Retiring to Belize: the Qualified Retired Persons programme

Answer

The general rule applies to you

No exception is recorded for citizens of Antigua and Barbuda on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.

81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Antigua and Barbuda to Belize · Residency as a retiree

Belize's retirement route is a statute of its own - the Retired Persons (Incentives) Act, Chapter 62 - and it was substantially rewritten in 2023. The minimum age came down from forty-five to forty, the income test stopped meaning only a pension and now reaches savings, inheritance, a reverse mortgage and home equity, and a retiree who used to be barred from any investment in Belize may now buy a home, buy land to build one, and run a business here with the Tourism Board's approval. The money is unchanged: US$2,000 a month or US$24,000 a year, from outside Belize, undertaken to be deposited into a Belize financial institution. Two things about this route are easy to miss and expensive. A Qualified Retired Person is deemed a non-resident for the purposes of the Immigration Act and the Belizean Nationality Act, so the years do not build toward permanent residence or citizenship. And the Act defines "dollar" as the United States dollar, which matters enormously for the investment threshold the Tourism Board publishes in Belize dollars.

Verified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

At a glance

Minimum age: 40as of 2023-04-18
Lowered from forty-five by the Retired Persons (Incentives) (Amendment) Act 2023. The consolidated Chapter 62 still prints forty-five because it shows the law as at 31 December 2020.
Retirement income required: US$2000.00 a month
Or the annual equivalent. The Act defines "dollar" as the United States dollar.
Annual alternative: USD$24,000.00
First-time application fee: US$150.00
Designation fee, applicant: US$1200.00
Designation fee, each dependent: US$950.00
Renewal application fee: US$25.00
Validity of the designation: One year, renewable
Minimum presence in Belize: thirty (30) consecutive days in Belize annually
Stated in the terms printed on the gazetted application form, not in the Act
Investment capital to run a business in Belize: one million dollars
The Act's definition of "dollar" is the United States dollar, so the statutory figure reads as US$1,000,000. The Belize Tourism Board publishes the same requirement as one million Belize dollars, which is half as much.
Belizeans to be employed by such a business: at least five Belizean citizens
Presence required before business approval: at least ninety non-consecutive days
Approved foreign currencies: US dollar, pound sterling, euro and Canadian dollar
The Act names the US dollar and sterling; the euro and the Canadian dollar were added by the Retired Persons (Incentives) (Approved Foreign Currency) Order
Time counting toward permanent residence or citizenship: None
Section 4(5) of the Retired Persons (Incentives) Act, quoted here, deems a Qualified Retired Person a non-resident for the purposes it names, and section 4(6) disqualifies a citizen or permanent resident from the designation altogether. Nothing in the Act or in its Regulations lets the designated time count towards either status.

Requirements

Forty years of age or more
Currently receiving retirement income - a pension, an annuity, social security benefits, home equity, an inheritance, a reverse mortgage, personal savings, retirement contribution plans, or any other means of retirement income
A written undertaking to deposit US$2,000 by the fifteenth of each month, or US$24,000 by 1 April each year, into a bank, credit union or other licensed financial institution in Belize
An original police record from the last place of residence, no older than six months
A complete medical examination including an HIV test, no older than three months
Every accompanying document notarised or apostilled
Not a citizen or permanent resident of Belize - and the designation ends if you become one

How the process runs

Step 1
Assemble and authenticate the documents
In the country you are coming from
Letter from the annuity provider, bank evidence of the payments, original police record under six months old, medical certificate with HIV test under three months old, marriage and birth certificates, passport bio-data pages, photographs. Every document must be notarised or apostilled.
Step 2
File with the Belize Tourism Board and pay the application fee
Belize Tourism Board
The Minister has designated the Belize Tourism Board as the office responsible for administering the Act and for reviewing and approving applications. The first-time application fee is US$150; renewal is US$25.
Step 3
Approval by a Board officer
Belize Tourism Board
Since SI No. 88 of 2024 the approval is given by an officer of the Belize Tourism Board appointed for the purpose, not by the Registrar of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation.
Step 4
Pay the designation fee and receive the card
Belize Tourism Board, with the card issued through the Nationality and Passports Department
US$1,200 for the applicant and US$950 for each dependent. The designation runs for one year and is renewed annually.
Step 5
Import your effects within the first year
Belize Tourism Board and the Customs and Excise Department
The duty and tax exemption on personal effects and one approved means of transportation runs from first entry and is a one-year window. The import list has to be approved by the Board and by Customs before shipping.

