Working in Belize as a French National: Permit, Pay, Taxation and Economy

France Diplomatie (the French foreign ministry) reminds travellers that the visa-free stay of less than 30 days gives no right to work. The Belize immigration department describes a temporary employment permit (Temporary Employment Permit) in two stages. The employer files the application with the Labour Department for the employee; a self-employed person files it themselves, while being resident in Belize. The applicant is told the result by telephone within 30 days. An approval letter is then issued; in the event of refusal, the person must go to immigration to regularise their situation.

With the approval letter, the person goes to immigration, obtains a tax letter from the Belize Tax Service, pays the fees and receives the permit immediately after payment is confirmed; they then request their card from the Social Security Board. The documents are the passport, a visa if necessary, the Labour Department letter, the tax letter, the social security letter and two 2-by-2-inch photos. The duration may be one week at most, a harvest season or one year.

• Categories A and B (graduate professionals, technicians): BZD 3,000 a year.
• Category F (non-agricultural self-employed people, owners or managers): BZD 3,000; category G (agricultural): BZD 2,000.
• Categories C, E and L: BZD 1,500 for workers in the banana, sugar and citrus industries and for importer-exporters; BZD 750 for other workers.
• Category K (religious, cultural, educational and voluntary): BZD 200.

A foreign self-employed person generally provides complete copies of the passport, a criminal record from the last country of residence and from Belize, three job advertisements, the curriculum vitae and diplomas, and proof of registration of the activity; regulated professions require a licence. The amounts should be confirmed with the immigration department before payment.

The minimum wage is BZD 5.00 an hour for all categories of workers since 1 January 2023, under orders Nos. 169 and 170 of 2022, announced by the Ministry of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour and Local Government on 22 December 2022. It was BZD 3.30 previously. At the fixed rate of BZD 2 to USD 1, BZD 5.00 corresponds to about USD 2.50.

None of the official sources consulted publishes a pay scale by occupation. Pay varies by sector (tourism, agriculture, services, construction) and by status: a seconded employee generally keeps the package of their French employer, with a local contract following the Belizean market. See seconded or expatriate and the local contract.

The Belize Tax Service publishes guides for employees’ returns and lists the Income and Business Tax (Amendment) Act, 2024 (Act No. 40 of 2024), which exempts certain employees from income tax. The rate, the exemption threshold, the allowances and the date of entry into force should be confirmed directly with the service before any calculation; no amount is given here as the consolidated scale was not read.

The Social Security Board collects, for employees aged 14 to 65, a weekly contribution depending on insurable earnings, split between the employer and the employee: the employer pays the whole amount and may deduct the employee’s share when paying them, but not their own. Contributions are due for any week of work of at least eight hours, before the 14th of the following month. A detailed scale appears on the Board’s website. A retirement pension requires 500 contributions paid and credited, from age 65, or from 60 to 64 for a person without employment.

BOFiP (the French tax administration’s official guidance) lists no tax treaty with Belize, and CLEISS no social security agreement: no treaty tax credit and no totalisation of insurance periods. A seconded employee remains attached to French social security under the conditions of a secondment outside an agreement.

For a self-employed person, category F of the temporary employment permit applies to non-agricultural owners and managers (BZD 3,000 a year); a resident who wishes to set up on their own account also provides proof of registration and a recent tax assessment.

The Belize Tourism Board’s Work Where You Vacation programme is aimed at remote workers employed outside Belize: proof of employment, annual income of at least USD 75,000 for a single person and USD 100,000 for a couple or a family, travel insurance with at least USD 50,000 of cover, a notarised bank statement, a criminal record less than six months old, a stay of 180 days at most, fees of BZD 500 per adult and BZD 200 per child, paid at the airport. The work permit is waived for participants. The digital nomad insurance page describes the protections to arrange.

A registered employee is affiliated to the Social Security Board, which pays short-term benefits (sickness, maternity), work accident benefits and pensions. These benefits are cash payments and do not replace health insurance that reimburses care. National health insurance (NHI) covers, according to the PAHO health profile only the south of Belize City and the south of the country, with a recent extension to certain areas of the north. See the pages on the healthcare system and healthcare reimbursement.

The World Bank describes an economy heavily dependent on tourism, agriculture and remittances, and tied to the United States. The Belize dollar is pegged to the US dollar, which exposes the country to fluctuations in world fuel prices. The up-to-date indicators appear in the “Economic benchmarks” block above.

• Employment: fragile labour-market participation, notably among women.
• Risks: energy prices, a US slowdown and El Niño-related droughts; private investment is held back by regulatory and institutional constraints.

For a French national, the promising sectors are tourism, services and agriculture. See also living in Belize.

• Have the category of the temporary employment permit and its cost (BZD 750 to BZD 3,000 a year depending on the category) confirmed, and specify who pays it.
• Check the application filed with the Labour Department and the response time, with an appeal within 30 days.
• Request affiliation to the Social Security Board and understand that its benefits are cash payments, not a reimbursement of care.
• Negotiate health and evacuation cover, as local cover is partial.
• Ask the Belize Tax Service about the applicable tax, before any calculation of net pay.