Bermuda Expat Forum

XBDA
Joined 2017
Posts: 37

5 years ago

Bermuda's Anti-Immigrant Restrictions

5 years ago

The big one: there is no way to get permanent residence! You will always be subject to work permits, which are usually for one, two, or three years at a time. Even if you accumulate 20 or 30 years living there on a work permit, you will always be subject to deportation.

Your boss can have the government cancel your work permit at any time, giving you 30-90 days to leave the island. So getting into a dispute with your boss can be incredibly expensive and disruptive to your life.
Even if you are in the right, it can be very expensive and difficult to obtain redress or compensation after you have already been forced to leave the island.

Work permits are tied to a specific job, so it's very hard to switch jobs unless your old boss agrees.

A promotion requires a whole new work permit, so even if your boss wants to give you a promotion, the government may refuse.

The government has a policy of not giving work permits to anyone with more than two children. If you want to decide for yourself how many children you want, then expect to be deported.

Your teenaged children will be deported at age 18 -- even if they are halfway through a school year and even if they were born in Bermuda and never lived anywhere else.

Your spouse and teen children will need to get work permits even to do odd jobs like babysitting. And of course, they will be refused that work permit, since it might "take away a "Bermudian's job". So you can expect your child to gain zero work experience as long as you live in Bermuda.

As an immigrant, you can never get British citizenship or a Bermuda passport. Under British law, you need to have lived for ten years in a British Territory *without time restriction* to get "British Overseas Territory Citizenship". But of course, a work permit always has a time restriction, so you can never qualify for a passport.

This also means that you can never vote in a Bermuda election, even if you have lived and paid your taxes there for 20,30, 40 years. The current government has been in power for 15 of the last 20 years on a hardline anti-immigrant platform and would never consider letting immigrants vote.

Foreigners are banned from owning a home (except for the 149 most expensive homes on the island). You can in theory get a license to buy a condo, but there does not seem to be any set process for getting a license -- you just have to hope that someone in the government likes you.

Foreigners may not own more than 40% of a local business. So if you are a professional or tradesman that hopes to take over your boss's business one day, forget it. If you want to start a little side business as a caterer or flower arranger to supplement your income -- forget it.

Foreign drivers licenses are not recognized. You will need to go through humiliating "driving lessons" at $50/hour, and then take a "test" where you might fail for phantom reasons, to force you to take more "lessons".

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