In detail

What 2023 changed

The Retired Persons (Incentives) (Amendment) Act 2023 did four things that guidance written before April 2023 gets wrong. It lowered the minimum age from forty-five to forty. It replaced a bare "pension or annuity" income test with a list of nine forms of retirement income, including personal savings, an inheritance, home equity and a reverse mortgage. It gave a Qualified Retired Person the right to buy land to build a home on, or to buy a home, for residential use - the old section 5 flatly prohibited any investment in Belize. And it opened a route to running a business here, with the Tourism Board's approval, against investment capital and an employment commitment. The consolidated Chapter 62 published by the Attorney General's Ministry does not show any of this, because it is a revised edition showing the law as at 31 December 2020, so the Chapter and the Act in force have been out of step for three years.

The dollar in Chapter 62 is a United States dollar

Section 2 of the Act defines "dollar" as a unit of the currency of the United States of America and says the sign "$" is to be construed accordingly. The 2023 amendment is to be read and construed as one with the principal Act, so the "one million dollars" of investment capital it requires before the Tourism Board may approve a business reads as one million United States dollars. The Board's own page publishes the same requirement as "one million BZD/$500,000USD". The Belize dollar is pegged at two to the United States dollar, so the two statements differ by a factor of two. We state the Act's figure and name the Board's, because this is the kind of divergence that only shows up when someone opens the definitions section.

QRP years do not build toward anything

Section 4(5) deems a Qualified Retired Person a non-resident for the purposes of the Immigration Act and the Belizean Nationality Act. Permanent residence under section 21A of the Nationality Act requires a continuous year of legal residence on a temporary permit, and citizenship by registration requires five years of continuous residence counted from the grant of permanent residency. A decade on the QRP card contributes nothing to either. The 2023 amendment closed the loop from the other end: a citizen or permanent resident of Belize cannot be designated a Qualified Retired Person, and anyone who becomes one ceases to be so designated. This is the opposite of how most of the region's retirement visas work, where the retiree category is a temporary residence that matures.

What the Board asks for that the Act does not

Three conditions appear only outside the Act. The gazetted application form requires thirty consecutive days in Belize each year to keep the status, and nothing in Chapter 62 imposes a minimum presence. The Board's page adds a security clearance check by the Ministry of National Security. The Board's page also narrows who may apply: Schedule II to the Act lists all Commonwealth countries, the United States, and "any other country", subject only to the Minister's discretion to refuse, whereas the Board publishes a closed list of the Commonwealth, the United States, the European Union, eighteen named Asia-Pacific countries and all South American countries. On the Act's wording, any nationality may apply.

The vehicle you may replace, and how often

The Act allows a duty-free import of personal effects and one approved means of transportation - a motor vehicle, a boat or a light aircraft - within one year of first entering Belize, and a replacement every three years thereafter on proof that the previous one was properly disposed of. The Belize Tourism Board states three years in one part of its page and four years in another, and adds conditions the Act does not carry: a vehicle model no more than five years old, and a light aircraft under 17,000 kg. The three-year figure is the Act's.

Country-level policy

The consolidated law of Belize is dated 31 December 2020

Every Chapter of the Substantive Laws of Belize that you can download today is the Revised Edition 2020, and each one says on its face that it shows the law as at 31 December 2020. Amendments made since are published separately, as numbered Acts and statutory instruments, and they are not worked into the Chapter. The consequence is practical and it bites hardest on the two subjects people read about most: the Chapter on the retirement programme still prints an age of forty-five that an Act of 2023 reduced to forty, and the Chapter on CARICOM skilled persons still lists thirteen qualifying states when an Act of 2026 removed three of them. Reading the Chapter and stopping there produces a confidently wrong answer. The Chapter plus every amending Act since 2021 is the law.

What applies to you

Nothing changes for a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda

We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.

What the law says

Text layer - verbatim verifiedRetired Persons (Incentives) Act (Cap. 62), s. 2, as substituted by the Retired Persons (Incentives) (Amendment) Act 2023 (No. 13 of 2023) s. 2 · Section 2, definition of "Retired Person"

«“Retired Person” means a person who is at least forty years of age;»

Cite the resulting definition in Chapter 62, naming the amending Act. The consolidated Chapter 62 on the Attorney General's Ministry site still reads "forty-five" because its revision date is 31 December 2020.