AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel Customs and Immigration

It is great that so many have been able to get through with extended stay tickets. I just know that I will never make that mistake again and it is probably better to be safe rather than sorry when a child is concerned. My husband was also questioned / delayed with his one way ticket to Mexico. He explained that he was returning on a private plane and they reluctantly let him through. The Delta agents practically quoted this material from the State Department's website as they extracted another $300 from me at the gate.

US travelers to Belize need to have a Visa if travel plans extend > 30 days:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1055.html#entry_requirements

Thx for the update.. sorry to hear you are not going to be able to make it to SP this year.
Will be sure to drop by and say Hi to Gayle and Sahara. I will be there from Feb 10th to 26th and staying next door.
LOL on the number of people who want to be adopted.. living with a person is certainly different than merely benefiting from perks.. Give the grump a hug and a beer..
Take care, Gail

We went down for 6 weeks last winter using USAirways and was not questioned by either airline or immigration about length of stay. The cost of buying an extension was about $30.00US/person which is not bad but the 2 hour wait was a bit much.

It IS the airline, not the government. I wanted to get back here (home) so I could start buying my r/t from BZE. Had a huge argument with the AA clerk in Oakland.

I demanded a supervisor. It took at least a half an hour but I insisted that I was a resident of Belize and had my paper work to prove it. After they finally said OK discovered I was there a day early. LOL I asked if I would have to go through this all over again the next day. The answer was "NO". I don't think they ever wanted to see me again!

My daughter just came in with me without a return ticket and we did not have any problem. She just has to go every month and pay $$. And be careful - they always short you one day - so watch the TO date (it is not a THROUGH date).

We got hit this way a couple of times before we got our residency. What we ended up doing was buying a separate return ticket at the US airport and as son as we got to Belize went to the airlines for a refund. Refund tok about a month but we did not lose any money.

We were in the process of having the reservation changed to 29 days when it was decided that she didn't need to stay 6 weeks anyways. So now she is returning on the 6th and I have learned alot. And ScubaLady, I kind of figured that is what they would do, so now she arrives in Belize on the 9th, and leaves on the 6th, so she will be under the 30 days, right?
I was vaguely awawe of this issue before, now I know alot more, and thank you all for your input. He has a grandaughter who has been down quite a few times, and now she wants to come for a couple of months, so I will let her know about this.

I have been to AC many times with a 6 to 8 week return ticket and have never, on any occasion, had anyone question me in any way. I have also (probably a mistake and someday I will pay the price) never renewed my passport (visa) at immigration while I was on the island! Maybe it is because I am a Canadian???? British Commonwealth and all that eh!

Ya, never thought of the Canadian angle. Anyways, she is there, so it all worked out.
I wonder if they do look at Canadian Passports any different, probably just figure we are all from "up north"

I don't know if it is the case in Belize, but many countries have for decades operated differing schemes to ensure they won't be left with destitute visitors on their streets. Ensuring you have a return ticket is just one of these. The USA started the trend of shifting the responsibility for this onto the airline that brought the person in, so if an airline is faced with the possible sanction of having to carry someone out of a country for free, they will do what they can to minimise that likelihood.

Often people will say they are traveling on to Mexico or another country by bus if the questioning comes up.

6 weeks is not that long that it should be an issue but good you changed date just in case.

I agree with the documentation on child being legal to travel. I forget who but this issue came up recently for someone and they were glad they had the paper handy to show.