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Bahamas: visas, tax & cost of living

Moving to the Bahamas as a remote worker: the real BEATS visa, honest Nassau costs, zero income tax, healthcare and banking, from someone who did it.

Bahamas: visas, tax & cost of living
Your passport

United KingdomBahamas

Your move to Bahamas on a United Kingdom passport

  • VisitEasyVisa-free entry
  • NomadFairly easyNomad visa, stricter rules
  • RelocateMediumResidence with conditions

Visiting

Visa-free for up to 240 days. Travel on a passport valid for your whole stay, with a return or onward ticket and proof you can support yourself.

Passport validity:Passport valid for at least six months at entry; passport cards not accepted

At the border:Completed immigration disembarkation card, return or onward ticket, proof of funds and an address of stay

Working remotely

Bahamas Extended Access Travel Stay (BEATS).

Income needed:No fixed income floor; you show funds to support yourself and dependents(estimate)

Duration:12months

Fee:USD 25 application, then about USD 1,000 permit (USD 500 students) plus USD 500 per dependent(estimate)

Who qualifies:For remote workers employed or self-employed outside the Bahamas, or remote students

Tax and residency

The Bahamas levies no personal income, capital gains or inheritance tax, so foreign earned income is generally untaxed locally regardless of residency.(estimate)

The UK decides residence with its Statutory Residence Test (days in the UK plus your ties). As a non-resident you are usually taxed only on UK income; where one exists, a double-tax treaty with the destination decides who taxes what.

Practical

Currency:BSD. Cost of living:high.

Healthcare:No free public cover for foreigners; private travel or international health insurance is strongly advised.

Driving:Visitors may drive on a valid foreign licence for up to three months; an IDP helps if it is not in English, and driving is on the left.

Sources: Bahamas Department of Immigration · Bahamas Immigration - Entry Requirements · Official Bahamas - Visa & Immigration · PwC - Bahamas Individual Residence & Tax · UK FCDO - Bahamas Entry Requirements · GOV.UK: tax on foreign income · HMRC: double-taxation treaties

Estimates, not advice. Confirm with the official sources before you act.

Should you move to Bahamas?

Picture a version of remote work where your lunch break is a swim, your colleagues are three time zones behind you, and nobody asks you to file a tax return. That is the pitch for the Bahamas, and a lot of it holds up. English is the working language, the country sits a short flight from Miami, and there is genuinely no personal income tax. For a US or UK remote worker who bills in dollars, that combination is rare.

It suits a specific kind of person: someone earning a solid remote salary who wants sun, sea, and simplicity, and who will not flinch when the grocery bill lands. Most newcomers base themselves in Nassau (on New Providence), the capital and the only place with a real city rhythm, reliable flights, and hospitals. Others chase the postcard version in Exuma or Eleuthera, quieter, prettier, and slower in every sense, including the internet.

Budget honestly. A single person living comfortably in Nassau should plan for roughly USD 2,800 to 4,500 a month once rent is included, and more if you want a waterfront view. The trade-offs are real. Almost everything is imported, so it is expensive. Hurricane season runs June to November and it is not theoretical (Dorian in 2019 was catastrophic). Power cuts happen. And parts of Nassau have genuine crime, so location and common sense matter.

Cost of living in Bahamas

The Bahamas is one of the pricier places a nomad can pick, and the reason is simple: it imports nearly everything, then adds duty. A one-bedroom apartment runs around USD 1,300 to 1,450 a month on average, though central Nassau and gated communities push well past USD 2,000, according to Numbeo.

Groceries are where the sticker shock lands. Expect around USD 8 to 9 for a dozen eggs and USD 4 to 5 for a litre of milk, again per Numbeo. A modest restaurant meal sits near USD 45, and a night out with drinks climbs fast. Utilities for a mid-size apartment, mostly air conditioning, hover around USD 340 a month, and that figure spikes in the summer heat.

