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What Is An Uber Background Check?The Uber background check is the final step in the Uber driver signup process. At the end of a driver’s application, candidates are prompted to allow Uber, through a third-party provider, to run a background check on them.The check reviews the applicant’s Motor Vehicle record and criminal history. Uber’s priority is to make sure they keep riders as safe as possible by disqualifying drivers with a terrible driving record and/or who have felonies on their records.The Anatomy of an Uber Background CheckThere are two elements which are checked during a background check. The first is company-specific criteria. A bank, for instance, might put a high priority on checking for applicant’s history of any financial fraud over the past 10 years. They may not care about their employees’ driving records.Uber may not put a high priority on issues such as financial fraud and other non-violent crimes, so they may opt to only look back seven years for those types of crimes. But they will care a lot about violent crimes, sex crimes and unsafe driving records and bad driving records.The second is general criminal records attached to a person’s identity.What Prospective Drivers Need to Know about Uber Background ChecksProspective drivers often complain online that Uber rejected them after completing their background check. If you don’t understand the Uber background check process, rejections can be confusing. As you’ll see, it doesn’t take a serious crime to earn you a rejection from Uber due to their strict set of driver’s record criteria.According to a post on help.uber.com, when a new driver signs up with Uber they are informed that:The background check includes a Motor Vehicle Record review and a criminal background check.Local laws and regulations often establish the specific background check criteria that Uber applies, and these criteria can vary significantly from state to state.In general, to pass the background check drivers must have:At least one-year U.S. licensing history (if under 23 years old, must have at least three years licensing history).A valid driver’s license and Motor Vehicle Record (MVR)No major moving violations, such as DUIs or reckless driving, within the last seven years.No more than three minor moving violations in the past three years, such as speeding tickets or failure to obey traffic laws.A criminal record that does not include a conviction for a felony, violent crime, or sexual offense within the last seven years.Uber makes it a point to let drivers know that an Uber background check is free, secure, and private. The check uses your social security number to look at your driving record and criminal history. A credit check is not part of the process.The key takeaways are:Uber focuses a lot of effort on screening drivers to assess their driving record. They also have a strict criterion where no one with a major moving violation within the last seven years will be accepted.Uber itself does not actually perform the background checks. They contract this out to a third-party background check provider that is accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners.The fact that they contract out the work of background screenings makes it difficult for anyone to win a lawsuit against them by claiming they were negligent in performing background screenings. All their background screenings are performed by a well-respected industry leader and that should inoculate them against most claims of negligence.Their criminal background checks are tightly regulated by state and federal law and the laws in each state can vary widely.Their criminal background checks are tightly regulated by state and federal law and the laws in each state can vary widely.What Disqualifies Drivers During an Uber Background CheckAny major moving violations within the last seven years.More than three minor moving violations in the last three years.If you’re older than 23 years old, you must have had a U.S. driver’s license and license history that is at least one year old;If you’re younger than 23 years old, you must have at least a three-year-old U.S. driving history;A criminal conviction within the last seven years for a felony, violent crime or sexual offense.Although Uber contracts with a major background checking company called Checkr, Uber has the responsibility of making the final decision about drivers based on the information provided to them by Checkr.Uber has been known to do random, annual checks on existing drivers. A driver may have gotten an email like this one regarding an annual check:“We are reaching out to notify you that in the next 24-48 hours we will be re-running your background check as part of an annual safety initiative. Safety is of the utmost importance to Uber for our partner-drivers and riders alike, and these background checks are just one way to ensure that all partner-drivers have continued to drive safely since the initial report was run.As a reminder, in order to pass the background check, you must have:A clean Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) with no more than 3 incidents in the past 3 yearsNo driving with a suspended license or without insurance in the past 3 yearsNo DUIs and no reckless drivingA clean criminal background check with no felonies or misdemeanors involving theft, violence or drugsPlease Note: The above list is not necessarily comprehensive. Certain states and municipalities may have requirements that differ from the above.Checkr also provides background screenings for other major app-based on-demand companies such as Instacart, GrubHub, Postmates, and Handy.Each of these companies is responsible for working with Checkr to make sure they conduct the kind of search that most closely corresponds to the type of work their independent contractors will be performing.How long does an Uber Background Check Take?For most drivers, an Uber background check typically takes between 5-7 days to clear. The time it takes for your background check may be longer or shorter, depending on how many applications Checkr is processing at the time you applied.Uber Background Check: How Long They Take And What They Look ForUber gets a lot of lawsuits. In 2017 alone, between the months of January and August, Uber racked up 433 different lawsuits.The cases are coming from drivers, passengers, and states. Drivers are looking for better pay and rights, states are looking to better regular the service, and passengers are challenging Uber over mistreatment by drivers.Since there are so many cases of driver mistreatment in the courts, we are going to look at what Uber is doing to prevent drivers from being harassed by their drivers. One process Uber has in place is the Uber background check.In this article, you’ll learn exactly what the screening process entails, how it’s done, what it checks – and what it doesn’t check. We’ll also cover what to do as a driver if your application takes too long or you get deactivated.Disclaimer: This article has been written based on our own research and findings, but we can’t guarantee the information outlined below will apply to every driver or situation. This article is meant to give potential and existing drivers a look into the background check, but for definitive questions about your own situation, please contact Uber directly.Before applying to drive, we recommend checking to make sure you meet the Uber vehicle and driver requirements.Let’s dive right in and take a look at the Uber background check process and see what’s really going on.What Is An Uber Background Check?The Uber background check is the final step in the Uber driver signup process. At the end of a driver’s application, candidates are prompted to allow Uber, through a third-party provider, to run a background check on them.The check reviews the applicant’s Motor Vehicle record and criminal history. Uber’s priority is to make sure they keep riders as safe as possible by disqualifying drivers with a terrible driving record and/or who have felonies on their records.The Anatomy of an Uber Background CheckThere are two elements which are checked during a background check. The first is company-specific criteria. A bank, for instance, might put a high priority on checking for applicant’s history of any financial fraud over the past 10 years. They may not care about their employees’ driving records.Uber may not put a high priority on issues such as financial fraud and other non-violent crimes, so they may opt to only look back seven years for those types of crimes. But they will care a lot about violent crimes, sex crimes and unsafe driving records and bad driving records.The second is general criminal records attached to a person’s identity.What Prospective Drivers Need to Know about Uber Background ChecksProspective drivers often complain online that Uber rejected them after completing their background check. If you don’t understand the Uber background check process, rejections can be confusing. As you’ll see, it doesn’t take a serious crime to earn you a rejection from Uber due to their strict set of driver’s record criteria.According to a post on help.uber.com, when a new driver signs up with Uber they are informed that:The background check includes a Motor Vehicle Record review and a criminal background check.Local laws and