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Flag of Bahamas

Bahamas

BEATS (Extended Access Travel Stay)

PR: NoUTC−4

The requirements

Programme status
Open, accepting applications
Minimum monthly income
No income minimum
Required savings
None
Annual total
No minimum
Initial duration
1 year, renewable up to 3
Family allowed
Yes
Apply online
Yes

No minimum; USD 1,000 permit fee (+500 per dependant).

How this figure is set: No income test at all. Formula: No income minimum; fees USD 25 application + USD 1,000 permit (individual); dependants USD 25 + 500.

Income confidence: high · checked 2026-09-08
Legal basis: BEATS programme (Ministry of Tourism / Department of Immigration).

Does this lead to permanent residence?

No pathway. BEATS outside Immigration Act; PR needs 20 yrs on work permits.

The Bahamas Immigration Act Ch.191, read in full via PDF, defines permanent-residence routes -- 20 years continuous work-permit residence (general), 5 years for a citizen's spouse, or a $1M+ investment route -- and never mentions BEATS or any visitor-class stay. Exclusion is inferred from the Act's silence on BEATS, since BEATS is a Ministry of Tourism/Immigration administrative programme layered outside the Act, not created by it.

Pathway confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-07

Where it is

Nassau sits at 25.06° N, 77.34° W.

Bahamas picked out on a world map

Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Nassau. This is the only link here that leaves the site.

Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Time zone

  • UTC−4 Nassau (America/Nassau)

The country

Region
Americas · Caribbean
Capital
Nassau
Currency
BSD

Nearest

Bahamas has no land border. These are the nearest countries covered here, by the distance between capitals.

What it costs to live there

$2,105 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Bahamas spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.

Nassau
$2,356 / month incl. rent
of which rent $970

City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.

Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20
World Bank national accounts, reference year 2024: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.

Languages

  • English official

Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".

Who can apply

Kinds of work covered
employee

Remote students are eligible on the same programme, which is unusual: it is not only for workers. Freelancers and business owners are not named either way.

Eligibility confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-08
BEATS programme page (bahamasbeats.com): 'Valid for both work and study remote applicants', with proof of employment for those applying to work remotely and a student ID for those applying to study remotely.

How to apply

  1. Check you clear the requirements above.
  2. Gather what the official page asks for:
    • Valid Passport Data Page
    • Medical Insurance Card
    • Those applying to Work Remotely, proof of Employment
    • Those applying to Study Remotely, Student ID
    Documents confidence: high · checked 2026-09-08
    The BEATS programme's own application page (bahamasbeats.com/how-it-works), which lists the uploads the application asks for. Wording is the page's own.
  3. Apply in this order — the ministry page above describes the permit, these are where it is submitted:
    1. ePermits, Bahamas Department of Immigration ↗The government's own permit system, and the only application portal on this site that resolves. Bahamas Immigration decides; the USD 25 application fee is charged up front and the permit fee only on approval.
    Portals checked 2026-09-12
    The bahamasbeats.com site markets the programme; the application and the fee go to Bahamas Immigration. Checked 2026-09-12, and with a caveat worth recording: the portal address that site gives (portal.immigration.gov.bs) has no DNS record at all, so it is not linked here. The department's own ePermits system is what resolves, and it is what this row points at. If the programme has a separate entrance, it was not findable from the official pages.
  4. Pay the filing fee. Two charges, and the second only if you are approved: USD 25 to apply, then the permit itself - USD 1,000 for the remote-working head of household, USD 500 for each dependant or for a study-remote applicant.BEATS, how it works ↗ · checked 2026-09-12
  5. Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
  6. Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.

BEATS official site ↗

~5 business days; no income tax. Programme confirmed operating on 8 Sep 2026: bahamasbeats.com serves a full FAQ and application flow and gives a government contact at [email protected]. Independent reports of a suspension were not borne out. The dependant fee is USD 500, not the 525 previously recorded.

A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by .