Cubicle Throwdown

tales of a serial expat

New Tourist Visa Procedures on Roatan

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 had mentioned the new-ish Honduran visa procedures in a previous post, but I am getting asked a lot of questions from readers planning to visit, move to, invest in, or retire to Roatan.

Let me first be VERY CLEAR that I am not an expert, a lawyer or any other kind of official. I am simply someone ‘on the ground’ who has been through the procedures and has seen how it has been working since it’s been put in place (late August 2014). I am also not making any sort of statement of what I personally have been doing one way or the other, this post is for informational purposes only. You should consult a Honduran immigration lawyer for advice.

**Update to the information below as of SEPTEMBER 2015: The 90-day visas are only being issued sporadically. Tourists should now expect to receive a 30-day tourist visa upon arrival. I have heard on good authority that if all three of the following conditions are met: 1) proof of exit flight in 90 days, 2) proof of booked + paid for accommodation, AND 3) are senior citizens (65+), then explain that to the immigration officer on arrival (bring proof for all 3 conditions) and they are supposed to issue you a 90-day visa. If they don’t, it’s possible (but not guaranteed, because nothing is guaranteed in Central America) that you can get a 30-day extension at the immigration office in Coxen Hole before your original one is up. Right now people are saying that you should be able to get 3 subsequent extensions for a total of 120 days, but no one has tried this yet, so I can’t say for sure. If you continue to enter and exit staying the maximum allowable time, the immigration officers will crack down. (Those up in arms over this need to remember what would happen if you were from Honduras and tried to do all this in the States. They would kick you out and not let you back in, ever. We can’t get mad at Honduras for stepping up out of government corruption.)



So – here are the changes.

Previously: when you entered Honduras as a tourist you were granted a 90-day tourist visa. While on the record you should have had to leave the country every 90 days for at least 72 hours before re-entering and (maybe) being granted a new 90-day visa, it has been a common practice for years to pay immigration officials around $100 for an extension every 90 days. With residencies and work permits costing $1800-$3000 USD and taking up to a year to complete, they simply were/are not viable options for most tourists wanting to stay longer term on Roatan. (I am not here to debate the legality or ethics of visa or immigration procedures so do not comment on this post or email me if you want to argue about it.) 

Now: the government has implemented fingerprint scanners at airports and some land border crossings and your fingerprints will be scanned at entry and exit. Apparently the info will be shared with the US Department of Homeland Security, which the US expats are in an uproar about but I’m not exactly sure why. Anyway, visa ‘extensions’ from within the country are no longer permitted and you must leave Honduras for at least 72 hours before re-entering to get a new visa. Overstaying your visa comes with some hefty fines… there is no ‘official’ number anywhere but I have heard of people 1-5 days over being charged around $160 and up.

(source)
Short story: tourists (I’m using that as a general term for those people without residency) are now going to have to do visa runs. You need to stay out of the country for 72 hours every 90 days.
Reality: people are already leaving because of this, especially in the dive instructor community. With wages as low as they are, frequent visa runs or residency applications are out of reach for a lot of people who would like to stay here long term.
With Roatan being an island that’s not exactly cheap to get in and out of, the cost of doing visa runs every three months ($400-$600) to neighboring countries like Belize or Guatemala will end up being about the same in a year as a residency or work permit ($1800-$3000). Catch: you still have to do visa runs while residency paperwork is in progress, and there’s no guarantee that the government will grant your residency. There is also a ton of paperwork to do for a residency application, and citizens of some countries like Canada are not able to obtain some of the documentation abroad – they will need to factor in the cost of a trip home to get certain documents for the residency application.
I am sure those who are familiar with SE Asia visa runs are feeling very little sympathy, but remember this is a new thing for Roatan. There are no ‘visa run’ companies set up who take care of all the documentation for you and arrange transportation (although that could be a new niche market here I guess!), and Honduran visa rules state that you need to stay out of the country for at least 72 hours before re-entering… it’s not a matter of touching down in another country, getting a stamp and turning around and going back. There are going to be flight costs as well as accommodation & food for 4 days, so it’s not a quick cheap trip.
Hopefully Honduras will come up with some sort of extension program again or a realistically-priced work permit that people can apply for. Everyone I know here would prefer to work legally and not have to do visa runs, but when you make $5-$30 a day you’re not going to pay $2500 and wait a year for a work permit, especially the current ones that tie you to one employer (if you change jobs, it’s another $2500 work permit application) – that’s just ridiculous, which is why hardly anyone does it. It would benefit the government to create an easier and cheaper process, so I hope they figure that out before more people leave and dive centers, restaurants and hotels start folding.
I’m still not sure how this will all play out – as with most things in Honduras, you kind of have to sit back when a change happens and take a ‘wait and see’ approach. I already have questions that no one seems to be able to answer… like how I just entered the country and was fingerprinted at the Roatan airport, so I am in the system as entering the country… but if I leave through Utila and then come back in through Utila, a neighboring island that hasn’t received fingerprint scanners yet, I won’t be on the record in the system as leaving. So we’ll see, but for right now those planning to travel to Honduras for longer than 90 days should be sure to budget for visa runs when planning their trip.
Guys, make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter … there’s lots of extras posted there that don’t make it onto the blog. I also have Google+ if anyone even uses that? And I’m on Bloglovin’, so you can follow me there too! Plus it makes me start pinching pennies for a Belize trip pretty soon. So there’s that.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    There have been some people still doing under the table old-style stamps but several of these have been caught at the airport and fined heavily. Most people are doing visa runs or leaving.