regulations often establish the specific background check criteria that Uber applies, and these criteria can vary significantly from state to state.In general, to pass the background check drivers must have:At least one-year U.S. licensing history (if under 23 years old, must have at least three years licensing history).A valid driver’s license and Motor Vehicle Record (MVR)No major moving violations, such as DUIs or reckless driving, within the last seven years.No more than three minor moving violations in the past three years, such as speeding tickets or failure to obey traffic laws.A criminal record that does not include a conviction for a felony, violent crime, or sexual offense within the last seven years.Uber makes it a point to let drivers know that an Uber background check is free, secure, and private. The check uses your social security number to look at your driving record and criminal history. A credit check is not part of the process.The key takeaways are:Uber focuses a lot of effort on screening drivers to assess their driving record. They also have a strict criterion where no one with a major moving violation within the last seven years will be accepted.Uber itself does not actually perform the background checks. They contract this out to a third-party background check provider that is accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners.The fact that they contract out the work of background screenings makes it difficult for anyone to win a lawsuit against them by claiming they were negligent in performing background screenings. All their background screenings are performed by a well-respected industry leader and that should inoculate them against most claims of negligence.Their criminal background checks are tightly regulated by state and federal law and the laws in each state can vary widely.Their criminal background checks are tightly regulated by state and federal law and the laws in each state can vary widely.What Disqualifies Drivers During an Uber Background CheckAny major moving violations within the last seven years.More than three minor moving violations in the last three years.If you’re older than 23 years old, you must have had a U.S. driver’s license and license history that is at least one year old;If you’re younger than 23 years old, you must have at least a three-year-old U.S. driving history;A criminal conviction within the last seven years for a felony, violent crime or sexual offense.Although Uber contracts with a major background checking company called Checkr, Uber has the responsibility of making the final decision about drivers based on the information provided to them by Checkr.Uber has been known to do random, annual checks on existing drivers. A driver may have gotten an email like this one regarding an annual check:“We are reaching out to notify you that in the next 24-48 hours we will be re-running your background check as part of an annual safety initiative. Safety is of the utmost importance to Uber for our partner-drivers and riders alike, and these background checks are just one way to ensure that all partner-drivers have continued to drive safely since the initial report was run.As a reminder, in order to pass the background check, you must have:A clean Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) with no more than 3 incidents in the past 3 yearsNo driving with a suspended license or without insurance in the past 3 yearsNo DUIs and no reckless drivingA clean criminal background check with no felonies or misdemeanors involving theft, violence or drugsPlease Note: The above list is not necessarily comprehensive. Certain states and municipalities may have requirements that differ from the above.Checkr also provides background screenings for other major app-based on-demand companies such as Instacart, GrubHub, Postmates, and Handy.Each of these companies is responsible for working with Checkr to make sure they conduct the kind of search that most closely corresponds to the type of work their independent contractors will be performing.How long does an Uber Background Check Take?For most drivers, an Uber background check typically takes between 5-7 days to clear. The time it takes for your background check may be longer or shorter, depending on how many applications Checkr is processing at the time you applied.Uber Background Check Taking Too Long?If your Uber background check seems like it is taking too long, and it has been longer than 7 days since you applied, reach out to both Checkr and Uber support to see what is going on. You can reach Checkr at [email protected]. Uber is a bit harder to contact, but we have some advice on how to contact Uber further in this article.Once Checkr approves your application, the ball is in Uber’s court to approve or deny you. If your Uber background check is taking a while, reach out and ask why.What to Do if Your Uber Background Check is DeniedUber is not consistent with letting rejected drivers know that they were rejected. You may or may not get an email from them about the rejection.Uber says they will let you know within 7-10 business days. If you contact them before that time, they will probably tell you to keep waiting. If 10 business days have passed, you should contact Uber.How to Contact Uber Before You Become a DriverUber frequently changes their contact methods. Right now, they’ve established a page where people can contact them without having an account. This is the easiest Uber has ever made it to contact them.Just go to this page and look for the contact form at the bottom: t.uber.com/contactHowever, there is no way of knowing when Uber might change, move or delete that page. If it’s no longer there, then below is a tried and tested method which you can use to contact them.You’ll either need a rider or a driver account with them. Once you have a rider account, go to help.uber.com. This page is constantly changing so giving specific steps here won’t help. Instead, we’ll give you the general idea.Click on any of the main question categories, and then do a page search for the word “other”. That will bring up all instances of “other” and “another”. And most of those links will say something like, “I have other questions” or “I have another question” and they will take you to a page where you can send them a message.For instance, right now, from the first page after you login to help.uber.com, you can click on “Account and Payment Options”. On the next page search the word “other” and click on whichever result served first. I clicked on, “I have another payment question.”If you’re a prospective driver inquiring about the status of your application, you’re not going to have a payment question, but that’s okay. Type your question into the box and click “Submit”.When they reply – which can take up to 24 hours – you can then respond simply by replying to their email.The Best Way to Get a Decent Answer from UberYou should make your initial request very short and very simple. Uber customer service reps are so swamped with emails, with each rep answering hundreds a day. They simply don’t have time to read and comprehend anything more than a few sentences long.When writing regarding your application status, state your name and email address you signed up with and tell them you’ve applied to be a driver and you want to know the status of your application.There is a chance they will answer back with a pre-written response that won’t address your situation. Write them back again telling and politely let them know they didn’t answer your question, and then re-state it. Don’t be rude and don’t add anything more to your original question. Simply restate your original question.You may have to go through this process two or three times before somebody gives you a real answer.What An Uber Background Check Can and Can’t DoBackground checks only allow a company to learn if a person has been convicted of a crime in the past. There are two significant parts to that statement.They can’t tell you for sure that a person has never committed a crime. A person could have committed crimes and never gotten caught or perhaps gotten caught but was never convicted. In those cases, even the most thorough background checks will not pick anything up.Background checks can’t predict whether or not a person will commit a crime in the future. You might have a person who has never been caught or convicted of a crime in the past but who is now actively considering committing a crime.Why Background Checks Don’t Always Catch EverythingOne major reason is that background screenings are regulated primarily by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA does not allow employers to look at arrest records older than seven years.The FCRA allows employers to search criminal convictions more than seven years old but some states don’t. