Starting a New Business in Negril as a foreigner - Do's, dont's and general advise

[Rob]

Blake,

The number of "success" stories in Negril is far, far less than 50%. After we discussed this matter with other ex-pats on the island, the number seems to be less than 5%. Out of each 100 people we know who have tried it, maybe 2 or 3 make it. This puts the situation in a proper prospective.

US citizens can only stay in Jamaica for 6 months in any calendar year. That is whether you have a business or not. If you have a business and want to be a working part of it, the government expects you to do the proper thing and obtain a work permit or become a citizen of Jamaica. If you are "investing heavily", a work permit would be no problem, either in cost or granting. The permit system is set up to minimize the number of people who think they can come to Jamaica and take a position in a job that a Jamaican would be able to fill.

[Blake]

Blake,

The number of "success" stories in Negril is far, far less than 50%. After we discussed this matter with other ex-pats on the island, the number seems to be less than 5%. Out of each 100 people we know who have tried it, maybe 2 or 3 make it. This puts the situation in a proper prospective.

I hear ya, I was pretty skeptical of a 50% success rate given that we don't even have close to that in the US. Starting a business isn't easy and people will fail, that said I wouldn't mind trying to get one going over there, given that I've already started 6 successful businesses and I love gambling it all on the line.

Blake,
US citizens can only stay in Jamaica for 6 months in any calendar year. That is whether you have a business or not. If you have a business and want to be a working part of it, the government expects you to do the proper thing and obtain a work permit or become a citizen of Jamaica. If you are "investing heavily", a work permit would be no problem, either in cost or granting. The permit system is set up to minimize the number of people who think they can come to Jamaica and take a position in a job that a Jamaican would be able to fill.

So the work permit allows you to stay longer than 6 months? This would be crucial if I ever decided to open a business in Jamaica given that the first year is the most important and requires the most hands on approach.

A U.S. citizen may acquire foreign citizenship by marriage, or a person naturalized as a U.S. citizen may not lose the citizenship of the country of birth.U.S. law does not mention dual nationality or require a person to choose one citizenship or another. Also, a person who is automatically granted another citizenship does not risk losing U.S. citizenship.

Luckily you can get citizenship in Jamaica without renouncing your US citizenship, but then I'd have to go against my decision not to get married for the foreseeable future.

I'm not sure I could live day to day life without the greatness that is Amazon prime! Giving up a lot of luxuries to start over would be pretty rough.