How do I become a citizen of Belize?

After your first year in Belize, as long as you haven’t left the country for more than 14 days, you can apply for citizenship by way of naturalization.  Then, after five years (six years total), you can obtain Belizean citizenship and a Belizean passport. 

After your first year in Belize, as long as you haven’t left the country for more than 14 days, you can apply for citizenship by way of naturalization.  Then, after five years (six years total), you can obtain Belizean citizenship and a Belizean passport. 

For American people, if you are going to actually expatriate, you have to surrender your passport to the US.  In order to do that, you need to have another passport intact before you can expatriate and stop paying Uncle Sam taxes. The ability to stop paying taxes to the US is an incentive right there for people from the US or from that one other country in the world that makes you pay taxes on income you earn any place in the world. Aside from that, Belizean citizens are part of the...

For American people, if you are going to actually expatriate, you have to surrender your passport to the US.  In order to do that, you need to have another passport intact before you can expatriate and stop paying Uncle Sam taxes. The ability to stop paying taxes to the US is an incentive right there for people from the US or from that one other country in the world that makes you pay taxes on income you earn any place in the world. Aside from that, Belizean citizens are part of the CARICOM nations (about 15 Caribbean countries).  There are a lot of Europeans who are looking for a second passport if they are not interested in staying in Europe, and Belize offers that.
 
Becoming a Belizean citizen is emotional decision but it pays a lot especially for American citizens who cannot separate citizenship and residency. The British set up the tax system so that if you were not living in a certain country you would not have to pay taxes to that country; you pay to the country of origin of your funds. If you earn money in Canada, you give something back to Canada and no other country. Likewise, when you earn in Belize, you give back to Belize and no other country.  The US is not set up that way.
 
The process for becoming a citizen of Belize is to have the work permit, pay the fee, and to essentially submit your paperwork without having left the country for more than 14 days in a year. You can also become a Belizean citizen as a result of being a member of the Qualified Retirement Residency Program. If you are thinking about getting citizenship in Belize, it is best to consult a qualified attorney.