Sarteneja a couple of weeks ago and could have rented a 2 bedroom nice (in my opinion) cement house for $150 U.S. a month, but in Sarteneja your customers would be locals paying you in mangos and fish, not cash. I've not been in Belize as long as some, but I've seen people come and go, and one big factor is bar-stool time, the longer they sit on the barstool, the more despondent they become. Living in paradise successfully means long hours, working on Christmas to serve the tourists and living with less (but being happy with less). There is so much about my old life that I don't miss, I live much simpler now, and I spend a lot less on my lifestyle here than I did in the U.S. I dont need all those "things" to make me happy. --Silk www.caribbean-colors.com
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Re: Relocating
#142850
05/19/02 03:58 AM
05/19/02 03:58 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 713 Fremont, CA, USA
susangg
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Cynical? Well...I dunno. I'm not much for happytalk (You'll never see "LOL" in one of my posts...). The lady asked for advice and I assume she wanted straight talk so she got it from me, like it or not. Look, this lady described the situation as: married couple, 2 young kids, husband unemployed (unless I misunderstood what she meant by "professional dad"...) and she's a "massage therapist." She wants to live in San Pedro if she can find work to sustain herself and family. Looks like a recipe for disaster to me. You say she can easily get a work permit. Maybe so...it looks like anybody can get just about any kind of permit if they have the capacity to demonstrate a sufficient quantum of "gratitude." It strikes me that these folks probably won't be able to do that.
What you call "cynicism" may be a touch of my politics showing and perhaps it came out in my post.
My take: Belize is a cash-poor developing country with a rapidly imploding economy. It is blessed with much natural beauty, a fabulous environment (other than the odd hurricane) and a surfeit of well educated young people who can't live in their own country because there is no work for them. Under such circumstances I do not believe expat gringos looking for a relaxed lifestyle in the sunshine have the right to come to Belize and ask the local economy to sustain them. Gringos who have not paid their dues and don't have money to invest to create wealth and jobs FOR the community instead of taking FROM it ought not to be able to live in Belize unless they bring their own money to do it. They have no right to take jobs away from Belizeans. There are certainly exceptions -- for people who have valuable skills that are not sufficiently met in Belize -- that might include medical doctors (real ones, not the phony kind, ahem..), public health nurses, teachers, scientific and technical personnel who are willing to work a lot cheaper than they would in the US when no Belizeans are available (and that would rarely include San Pedro, most of the need for such people is in the Toledo District, Orange Walk, etc.) It does NOT, in my humble opinion, include "massage therapists." Surely if there is a crying need for rub-downs in San Pedro, there are Belizeans who can do this work or could do it if they had some training. That's my opinion; as Dennis Miller says, I could be wrong. If it offends some people, well, it won't be the first time nor is it likely to be the last.
Susan Guberman-Garcia, Attorney at Law. Phone: 510-792-2639 Fax/Voicemail:: 510-405-2016 Email: [email protected]
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