Questions regarding citizenship

Hi

I think if you are from south africa and have done your own business ventures in SA before then its easy to set up the same in Mauritius

In terms of citizenship you need to apply after 3 years and if you have the minimum required turnover on your company it will be granted

See http://www.ocra-mauritius.com/local/res … ritius.asp

anyways you can create the business plan and come to Mauritius on a Business visa then apply or set up an appointment at Board of Investment

Louis

Rapala74 wrote:

I am a South African thinking about emigrating to Mauritius under the self employed program.  I understand that in order to qualify, one must have an annual turnover of around $20k but if you want to obtain a permanent residence, you must have a turnover of around $100k.

My questions are:
- How long must you reside in Mauritius before you can apply for a passport?
You have to be a citizen to get a Mauritian passport, see
http://www.gov.mu/portal/site/dhasite/m … #qualified

- If I just stay on an occupational permit, renewing it every 3 years, will I be eligible for a passport?
see above

- Will I be able to keep my South African passport if I apply for mauritian citizenship?
Not according to the Mauritian Citizenship Act which stipulates :
Application for registration under section 5 of the Mauritius Citizenship Act shall be accompanied by a declaration of renunciation ,in the form set out at Appendix II, to the effect that applicant renounces any citizenship which he may possess. This declaration shall be equally effected in Mauritius in the presence of a Judge or the Master and Registrar of the Supreme Court or a District Magistrate.


An unrelated question is whether anyone has experience with immigration consultancies and whether it is necessary. I have been quoted some pretty horrific prices for them to help me with the self employed application forms and business plan.
Is the application process straightforward or do you think it's necessary paying them for the help?

Thanks in advance

Rapala74 wrote:

I am a South African thinking about emigrating to Mauritius under the self employed program.  I understand that in order to qualify, one must have an annual turnover of around $20k but if you want to obtain a permanent residence, you must have a turnover of around $100k.

My questions are:
- How long must you reside in Mauritius before you can apply for a passport?
- If I just stay on an occupational permit, renewing it every 3 years, will I be eligible for a passport?
- Will I be able to keep my South African passport if I apply for mauritian citizenship?

An unrelated question is whether anyone has experience with immigration consultancies and whether it is necessary. I have been quoted some pretty horrific prices for them to help me with the self employed application forms and business plan.
Is the application process straightforward or do you think it's necessary paying them for the help?

Thanks in advance

Hello Rapala,

I'd say you better consult the website of the Board of Investment for full information on the conditions regarding resident permits, work permits, etc. Watch out because the figures have changed since March 2010

Here are the interesting links

Accessing permanent resident permit

Working in Mauritius

Citizenship Act

You can also find useful information on acquiring citizenship on this Link

Hope this will be useful for you
All the best
Arlette

Thank you everyone for your helpful replies. I found this exerpt in the citizen act document:

(c)    he has resided in Mauritius for a continuous period of 5 years, or such shorter period (not being less than 12 months) as the Minister may in the special circumstances of any particular case accept, immediately preceding the date of his application;


It therefore sounds to me like I could obtain citizenship if I renewed my occupation permit after 3 years, stayed an extra 2 and then applied.  Is anyone else following this course of action to obtain citizenship?  It would of course be very upsetting to be forced to choose between a SA and Mauritian passport. 

Rapala74 wrote:

Thank you everyone for your helpful replies. I found this exerpt in the citizen act document:

(c)    he has resided in Mauritius for a continuous period of 5 years, or such shorter period (not being less than 12 months) as the Minister may in the special circumstances of any particular case accept, immediately preceding the date of his application;


It therefore sounds to me like I could obtain citizenship if I renewed my occupation permit after 3 years, stayed an extra 2 and then applied.  Is anyone else following this course of action to obtain citizenship?  It would of course be very upsetting to be forced to choose between a SA and Mauritian passport. 

Three things you should consider:

1. You forgot subsection 2 of the same section , which goes like this:

A person to whom this ection applies shall not be registered under this section unless he first renounces any other citizenship which he may possess.