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has guidelines which state that employers should not go farther back than the standards of business warrant.This has pushed companies how far in the past they check in order to stay out of trouble with various governmental entities.It has become an accepted standard for most companies, including Uber, to put into place a seven-year limit.Counties and municipalities aren’t required to report every court action to their respective states and states aren’t required to report everything to the federal government. So, there is no single source of information for criminal background checks. Companies like Checkr end up checking places the applicant has informed them that they have lived.To do a complete and thorough background check, a company would have to employ people to go into county and municipal courthouses and search through records, some of which aren’t computerized yet.It might now make more sense why some people do slip through:Uber drivers are required to pass a criminal background check in order to be eligible for employment with the ride-hailing transportation service, but drivers with serious criminal histories have slipped through the cracks, and some cities where Uber operates want answers.In response to a rash of sexual assaults committed by Californian Uber drivers, California enacted a new law that took effect on January 1, 2017, that specifically exempts rideshare companies from the seven-year background check limit.This law will also exempt rideshare companies from another new Californian law took effect on January 1, 2018, that further restricts companies’ abilities to do thorough background checks on job applicants.ConclusionBackground checks are one of the most important methods Uber uses to ensure rider safety. However, there is only so much this process can do. No matter how thorough, no background check can pick up on people who have committed crimes in the past and not been convicted. And no background check can predict the future behavior of first-time criminals. Background checks are heavily regulated, and there is only so much a firm or agency is allowed to see.As a potential driver, if your background check is taking too long, contact Checkr, the company that Uber uses to carry out their background checks, and Uber. As long as you have a clean driving record and a lack of a criminal record, you should be able to pass Uber’s background check.As a passenger, Uber’s background check means that you can be certain that your driver has no criminal record and hasn’t committed any driving violations, but it isn’t foolproof. But what in life is?

1 Introduction One of my three major obsessions for four and a half decades is Hegemonic Power Transfer Theory, about how a declining economic power like the USA accommodates itself to a rising economic power like China. (See Power transition theory - Wikipedia)That mathematical science is based upon the consideration and the statistical analysis of the data relating to behaviour of major economic powers over the last two centuries and was principally progressed by Abraham Fimo Kenneth Organski (1923–98) and Jacek Kugler (1923-now, and seebut there are now many other major contributors. Most people I have met (who are sometimes very highly educated) are not well informed about that subject so I have written a primer about it which you can read at George Tait Edwards's answer to Does the USA have a good reason to destroy the military base of China in South China Sea now? Would the US find it too late 5 or 10 years later?1.1 US Hegemony Has Been Ended By American Political Actions And Not By The Rise of China or by Foreign Economic ActivityOne bias in the above question above is the implicit idea that China is somehow responsible for the economic decline of the USA. The principal cause of US relative economic decline is US Government policy particularly since the 1980s and not the actions of China or foreign governments.After 1980 President Ronald Reagan’s deliberate policy to relocate abroad what he regarded as “old, smokestack industries” such as the US companies’ manufacture of the basic inputs of steel and aluminium and also the export of US light motor vehicle industries (along with the export of the feeder SME industries which provided the sub-components to enable the construction of these cars) accelerated US economic decline. These policies created a massive rustbelt in the US States below the Great Lakes and much higher unemployment in the USA. See George Tait Edwards's answer to What are some of the ingredients that make the United States stand out in the world? And with regard to Reagan’s policy of relocating US industries abroad, see para 5.2.4 of George Tait Edwards's answer to Why is China’s economy growing significantly faster than the U.S. economy? And for some details of “the Reagan Plan” see the NYT article REAGAN'S HIDDEN 'INDUSTRIAL POLICY' which reports“The Reagan plan to shrink America's basic industries has been enormously successful. Since 1981, when the value of the dollar began climbing to unprecedented levels as the budget deficit ballooned, some 2 million jobs have been lost in old-line manufacturing businesses. Steel, autos and others have been forced to reduce domestic capacity, set up operations abroad (or enter into joint ventures with foreign producers) and diversify into specialized niches.”And these are only the direct employment losses. The USA had an economic multiplier effect of about four or five during the 1980s becausethe shutdown of steel, aluminium and auto manufacturing industries caused the decline and the destruction of the service industries which had served these companies and their employeesthe “feeder firms” which had produced the sub-components of the auto industries were also moved abroadthe response of local authorities (LA) to their loss of revenue was a reduction in their local employment and LA provision andthe employment which still exists in the rustbelt is more often a lower-quality, sometimes no-fixed-contract jobs, with the R&D for the manufacturing plus the related defence industry subcomponents manufacture also moving abroad.The USA largely Republican Governments since 1980 do not recognise these multiplier effects many of which continue to contribute to the US spiral of relative economic decline today. For example, Gordon Ramsay has recently massively improved the food quality of a Detroit Restaurant and in a normal economic background that establishment would flourish. But the working people of Detroit can no longer afford to eat out as often as they once did, so that restaurant has gone bankrupt.Almost identical effects can be observed in the United Kingdom where an official Conservative policy of industrial shutdown and partisan victimisation of the poor has produced the growth of Austerity-enforced starvation and the explosive growth of food banks along with the shutdown of local restaurants and public houses.These consequences of industrial declines have no positive aspects. Of course the loss of domestic production in both the USA and UK creates the opportunity for foreign supply of domestic demand, and the surge in imports of goods no longer produced locally causes a large balance of payments problem in both countries, but it was the lack of an effective industrial policy and the malign neglect of the side effects of that [in the absence of government remedial action} which is the root cause of both UK and US industrial decline.2 My Re-interpretation of the QuestionLarge well populated rising nations become potential hegemonic powers because of their high economic growth. The USA became a hegemonic power in 1945 because FDR understood the process of economic growth. See my 12 June 2013 article FDR’s American Economic Miracle 1938-44, or the First Economic Bomb - The USA from 1938 to 1944 (Part 1)2.1 The Rise Of Any Large Nation to Potential Hegemonic Economic Power Is Not Limited By or Related to the Western Concept of “Legitimacy”Whether countries can become the leading hegemonic power has nothing to do with the Western idea of “legitimacy” but everything to do with the leadership of that country understanding and practising the economic understandings which lead to relatively high economic growth. In particular, the partial or full practice of the five major aspects of Shimomuran-Wernerian Macroeconomics (SWM) has historically produced high-growth economic miracles while Washington Consensus Macroeconomics (WCM) has continually resulted in low growth and relative economic decline.2.1.1 The concept of legitimacy of national actions is a Western-produced Eurocentric and mainly Anglo-centric idea which has been historically used to justify the “legitimacy” of the actions of the Western “Great powers” particularly the many military adventures of the UK and the USA. The central idea in international law is a value system which regards the position of the West as “developed” and the position of other nations as “undeveloped” and “Less Developed Countries” (LDCs) so it includes an embedded Eurocentric value system, which seems to and does devalue the cultural worth and downrates the achievements of other countries.2.1.2 Also inherent in the Western legal system is the primacy of the personal or corporate individual above the the interests of all others, so that issues are set to be prejudicially settled in Western law in favour of these individuals or corporations. In Western Law a basic assumption appears to be that all group and national interests such as the continuation of a life-supporting environment, a safe society based on individuals not carrying small arms, and group or social gains are less important than the massive personal gains made by billionaires. The misinterpretation in American Law of the US constitutional right for a “free people” to bear arms is a collective national