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Well, I’m not the first person to decide to move to the Caribbean, and definitely won’t be the last.  There probably are very few among us that haven’t considered it after a vacation there.  After all, the Caribbean is one of the most scenic and friendly areas of the world.  For me, that feeling of being drawn there hasn’t gone away since my first visit in 1997, and it is for that reason, among others, that has led me to moving there to start a small business.  This will require doing some serious investigation into the realities of such a venture.  It is this information that I would like to share with you in hopes that it helps you, and in hopes that it might motivate others who have already made the move to share their knowledge and experience as well.  I have separated my moving plan into phases so that it won’t be so overwhelming.  This article covers Phase 1.

For the Research and Preparation, I began by listing the Caribbean locations that I could potentially relocate to.  Using safety and English speaking as primary objectives, my list was reduced to 13 islands and the Caribbean coast of Belize.  The goal was to further narrow the list down to the choices that were the very best (for me, personally) utilizing criteria that are important to being able to make a living and quality of life.  The information I need to narrow this list is available, but not necessarily easy to find.  I utilized the Internet and whatever literature I could find to answer most my questions. 

The Internet is a very tedious research tool.  I have spent hours and hours digging for accurate information.  There are a lot of different versions of statistical information.  I found that I rarely could trust information from tourism sites, at least when it comes to the serious realistic information I needed.  These sites definitely seem to ‘hype’ information to their advantage in order to woo tourists.  I found that official government websites were best for statistical information and message boards pertaining to each of the specific locations were best for everything else.  Message boards are Internet sites that bring together people with questions and people with answers (often locals).  If I want to know about Grenada, I can find a lot of information by searching through years of questions and answers on a Grenada Message Board online.

The chart I created from the answers to my questions helped me clearly compare the possible locations and is shown below with my leading contenders at the top and those eliminated as possibilities towards the bottom.  The information I found is not warranted to be correct and is only the result of my personal research.
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Key To Chart 1 = Nationality of the country, I for independent nation, C for colony or state 2 = Population (usually from 2000 census) 3 = Total square miles 4 = Population density (people per square mile) 5 = Gross Domestic Product (GDP, given in U.S. dollars) 6 = Average per person annual income (estimated from the GDP/population) 7 = Terrain 8 = Number of annual tourists (may/may not include day trip cruise ship passengers) Location 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Grenada I  100,000  131  736  424M  4,700 mtn**  125,000 St. Martin* I  70,000  53  1320 3.7B  52,800 varied 1,000,000 Tortola , BVI C 22,000  59 372 311M 14,100 mtn. 280,000  Dominica I 71,000  464 153 225M 3,100 lush - Belize  I 266,000 23,000 11 1.3B 4,900 lush 225,000 St. Lucia I 155,000 378 410 656M 4,200 mtn.  St. Kitts C 41,000  104 394 191M 4,600 mtn. 100,000 Antigua - 68,000  170 400 524M 7,705 scrub - St. Croix C 50,000  176 284 - - varied

*St. Martin and St. Maarten are French and Dutch sides of the same island, the stats are for both sides together
**Mountainous and usually lush
***The Caymans have the highest GDP of all Caribbean nations with a per capita income level of over $100,000 year.

This ‘apples to apples’ comparison eliminated many of the possible locations.  For instance, I am looking for a location with beaches and mountains, which eliminated Antigua, The Bahamas, Aruba and The Turks due to their usually flat and scrubby terrain.  I am also looking for a fresh cultural experience with kind people that would most likely be open to an outsider, which eliminated The Caymans, due to their money oriented culture, and St. Lucia, which is getting a reputation for overpopulation, poverty, and cocky attitudes. 

Since I plan to start a business, I will need a location that has a clear policy about emigration, obtaining residency, work permits, etc.  Most Caribbean countries have strict policies about keeping most of the local jobs for their local people.  In general, they do not want you coming to live there unless you clearly have something to offer (unless you are a doctor or engineer, this usually means money).  As an example, I eliminated St. Kitts because they require a $35,000 upfront fee and a $250,000 real estate investment to achieve residency before you can start a business.  I sadly moved Dominica, the most beautiful and unspoiled place I’ve ever seen, down the list because they require $50,000 for residency and similarly moved Belize down the list because their government has a nasty reputation for red tape, lost paperwork, and missed deadlines.
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None of the locations make it easy to emigrate, although there are obvious advantages to being a French National and emigrating to the French colony of St. Maarten.  My information on Grenada places it high on my list because they have the most ‘open-door’ policy for outside investment and emigration.  St. Maarten provides a good general example of what to expect if you want to work and live in the Caribbean.  First, you can’t stay there more than 3 months at a time without obtaining a residency permit to live there, which is a 60 day process of paperwork (during which you cannot be in the country) in which you application provides proof that you are going to be an asset to the country (the more money you have, the easier it will be).  If you are lucky enough to obtain residency, you still can’t work.  For that, you’ll need to start your own business, jumping through all those hoops, or, find an employer who will hire you and obtain your official work permit.  Of course, he cannot obtain a work permit unless he has diligently tried to find a local who can do the job and has been unsuccessful.  In summation, it’s not easy.  There is a lot of red tape and fees involved and in general the system is set up to deter you unless you have big money to invest.

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The number of annual tourists and the amount of money they spend are also critical statistics for my future business.  Tourism usually provides the #1 source of income for the Caribbean nations, so I’ll be looking to provide a service or product to these people, more so than to locals.  Poor (literally) Belize shares 1/3of the annual tourist dollars that St. Martin receives between three times as many citizens as St. Martin.  Belize was pushed down the list for this reason;  St. Martin went up.  Additionally, Dominca’s rating went down too because of low tourism and a lack of infrastructure.  Of course, I consider ‘getting in on the ground floor’ to be an opportunity, but, as pioneering as I am in spirit, I don’t have the capital to create the infrastructure necessary for tourism, nor can I wait 10 years to make a living while the roads, policies, and services necessary are formed. 

Aside from Belize, which is more Central American than Caribbean anyway (I was considering the barrier islands off the East coast of Belize), the possibilities for my move are relatively small places with small populations.  This is attractive to me.  They are places I can understand and ‘grasp’ quickly and efficiently.  They are places I can maneuver in and make the connections necessary to have a business.  They are places that have just recently been opened up via technological advances in communications, namely cell phones and Internet, which will allow me to stay in touch with my stateside friends and family, as well as provide the ability to import any needed items more quickly and efficiently than ever before. 

My research has reduced my 1st choices to three: Grenada, St. Maarten, and Tortola.  I have been to St. Maarten twice, but never to the other two.  While I’m preparing for my upcoming travels during the Exploration Phase of my plan by getting my possessions together and making travel plans, I am reminding myself that vacationing is an easy thing, but living in a mostly poor foreign country, far from friends or family, where I am going to be culturally different from 80% +/- of the local people, where work is hard to find and pays little, and hurricanes can destroy all that you have built, is a difficult thing and will take all of my skills and determination to be a success. 

My research has revealed there are a thousand real-life reasons not to move to the Caribbean.  I am going to have to really want it to make it happen.   Alas, I am in love with the Caribbean.  And that, combined with my knowledge that the only path to real joy in life is to do something worthwhile to me, is enough to motivate me to push forward to determine if that ‘in-love’ feeling is really true love, the kind that lasts a lifetime.

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