2. Will you Occupational permit be renewed after 3 yrs ? This is dependent on your employer and the "skills" required at the time of renewal ( or God forbids , the govt .changes in the mean time)

3. You should ensure to find out " what special circumstances are?"

JMHO

Hi Louis

I am gleaning as much info as I can on the best route into MRU and my head is spinning between Occup Permit, Res permit, Work permit, Self-employed, registering a training institute and now I spot your quote below where you mention a Business Visa, which I have not come across before. Could you tell me a bit more about the process you suggest below? For example, the puzzle for me is, should we enter under "self-employed", at what point must we be able to show the required Annual turnover of Rs600,000 - at the end of year 1, or upon entry. All the websites are clear on information, except timing of requirements. We have registered a business in 2008, which is due to expire again next year november, if we don't get going, we will have to start all over...Any advice/help is welcome.
Thanks so much for being available to us as a "ground zero info hub". It's great to connect with real SA bodies there who have walked the walk. Cheerio, TP 

louisj wrote:

Hi

I think if you are from south africa and have done your own business ventures in SA before then its easy to set up the same in Mauritius

In terms of citizenship you need to apply after 3 years and if you have the minimum required turnover on your company it will be granted

See ocra-mauritius.com/local/residence-mauritius.asp

anyways you can create the business plan and come to Mauritius on a Business visa then apply or set up an appointment at Board of Investment

Louis

Hi TP, we have now successfully obtained our occupations permits under the self employed program and are renting a house in Tamarin. yay!

To answer your question, you only need to prove your Rs600 000 turnover at the end of the first year in Mauritius as I understand it.

We used an agent to help us through the process of formulating a business plan and to answer the thousands of questions we had.  You may want to look them up on dnrconsulting.co.za as they were very helpful.

something else to mention related to this thread is that I have found out that you do not have to give up your SA passport to obtain Mauritian citizenship.  It merely means in a time of crisis like war, that you would be on the Mauritian side or something like that.  Would hate to come invade my fellow saffas but hey the surf and sun is too good here so gotta do what i gotta do!

Thanks for your reply - is it also possible for you to give an estimate of the amount of money one would need to gain entry, as I understand it from one BOI page, there is about R50K in ZAR currency payable on various applications for the main applicant plus dependents. Then of course, one has to live for the first while. I just don't seem to be able to pin down a rand value on what one must have as a minimum to cover costs. I don't mean air tickets and removal costs, just the legal requirements that side.
Thanks and have an awesome day of surf and sun - we had our (hopefully las) typical cold spell yesterday after 3 unbelievably hot weeks in Pretoria :-)

Cheerio, TP

PS
congratulations on getting your occupation permits, wow, what a feeling it must be! What do you as a self-employed?
Cheerio, TP

Don't always believe what you read on websites.  Ask around, ask people who should have a permanent permit, do they have it..NOPE.  Who has a permanent residence permit?? The BOI website says after three years you can get Permanent residence permit but there are no laws to make this happen. I based my move to Mauritius in 2008 that I would get a PR permit, NOPE, not going to happen. The government will renew permits. As told in person by the BOI two weeks ago PR will be handled on a per-case basis. I know people who have been here for 10 years and no PR. And a Mauritian passport takes the Prime Minister's signature. Even if you marry a Mauritian you have to be on the island for 7 years before you are approved. The government will count all the days you have been out of the country and subtract from the 7 years. So if you are out of country for 2 years you will have to wait 9 years. Please private email for the real inside info.

Thanks

Thanks for your well wishes TP, my business is Internet marketing and web design.

As far as costs go, the fee to the BOI for myself, my wife and child was Rs10 000, so just R2500.  Under the self employed program I was required to make a capital investment of ~$30k into my mauritian bank account.  My other costs were $3k to my agent who helped me with the application.  Obviously this expense is up to you.

As a follow on from pbrough on PR, I know a S african here who has been here 15 years who says he just renewed his occupation permit after 3 years and got his citizenship after another 2 years.  He is married to a Mauritian so this may have helped and this is also 10 years ago so things may have changed.