right, and does not say that individuals can, but this is the constant US Media misinterpretation of that constitutional Amendment. That individualistic legal bias in favour of corporations is a big factor in how American politicians behave and which their private media supports.2.1.3 In my view it is a justified exaggeration to say that the bias in US Law in favour of the personal and corporate individual is a major factor which is responsible for the enormous political and social mess the United States of America has now arrived at. The elevation of immediate corporate interests or the short-term interests of US billionaires above long-term environmental, personal, group or national outcomes is an unhelpful bias in US Law. It is easy for large corporations to ruin the environment in the USA and elsewhere without risking any significant timely legal challenge to their profit-achieving activities. The profit-seeking behaviour of the US healthcare system is seen by US Republicans as more justified than the establishment of a slightly more adequate healthcare system such as Obamacare. [See George Tait Edwards's answer to Why is the USA’s health spending so high at 17% of GDP compared to the UK’s spending of 11% yet still doesn’t offer universal care?]The continuation of the mistaken policy of individuals bearing small and murderous munitions results in the USA having the highest suicide rate in the world, because the major use of these freely available weapons is to commit suicide (see When will people realize that guns don't kill people; people kill people?) but the social cost in the frequent incidents of the mass murder of some school children and their teachers cannot be justified by a mistaken reference to personal freedom. The LA times has today produced a report saying that https://www.quora.com/link/More-than-15%-of-childhood-deaths-in-America-are-due-to-guns-study-says/redirect but you can’t read that report except in the USA.The US Republican political preference for tax cuts for the benefit of the rich with Austerity for the workers and the political preference for big finance over the activities of local SME-supporting banks has produced a low 5% invention-to-innovation rate in the USA, ruining America’s potential future. And the lack of US industrial policy has produced the collapse of what was once [in 1945] the greatest industrial economy in the world, as US Republicans folded their arms and took no action as the once-great industrial companies of America after 1980 relocated elsewhere with Government encouragement and support, perhaps creating greater profits for their American owners but destroying the US worker employment and local prosperity these companies had previously provided. These are all observations and do not depend on any economic theory.What academic support exists for such a view? It is not something that American academics usually contemplate, trapped as they are within a WCM mindset, because that’s the only economics education taught in the West. See George Tait Edwards's answer to What's Wrong With Washington Consensus Macroeconomics?2.1.4 The US-promoted ‘international? Law of the Sea”Many US individuals have expressed the view that the “International Law the Sea” allows the militarily powerful US Navy to cruise where it pleases, because that “Law” is seen as eternal and universally supported. Yet that Law was created less than three quarters of a century ago, in 1945, in order to enable trade through international waters and sea channels which lie within close proximity to, and within the coastal sea territory of, nation states. The Law was meant to enable peaceful international trading by merchant shipping, not to facilitate military threat by its misinterpretation by the US to locate much of the mighty US Pacific Fleet around Chinese shores.That American activity could lead to a major conflict between the USA and China. I hope it does not. See China Cannot Be Trumped – George Tait Edwards – Medium and Trump is probably not foolish enough to destroy the world.2.2 Florian Matsumoto’s Critical Review of Onuma’s Attempt to Comment From A Transcultural ViewpointAn excellent detailed criticism, dissection and discussion of Onuma’s recent attempt to to define a “new” international Law can be accessed at Florian Couveinhes Matsumoto’s pdf paper The_End_of_the_History_of_Liberalism_and.the last “Transcivilisational” Man? Onuma’s Attempt to Define a “New” International Law.Which is located at The End of the History of Liberalism and the last “transcivilizational” Man? Onuma’s Attempt to Define a “new” international Law” », to be published, Asian Journal of International Law, 2018It should be noted that Florian Couveinhes Matsumoto is Assistant Professor at the École normale supérieure (Paris, Ulm), Université de recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres, member of the Centre de Théorie et d’Analyse du Droit (UMR CNRS 7074) and associate researcher at the Institut de Hautes Études Internationales (Université Paris II).That paper reaches detailed discussion heights not attained in this Answer. The author’s detailed knowledge of international law exceeds mine by many magnitudes. I accept from the outset that my attempt to summarise part of that informationally precise paper is doomed to failure, as was the attempt of Onumo to adopt a transcultural perspective, but his attempt reveals interesting depths and hints at possible transcultural conclusions.I wish to try to summarise why I think this paper is seminal and state some of its aspects and conclusions to illustrate its importance. There is nothing I can find in English (and this paper was originally in French) which illustrates the great difficulty of successfully adopting a transcultural perspective for the hopeful purpose of achieving a valid legal commentary and arriving at transcultural conclusions. My summary is inevitably inadequate and incomplete. The only fair way to treat this original and ground-breaking paper to quote all of it, but the copyright laws prevent that. The interested reader is invited to study the entire paper with probably undoubted benefits to the reader’s understanding.There are four sections in this 8-page paper as follows. These are:I Dealing (again) with the western perspective on international lawInternational Law is actually Western Law and is inevitably embedded within the cultural and personal perspectives of any commenting author. As Florain Matsumoto concludes in part I:“However, Onuma’ s book also undoubtedly displays the considerable difficulty inherent in such an attempt, or more accurately the impossibility of adopting a non-Western perspective without assuming a revolutionary point of view, a point of view that most Western lawyers describe as philosophical, political, or ideological, and, in a sense, as an erroneous or entirely subjective perspective. Indeed, although the trans-civilizational perspective on international law claimed by Onuma seems to imply a revolutionary stance, his book seems more reformist in nature and only a few criticisms appear to be truly transcivilizational. At least two of these need to be highlighted.”II Two “truly” transcivilizational criticismsFlorain Matsumoto continues:“As one might expect, the most visible transcivilizational criticism relates to the (usually Western-oriented) history of international law. In the sections of the book dedicated to this theme (pp.55 et seq. and 149 et seq.), the author accepts the classical view that today international law is a product of European and then Western modernity (pp. 16, 31, 55 et seq.), but rejects the idea that there was indeed international law “in the geographical sense of the term” before the Berlin Act (1885) and the Shimonoseki Treaty between China and Japan (1895) (p.81). Similarly, he is of the opinion that this law was not “globally valid in the formal sense ” before “most nations representing humankind” became “subjects of international law”, namely before people in decolonized countries freely recognized such a law in the 1960s (pp.57, 63) In the same way again, a truly global law of the sea only arose after World War II (p.320)”Matsumoto comments that both the cultures of China and Islam had influence in determining some aspects of the Western legal system but the cultures of other Asian nations, Africa, and pre-conquest North and South American cultures did not. And Matsumoto observes:“Unlike the criticism of the traditional presentation of the history of international Law, the second truly transcivilizational criticism does not relate to a particular area. In a way, it may be argued that it is the main thesis of the book. According to this thesis (if it may be summarized subjectively), contemporary Western lawyers as well as Western governments place an undue emphasis on the role of international judges (and secondarily NGOs and transnational corporations) as international Law makers, whereas non-Western lawyers and governments place their hopes in the capacities of nation States to rule their countries and regulate their relationships with strangers. More specifically, “the ideas, notions or concepts that people use as cognitive and interpretative frameworks of international law have basically been constructed by male international lawyers of powerful Western nations” (pp. 52-53) and “Western nations [...] have always been characterised by a legalistic culture” (p. 39).The use of Western models for transcultural Law is rejected because“litigation is a pathology, not a physiology of law” (pp. 8, 26, 457) and because “[l]aw without court is normal in many societies in human history” (p. 550). Consequently, “the study of international law in the twentieth century seems to have been excessively judicial-centric for gaining a comprehensive picture of international law” (pp. 116, 252, 258, 408, etc.). For instance, “the ICJ is not an important organ in interstate conflict settlement” (pp. 27, 117, 559-560, 579, 662) and more broadly, most international judges do not resolve most inter- State disputes (pp. 557, 571, 662).”Much of Western Law appears to based more on win-or-lose suppositions rather than the often more appropriate mediated settlement of conflict, and many “commonly perceived features of law [righteousness, consistency, universal applicability, rigidity and formality] work [at times] negatively against conflict resolution” (pp. 585 et sq.).”Because mediated war avoidance could be a major function of a well-ordered international legal system, the usefulness the existing Western legal systems seems less than adequate.III The reiteration of problematic narratives deriving from the western perspectiveMatsumoto points out that although Onuma is seeking a “trancivilisational perspective” and lists his credentials (briefly, as an Asian International Lawyer practising in Asia but mentally constructed by modern European civilisation) he cannot help using the Western classifications of states as more or less culturally developed according to Western measures. As Matsumoto observes“If we do not first deconstruct the myth of a world that follows a unique path of progress (towards Christianity, Western-style Law, the market economy, capitalism, human rights, etc.), and more specifically a progress that is exhaustively predeterminable by a small group of self-proclaimed superior people, it is impossible to obtain a critical distance from Western-centrism.”IV Potential solutions suggested by Matsumoto’s Review of this Onuma bookThese are for a new system of International Law with mankind’s place in the environment as central within that system with considerable implications for the future of mankind. This is the best legal argument for the positive restructuring of law on an environmental basis I have ever read.2.2 There Is No Read-Across From Economic or Military Supremacy To Legal Primacy or LegitimacyThe greater scientific, economic, and military development of the West has often been wrongly read across, or assumed, to create a situation of greater moral or legal primacy. The UK and USA do not have a history which involves any gentle, culturally sympathetic, or altruistic treatment of foreign or colonised people. Racism is still at the heart of the UK Conservative ruling party, and Theresa May, the now-Prime Minister, has suffered squirming embarrassment at a Commonwealth Conference because she was instrumental while in the Home Office of creating the Windrush Scandal, in which documents proving the British residential legitimacy and citizenship of Caribbean immigrants were destroyed, justifying a “Send-Them-Home” policy over which she presided and which often relocated Black British (who had lived in Britain for decades) to the Caribbean.The USA - despite Lincoln’s 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, which was intended to free the Black slaves- has continued to practice the legal and informal diminishment of the rights of its native Indian and black and its more recent immigrant populations. The addendum to the 13th Amendment - that slavery is abolished “except for felons” - appears to have created a semi-legitimised Black-slave-creating-culture in some of the Southern states of the USA. Of course the Southern cotton farms needed cheap labour to continue to exist, and the police in the cotton-producing states promptly provided that cheap labour by arresting fit young Black men for minor offences and the Federal Prison system leased their re-created slave labour to the cotton farms. And once imprisoned, Blacks appear to be often mistreated in Federal prisons to ensure their continued incarceration. One statistic tells it all: of blacks arrested, 50% are never released but die in prison.And those who are released run up against a system almost design to deny the restoration of their voting rights. Released black prisoners have to appeal individually to the State Governor and travel to and get a hearing for the restitution of these voting rights and for partisan political reasons these rights may not be restored. Jeb Bush enabled the 2000 election of his brother George W by refusing voter rights restoration in Florida. SeeAll this in the country which the US Media continually describe as “the land of the free.” And see the 2008 now out-of-date but revealing Global Research reportThe Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery? - Global Research2.3 Gandhi’s Key CommentWhen Gandhi was asked“What do you think of Western Civilisation?” he famously replied“I think it would be a good idea.”2.4 It Is Not What China Lacks But What China Possesses That Is VitalThe last part of the question makes more sense if it is reversed, to read “What does China Have that the USA lacks?”This Answer is an inevitably brief summary of a great deal of research (much of it not mine) and a lot of relevant information.There is no necessary “legitimacy” in the rise of powers and major nations have tended to act in their own interests with no regard for “international law”. The League of Nations and the UN have both been failures when confronted by major nations adopting warlike policies. As Mussolini observed, “The League of Nations is all very well when sparrows shout, but is of no use at all when eagles fall out.”What China possesses isa different form of democracy based upon universal elections of local government officials and a meritocratic, well-educated central Governmenta different objective in its pursuit of economic development (rule for the prosperity of all or most the people and not rule for the increasing benefit of the already rich)a much less racist society (historically based upon the assimilation of different peoples and cultures within the Han Chinese people and their culture)a much deeper understanding of the high-growth, low inflation, no-cost investment credit economics/Shimomuran-Wernerian Macroeconomicsa tolerance of other cultures derived from the constant contact with other religions and cultures over centuriesthe central Sun Tzu/“Art of War” idea that conflicts are best settled without warsa large Initiative (the B&RI/OBOR Project) which rests upon the voluntary bilateral engagement of nations (that is, two at a time) and the currency swaps and further negotiations which present an alternative jointly agreed system of making economic progress and removing all aspects of the American third party involvement in the economic progress. This project removes any reference to the American legal system with its third party win-lose approach to the settlement of disputes, allowing conflicts to be settled perhaps more successfully by bilateral negotiation, removes the Bank of International Settlement and US currency from involvement in the initiative, reducing the US power to involve itself or affect these projects, by removing US currency from the project, and even perhaps US knowledge about the extent of the project. [For the data about the declining use of the US dollar as a reserve currency, see George Tait Edwards's answer to With the current state of world affairs, does it look like the US will pay off its debts or will the US lose is standing as economic leader (self proclaimed), and lose the power of the dollar in as the standard universal dollar?] These projects present possible alternatives to the involvement of any part of US Law or reserve-currency dollars in making bilateral real economic progress. Perhaps that is why the post-Spenglerian Western Media continually run down this initiative.3 How Economic Growth Arises I cannot fully cover this topic in this Answer, but very briefly, there are five major sources of economic growthFirst, the SMEs which in all countries are the source of most of the employment and nearly all (about 95%) of the fresh invention and innovation in that country and the major source of further future growthSecond, national prosperity is enabled by a well-developed and well funded industrial factory system upon which the living standards of the workers dependThird, economic growth is increased by a realistic economic understanding which is practised by the government of the country andFourth, the foundation of company success at every scale - in the the small, medium and large enterprises in a country - is only made possible by a system of supporting banks at all sizes within a country, which banks exist to obey Werner’s Third Law that“Thousands of small banks provide thousands or tens of thousands of small loans to small businesses, medium sized banks provide thousands of medium sized loans loans to medium sized businesses and large banks provide many large loans to large businesses.”We can regard these banks as local (like Germany’s SME-supporting Sparkassen banks) or