  4. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    No worries, you happened to catch me online 🙂

    Someone running visa runs on boats directly from Roatan or Utila would make a KILLING as this is a new market and there isn't anyone filling it properly or easily at the moment. Get in there and make some $$!!

    Yep, you do customs & passport stamping through the port captains office. Let me know how it goes, I'd definitely be interested in doing direct boat runs to Belize rather than fucking around on the mainland trying to get there.

  5. Fred says

    Thank you for getting back to me so quickly.
    I was thinking about taking my boat there, was hoping to get a group of people that might be interested in this and maybe two or three boats.
    Not sure at that point where we would get our visa's stamped I guess at the port captains office?

  6. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    Yes, you should get a new 90-day visa upon return. Make sure you stay outside of Honduras for at least 72 hours. There are boats that run from Puerto Cortes on the mainland of Honduras to Placencia, Belize – lots of info online about this. Check the dates as the boat only runs once a week. Probably cheaper and easier to fly, depending on where you are coming from in Honduras. On Roatan you'd have to pay for the ferry to the mainland, pay for a bus from La Ceiba to Puerto Cortes, and then the boat to Placencia.

  7. Fred says

    Does anyone know if I can go to Belize and return to start a new 90 day visa, if so is possible to travel to and from Belize by boat to do this?

  8. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    Hi, there seems to be no clear and concise answer on the CA-4 agreement … some people are going to Guatemala and getting a new 90-day visa upon return, and some people have been denied a new 90-day visa, so in my opinion it's not worth the risk unless you have lots of cash and lots of time and can do a 2nd visa run somewhere else if you don't get a new 90-day visa.

  10. Sarah Hernandez says

    This is a great new system that should be very helpful in the future in preventing people from working or staying longer than they should while on a Tourist Visa. It is still quite lenient when you figure people from Canada and the US as well as many other countries can visit Roatan for up to 90 days just because they want to, Those complaining should go through what is involved in a Roatan Resident getting a Visa to visit the US or Canada. or whatever their home country is

  11. Sarah Hernandez says

    This is a great new system that should be very helpful in the future in preventing people from working or staying longer than they should while on a Tourist Visa. It is still quite lenient when you figure people from Canada and the US as well as many other countries can visit Roatan for up to 90 days just because they want to, Those complaining should go through what is involved in a Roatan Resident getting a Visa to visit the US or Canada. or whatever their home country is

  12. Joseph says

    This is mostly a problem for people on a tourist visa working illegally, They complain about the costs of renewal and travel while not paying taxes and living where the majority of the residents are well below the poverty level

  13. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    Unfortunately it does – I have to do visa runs now, and I can't afford them (they are around $600 to the nearest country for just flights and accommodation). So I may be looking for a new adventure elsewhere!

  14. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    Yeah, they are terrible. If there was a cheap place near here to do visa runs to it wouldn't be so bad, but most of the ones my friends and I have looked at have been around $600 including flights and hotel (not even food, etc. for the 4 days you're away). It's just completely out of everyone's budget here – most people are making $15-30 a day.

    There doesn't seem to be much foresight regarding the fact that the gringo dive instructors will leave and there aren't enough locals to fill the jobs. Probably nothing will happen until businesses start shutting down, that tends to be the way it goes here.

    I'm thinking about relocating as I definitely can't afford these visa runs every 3 months! So we'll see in December!

  15. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    These ones aren't too bad, it's just that getting off a Caribbean island and going somewhere else for 4 days costs around $600, and no one here is making enough money to do that every 90 days. Most people struggled with the $100 extension every 3 months. The issue mostly comes down to the unaffordability of visa runs here!

  17. Karyn @ Not Done Travelling says

    These new regulations suck, and I'd imagine they're going to hurt tourism. It seems like if there is a lack of skilled instructors there will be a flow-on effect that will damage tourism and hurt the livelihoods of the locals.

    Have you given any more thought to potentially relocating to elsewhere in the world, or are you gonna stick it out on Roatan for another year?