Well this is a tricky one... the rules say that you must be in Belize for a minimum of 6 months to be eligible for a business permit and 12 months for a work permit. I have not found this to be the case in reality. I was welcomed into the Labor Office and provided with a list of items I should return with in order to obtain a business/work permit. (below) Now, I should say that the list of items isn't particularly difficult to get but indeed it has proven to be very frustrating. For example, the trade license is something that gave me a particularly unbearable headache! I visited the Town Council office (located on the second story of the sea green building next to SpinDrift) and was told that I needed to have a business permit first in order to obtain a trade license. You can see where this is going... After several visits to various government offices where I was greeted with the same nod of agreement and shoulder shrug when I explained my confusion I finally found a compassionate soul who let me in on the big secret. I needed to return to the Town Council office and ask for a provisional trade license to use for the purpose of getting the business license at which point I could return to the same office and apply for the actual trade license. (no comment!)