secondary banks (like regional or local authority banks like the Lundesbanks) or primary national banks usually only located in the capital and which also provide loans to national or nationalised industries. The comments that follow are illustrations of the above four key principles but the evidence is so voluminous that it cannot be fully replicated here.Fifth, a Government-funded system to provide a social security net and for the health, education and safety of citizens along with an effective infrastructure is a large and major component of economic development and growth. The best illustration of this aspect of economic growth may be the Nordic countries, where sometimes Government employment is so large that it is the major component in the economy and hence the major reason for high economic development. Another aspect of this issue in modern times is the B&RI/OBOR project where Chinese initiative along with local government funding is upgrading road, rail, pipeline and energy production systems at a speed and on a scale not previously possible.There are numerous examples of each of these five principles and only a brief reference to the major use of each principle is mentioned below with the exception of China, which is applying each principle but sometimes not with full effect.3.1 Funding SMEs is the source of the SME inventions transferred to the factory floor and which pave the way to a greater economic future.The nation which has continually funded its SMEs from local Sparkassen banks is Germany, which has through its local public banking system founded SMEs and funded their development on a scale not present elsewhere. Because SMEs are so numerous these organisations in all nations provide not only the major sources of employment and national output but also the inventions and, where funding exists, the transfer-to-the-factory floor innovations which drive the economy forward.Many large transport-vehicle companies often only provide the body shell of the product and are actually the integration plants for tens of thousands of sub-assemblies which go into making the final product.As Werner von Braun observed about the Apollo rocket“There it goes, over 100,000 moving parts, every one built by the lowest bidder, and it all works.”Modern motor vehicles typically contain about 25,000 sub-assemblies while a Boeing 747 is built from over 5 million parts, mainly fixtures.When major manufacturing industries are closed down in the UK, the number of employees lost which is often quoted by the UK Government are the final numbers of caretakers prior to closure and not the maximum numbers of workers employed in the factory at the height of its production. The many larger tens of thousands of jobs lost in the subsidiary-parts producing and the servicing of the once-flourishing company are not usually mentioned, although these are usually by far the major effect.3.2 The Industrial Manufacturing Economy is the major source of Worker Employment and Dispersed Prosperity in All NationsThe manufacturing industries are the major employers of workers when economic miracles occur. The historical data illustrates that up to 45% of workers are gainfully employed in the manufacturing sector during the greatest dominance of these industries. In WCM economies, their manufacturing industries tends to remain in the range from about 30% to 40% of GDP. [If we look at the Tokyo Zone countries where WCM has been adopted and given up, Japan had a 30.1% share of its economic output originated by industry in 2017, while South Korea has 39.3% from that source and Taiwan has 36%. The still-practicing SWM of China has 40.1%. By contrast, the WCM-practising economies of the USA has 19.1% and the pre-Brexit UK has 20.2%.]3.3 An Understanding of No-Cost Investment Credit Creation at the Central Bank has been and is the Indispensable Key to High Economic Growth Throughout The Last Millennia in nearly all high-growth colonies and nations3.3.1 Wang Anshi’s Chinese Economic Miracle And Its Decline Under The MongolsThe Chinese Prime Minister Wang Anshi was the first investment credit economist whose actions created the world’s first industrial economy and welfare state. This is far too large a subject to be adequately dealt with here.See my limited contributions to that immense subject atHow did Wang Anshi contribute to the economic world?and also see regarding the Rise of the Tokyo Zone economies my blog atShimomuran Economics and the Rise of Japan and ChinaAs well as the first half of my article/Answer about the significance of Wang Anshi at George Tait Edwards's answer to What are major Chinese innovations?4 Financially Restrictive Economic Policies by Political “Conservatives” have Produced The End Of Hegemonic Empires during the Last Thousand YearsIt would take too long to provide the extensive references and data supporting this conclusion, but the interested reader is invite to look up and investigateThe Song Empire and its Decline Under The Conservatives After the defeat of the Mongols, no-cost investment credit creation was once again used by the Chinese governments to stimulate and achieve the then-highest level of economic development in the world. The peak period of the dynastic Ming Empire was the great heights achieved by the Yongle Emperor (who ruled from 1402–1424). That Yongle Emperor was a despotic liberal whose cruelty was as notable as his outstanding economic achievements. The Chinese Conservatives through their restrictive financial policies ended Chinese economic ascendancy in the 15th century.The Scottish Industrial Revolution 1700-1800 and its Decline Under The ConservativesThe pre-independence growth of the three Tobacco Slave states (comprised of Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina) was based upon the denominated-in-pounds-of-tobacco promissory notes (or IOUs) of the Tobacco Lords who created vast amounts of circulating credit based upon the stability of tobacco prices (a “specie-backed” alternative currency) and the conversion of these IOUs to goods at the 125 Trading Posts ( or Tobacco Lord Shops) in these three colonies. This is one of the four papers of my PhD research at the University of Southampton so I will say no more about it than I already have.The first century of Scottish Industrial revolution (1900–1800) was based upon the founding of SME-supporting banks in Scotland (from the first Murdoch bank in Scotland in 1730 to the Tobacco-lord establishment of the Ship Bank and the Arms Bank in Glasgow in 1749 and many others) and 88 of the embryo Scottish SMEs were established with Tobacco and Sugar Lord investments derived from the profits of the American and West Indies slave trade plantations. See The Scottish Industrial Revolution, or The Scottish First Industrial Miracle 1700–1800FDR’s Economic Miracle 1938–44 and US Economic Decline After 1980 Under The Republicans - see para 1.1 aboveThe Japanese Economic Miracle and its Decline After It Adopted WCM in 1991 - see How Japan Zoomed From War Devastation into Prosperity 1945–52 and Professor Richard Werner’s book Princes of the Yen5 Conclusions5.1 The Anglo-Centric Legal System is a product of the UK and US Hegemonies and is too culturally embedded in these nations to achieve an international endorsement by all nations. It is culture-specific in its foundation in and references to the West and is not a transcultural legal system and its formation was not based upon all of the major cultures of mankind. It is not effective at solving international disputes.5.2 It is very unlikely that the current international legal system will survive the demise of the UK and US hegemonies because that structure is a product of their culture. A F K Organski and J Kugler, two of the leading lights of the Hegemonic Power Transfer Theory (see the Introduction above) have pointed out that when a hegemonic power transfer occurs, the arrangements that prevailed in the previous era are likely to be changed because although it is possible for these previous patterns to suit the rising hegemonic power, that is unlikely.5.3 The rising nation of China is already creating bilateral currency arrangements with most participants in the B&RI/OBOR programme. That bipartite system seems to be more readily amenable to conflict resolution than any more remote tripartite Western judicial system.5.4 In its own interests and in the best interests of the world, China needs to develop and lead a system for reversing Global Warming. Whether that needs to done within a Chinese-proposed and internationally-agreed alternative legal system is a moot point, but it does seem that a transnational and transcultural legal system might need to be developed to deal more effectively with the acceleration of national growth and the resolution of international conflicts than the Western-based UN and its underfunded institutions (IMF, World Bank, OECD etc) have done.5.5 The most interesting section of the Matsumoto Review of Onuma’s book review is its Section IV Potential solutions. The major issue is the creation of an international legal system which leads to a balanced environment with mankind within it.

From my book, Bug Out to Belize by Lan Sluder, 2018>>Options for Living in BelizeThere are three basic options for those wishing to live or retire in Belize or to spend extended periods of time in the country. Each has advantages and disadvantages.TOURIST PERMITThis is the easiest, cheapest way to live in the country for a while, and it requires no long-term commitment. The procedure is simple: You get a 30-day entry free (via a passport stamp) when you arrive in the country by air, land or sea. After 30 days, you can go to an immigration office (or police station in remote areas) and renew the tourist card monthly for US$25 a month for up to six months, and then US$50 a month after that. After six months, generally you also must register as an alien. Citizens of the U.S., European Community, the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, CARICOM member states and many other countries get a tourist card without having to apply in advance for a tourist visa. Nationals of some 75 other countries must apply in advance for a tourist visa, and there is a fee. See the Belize Tourism Board web site, www.travelbelize.org for details.As a tourist permit holder, you can enjoy Belize without a long-term commitment. You can buy or rent property, but you cannot work for pay. In theory, when you renew your tourist permit, you are supposed to be able to prove that you have sufficient resources, set at US$60 a day (a credit card usually suffices), to stay in Belize, but this requirement is not usually enforced.Of course, there is no guarantee that you will be able to renew your tourist status indefinitely, as rules and conditions can change, as you have no official residency status. If you fail to renew your permit in a timely way, or if you overstay your allotted time, technically you are in violation of Belize law and can be deported or even jailed. As a practical matter, if you can offer a good reason why you failed to follow the law, and are very friendly to Immigration officers, you’ll probably be let off with a short lecture from the official, and perhaps a fine. However, some people who overstay their tourist cards are sent packing.QUALIFIED RETIRED PERSON STATUSThe Qualified Retired Persons Incentive Act passed by the Belize legislature in 1999 is managed by the Belize Tourism Board. The program is designed to attract more retirees to Belize. The program has attracted considerable interest and a number of applications. However, the Belize Tourism Board hasn’t publicly stated how many applications it has received in total and how many have been approved. Interest in the program appears to be fairly high, but because of the income requirement, inability to work for pay in Belize, lack of official true residency status and other factors, the actual number of retirees under the program in Belize is as yet relatively small and far fewer than are in programs in Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico and elsewhere. For several years, the BTB has said it was reviewing the program to see how it can be improved, but so far no significant changes have been made.For those who can show the required monthly income from investments or pensions, this program offers benefits of living in Belize and tax-free entry of the retiree’s household goods and a car, boat and even an airplane. This program also eliminates some of the bureaucratic delays built into the permanent residency program. The BTB guarantees action on an application in no more than three months, but we have heard of qualified retirees getting approval for this program in only a few weeks.Who qualifies? Anyone at least 45 years old from anywhere in the world can qualify for the program. A person who qualifies can also include his or her dependents in the program. Dependents include spouses and children under the age of 18. However, it also can include children under the age of 23 if enrolled in a university.Main benefits: Besides prompt approval of residency for qualifying applicants, import duties and fees for household goods and a late-model vehicle, airplane and boat are waived.Duty-free import of personal household effects: Qualified Retired Persons under the program can qualify for duty and tax exemptions on new and used personal and household effects admitted as such by the Belize Tourism Board. A list of all items with corresponding values that will be imported must be submitted with the application. A one-year period is granted for the importation of personal and household effects.Duty-free import of a vehicle, aircraft and/or boat:Motor Vehicle: Applicants are encouraged to import new motor vehicles under the program, but the vehicle must be no more than three years old. (Occasional exceptions may be made in the case of an older vehicle with low mileage, but this would be decided on a case-by-case basis.) A Qualified Retired Person may also buy a vehicle duty-free in country.Light Aircraft: A Qualified Retired Person is entitled to import a light aircraft less than 17,000 kg. A Qualified Retired Person is required to have a valid Private Pilot license to fly in Belize. This license can be obtained by passing the requirements set by the Civil Aviation. However, if the participant has a valid pilot’s license, that license only has to be validated by Civil Aviation Department in Belize.Boat: Any vessel that is used for personal purposes and for pleasure will be accepted under this program. If for whatever reason a Qualified Retired Person decides to sell, give away, lease, or otherwise dispose of the approved means of transportation or personal effects to any person or entity within Belize, all duties and taxes must be paid to the proper authorities.The Belize Tourism Board states: “Qualified Retired Persons must note that only after three years and upon proof that the transportation that was previously imported to Belize was adequately disposed off, will another concession be granted to import another mode of transportation.”Income Requirement: To be designated a Qualified Retired Person under the program, the applicant must have a monthly income of at least US$2,000. A couple does not need to show US$4,000 a month – just US$2,000, as the applicant is normally an individual and the applicant’s spouse is a dependent under the program. The income rules for Qualified Retired Persons are, like many things in Belize, a little confusing. On first reading, it looks like the income must derive from a pension or annuity that has been generated outside of Belize. The rules do not specifically say so, but according to Belize Tourism Board officials U.S. Social Security income can be included as part of this pension requirement. Pension and annuity information then has to be substantiated by a Certified Public Accountant, along with two bank references from the company providing the pension or annuity. These substantiations may not be required if your pension and/or annuity is from a Fortune 500 company. Several retirees have said that they were able to include other forms of income, including investment income, in the US$2,000 figure, if supported by a CPA’s statement that the income would continue indefinitely. In this latter case, the US$2,000 a month income (US$24,000 a year) can be substantiated by showing records from a bank or other financial institution in Belize that the retiree has deposited the necessary money.Other Documents and Procedures:Background check: All applications are subject to a background check by the Ministry of National Security.Application: Applications for the program must be made to the Belize Tourism Board in Belize City and include the following:Birth certificate: A certified copy of a certificate for the applicant and each dependent.Marriage certificate, if applicable.Passport: Color copies of complete passport (including all blank pages) of applicant and all dependents that have been certified by a Notary Public. The copies must have the passport number, name of principal, number of pages and the seal or stamp of the Notary Public.Proof of income: The current QRP information states that there are two ways to prove that your income is sufficient:1) An official statement from a bank or financial institution certifying that the applicant is the recipient of a pension or annuity of a minimum of US$2,000 per month.2) A financial statement from a financial institution, bank, credit union, or building society in Belize certifying that the applicant’s investment will generate the sum of a minimum of US$2,000 per month or the equivalent of US$24,000 per year.Medical examination: Applicant and all dependents should undergo a complete medical examination including an AIDS test. A copy of the medical certificate(s) must be attached to the application.Photos: Four front and four-side passport size photographs that have been taken recently of applicant and dependents.The application form for the Qualified Retired Persons program is available for download from the Belize Tourism Board at www.belizetourismboard.org (visit www.belizetourismboard.org/programs-events/retirement-program/#1490202032346-1e76d79c-10c0. There is a non-refundable application fee of US$150. Upon acceptance, there is an Applicant Program fee of US$1,000 US$200 for a QRP membership card, plus US$750 for each dependent (including spouse). Thus, the application fee and member cost for the QRP program total US$1,350 for an individual or US$2,100 for a couple. There is an additional fee of US$750 for each qualifying dependent child.Renewals of QRP must be made annually. There is a US$25 fee for renewal. Each year, you must demonstrate that you have deposited US$24,000 in a Belize bank and converted the money into Belize dollars and also that you have lived in Belize for at least 30 consecutive days in the past year.For information on the program, contact: Belize Tourism Board, P.O. Box 325, 64 Regent St., Belize City, Belize, Central America, 501-227-2420 or 800-624-0686, fax 501-227-2423, www.belizetourismboard.org/programs-events/retirement-program/. If you have questions or problems, try contacting the Program Officer for QRP at the BTB.In 2010, the Belize government introduced a new program, the Diaspora Retirement Incentive Program, directed to Belizeans who wish to return to Belize. Is is open to Belize citizens who have lived outside Belize for a minimum of 10 consecutive years. The benefits include the importation of personal/household effects, a personal vehicle and the tools of one’s trade free of all import duties.OFFICIAL PERMANENT RESIDENTApplication requirements and most benefits are similar to those of the Retired Persons Incentive Act, but there are some important differences. The application process itself and the supporting documents needed are similar to those for the QRP, although the applications are processed by different governmental departments.Here are the main differences: As an official Permanent Resident, you have two major advantages over a participant in the QRP program. First, you do not have to deposit annually any particular sum in a bank in Belize. However, you do have to show financial resources sufficient to obtain residency status. Second, as a Permanent Resident, you can work for pay in Belize. You also enjoy some advantages as a resident rather than a “long-term visitor” as you are considered in QRP status. As a permanent resident, you can vote in some local (not national) Belize elections.You must live in Belize for one full year before you can apply for regular Permanent Residency. During this period, you cannot leave the country for more than 14 days. Even a short, two-hour visit to Chetumal counts as one day’s absence. Note, however, that the Immigration and Nationality Department sometimes interprets this requirement only as meaning that you cannot leave the country for 14 or more CONSECUTIVE days. Yes, this is a little confusing; this is Belize.Documents Needed for Permanent ResidencyApplicationHere are the documents you must have to apply for Permanent Residency (photocopies of original documents must be submitted along with the original documents). The exact forms required may vary depending on the official with whom you deal and are subject to change:Application form.Copies of all pages of passport.Evidence, such as passport pages with immigration stamps, that you have been in the country for one year.Police record from Belize within past six months and from last country of residence, for yourself and all members of your family over the age of 16 who also wish to apply for Permanent Residence.Statement of financial stability – this can be in the form of a recent bank statement.If applicable, proof of employment or self-employment (letter from employer or Certificate of Business Registration if self-employed).Evidence you have acquired property in Belize if you are claiming that you have – but owning property in Belize is NOT required to obtain permanent residence.Certificate of health including HIV, venereal disease and tuberculosis tests for you and all members of your family – these tests must be conducted in Belize.Two passport-size photos of yourself and all members of your family,Original or certified copy of birth certificates of all applicants.Marriage certificate (if applicable).Income tax form.After approval, you have up to one year to bring in household effects duty-free, on a one-time basis. However, the duty-free exemption does not apply to a vehicle, boat and airplane, as it does for the Qualified Retired Persons program.It is somewhat expensive to apply for regular permanent residency.Application fees for Permanent Residency vary by nationality, ranging from US$250 to $5,000. For U.S. nationals, the fee currently (fees may change) is US$1,000 per person; for citizens of most British Commonwealth countries, the fee is US$750; for citizens of CARICOM countries, the fee is US$250; for citizens of other Central American countries, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, the fee is US$375; for citizens of EU countries, the fee is US$1,500. There is also, upon approval, a fee of US$150. In addition, if you use an “expediter” in Belize to help you with the paperwork, which is NOT required, you'll likely pay a fee of around US$1,500, plus several hundred dollars in travel and photocopying fees and taxes. Note that these fees are per-person, not per-application, as is the case for the Qualified Retired Persons program. For example, an American married couple applying for Permanent Residency would pay US$2,000 with the application and US$300 for residency stamps after approval. Residency cards are no longer provided -- instead, your passport is stamped.You apply to Belize Immigration and Nationality Services rather than through the Belize Tourism Board. For information and application form, contact: Department of Immigration and Nationality Services, Attn: Permanent Residence Services, Mountain View Blvd., Belmopan City, Belize, Central America, 501-828-5247, www.ins.gov.bz, email [email protected]. Besides the Immigration Department main office in Belmopan, there are regional offices in Corozal Town, Orange Walk Town, Belize City, San Pedro, Benque Viejo (border), Dangriga, Big Creek and Punta Gorda.The Permanent Residency application form is available in PDF from www.ins.gov.bz/images/Oldforms/APPLICATIONFORPERMANENTRESIDENCE_1.PDF.It is wise to go in person to Immigration in Belmopan to apply for Permanent Residency. Applicants usually find that several trips are necessary, to check on the progress of the application and to keep it moving. Again, being friendly and showing respect to Belizean officials is vital. Getting angry with any delays will probably be counter-productive.Time for approval of a Permanent Residency application varies. Some find that the process goes fairly quickly, taking only a few months. Others say it took up to a year, or longer, for approval.Pros and ConsEach option has pluses and minuses. The main advantages and disadvantages are as follows:Tourist PermitPros: No commitment, no financial requirement, flexibility, little red tape.Cons: No tax advantages, no official status, inconvenience of having to go in person to extend, possibility rules may change, can’t work for pay in Belize.Qualified Retired Persons Incentive ProgramPros: Quick approval, application through Belize Tourism Board rather than Immigration Department, some residency-style rights (except voting), tax-free entry of household effects, car, boat and airplane, only have to live in country for one month a year.Cons: Must deposit US$24,000 a year in a Belize bank, somewhat costly application process, can’t work for pay in Belize, must be 45 or over.Official Permanent ResidencyPros: Full residency rights (except voting in national elections), can work for pay, open to anyone regardless of age, tax-free entry of household effects.Cons: Year-long residency in Belize before applying, more red tape, costly application process, and some people are turned down for minor details; you can bring in household goods but NOT a car, boat or airplane free of duty.For more information, get in touch with the Belize Tourism Board (www.belizetourismboard.org/programs-events/retirement-program/), Beltraide (www.belizeinvest.org.bz) or the Belize Immigration Department (www.ins.gov.bz).Other ProgramsThe controversial Economic Citizenship program, under which foreigners were able to buy a Belize passport and residency rights for a fee of US$25,000 to $50,000, was discontinued in 2002. Some dated information on the internet still suggests this program is in effect. If you need a second passport, you might looks at investment/passport programs in St. Kitts and some other Caribbean countries.Belize CitizenshipIn addition to the programs discussed above, regular citizenship in Belize is a possibility for those living in Belize over a long period. To acquire citizenship, applicants must have residency status for a minimum of five years. Applicants for citizenship need to provide essentially the same supporting documentation as those applying for Permanent Residency. Applicants also must demonstrate knowledge of Belizean history. Note that for citizenship residency purposes, stays in the Belize under the Qualified Retired Persons program currently do NOT qualify, although there have been discussions about changing this. To become a citizen, you would have to give up QRP status (perhaps having to pay back the duties you escaped under QRP), apply for Permanent Residency and begin the five-year residency from scratch.Caution: Rules and regulations and the interpretation of them change frequently in Belize. Do NOT assume that this information is the last word on any matter pertaining to entering or staying in Belize.This is worth repeating: CAUTION: RULES IN BELIZE CHANGE FREQUENTLY. What is true today may not be true tomorrow. Do not assume that everything you are told will apply for you.