Numbeo puts a single person’s monthly costs at roughly USD 1,800 before rent. Add housing and the real all-in number for a comfortable life in Nassau is closer to USD 3,000 to 4,500. You can trim it by cooking, sharing, and skipping the imported wine, but nobody moves to the Bahamas to live cheaply. Treat every figure here as an estimate and price your own basket before you commit.

Bahamas digital nomad visa and entry

Yes, there is a real route, and it has a name: BEATS, the Bahamas Extended Access Travel Stay. Launched in 2020 for remote workers and students, it lets you “call our islands home for up to a year,” per the official BEATS programme, and it is renewable.

The application is online through the government immigration portal. Fees are modest by nomad-visa standards but worth verifying before you apply: expect a small application fee (around USD 25) plus a permit fee of roughly USD 1,000 for a working professional, about USD 500 for a student, and around USD 500 per accompanying dependent. You will need proof of remote employment or enrolment, health insurance, and a clean background check. Because those numbers do drift, confirm the current schedule on the official portal, and if you want a quick read on whether BEATS or a straight tourist stay fits your situation, run it through our digital nomad visa checker first.

One honest caveat: BEATS is a stay permit, not a path to permanent residency or citizenship. If long-term settlement is your goal, the separate economic-residency route (tied to buying property, historically from around USD 750,000) is a very different and far more expensive conversation.

Tax residency and the 183 day rule

This is the part people move for. The Bahamas levies no personal income tax, no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax, and no wealth tax on individuals. That is not a loophole, it is simply how the country funds itself, mainly through a Value Added Tax (around 10 percent, per the Bahamas Department of Inland Revenue) and import duties. The tradeoff for zero income tax is the high cost of everything you buy.

Here is the catch that trips people up. Living tax-free in the Bahamas does not automatically end your tax obligations back home. Many countries treat you as tax resident based on where you spend 183 days or more in a year, or on where your center of life sits, and US citizens are taxed on worldwide income no matter where they live. Physically moving does not, by itself, break residency in the country you left. Where you actually owe tax depends on your citizenship, your ties, and the day count, so map it out with our tax residency checker and, for anything meaningful, a cross-border accountant. This is education, not advice.

Healthcare and insurance

Healthcare in Nassau is decent for routine and urgent care, thinner for anything complex. The main public facility is Princess Margaret Hospital, run by the Public Hospitals Authority; the leading private option is Doctors Hospital, also in Nassau. Serious or specialist cases are frequently flown to Miami, which is exactly why comprehensive private insurance with medical evacuation cover is not optional here.

Public care is not free at point of use for non-citizens, and quality is uneven. Most expats and nomads carry private international health insurance (global providers like Cigna Global or Allianz Care are common choices), typically running a few hundred dollars a month depending on age and coverage. On the outer islands, medical facilities shrink to a clinic and a plane, so factor evacuation coverage in seriously if you plan to live in Exuma or Eleuthera.

Money, banking and settling in

The Bahamian dollar is pegged one-to-one to the US dollar, and US dollars are accepted almost everywhere, so Americans skip currency exchange entirely. Cards work fine in Nassau; carry some cash on the outer islands where machines and card readers are patchier.

Opening a local bank account as a foreigner is possible but slow, with heavy documentation (proof of address, permit, reference letters), so many nomads simply keep their home bank plus a multi-currency card like Wise or Revolut for the first months. The main banks are Scotiabank, RBC Royal Bank, CIBC Caribbean, and Bank of The Bahamas.

For your first weeks: sort connectivity early (Aliv and BTC are the two carriers, and a backup mobile hotspot is wise given power cuts), rent short-term before signing anything long, and pick your Nassau neighborhood with local input rather than a map. Settle in slowly, and let the island set the pace.

Figures are estimates. Always check the official source.

Frequently asked questions

Bahamas: is there a digital nomad visa?
Bahamas Extended Access Travel Stay (BEATS). For remote workers employed or self-employed outside the Bahamas, or remote students
Bahamas: when do you become a tax resident?
The Bahamas levies no personal income, capital gains or inheritance tax, so foreign earned income is generally untaxed locally regardless of residency.
Bahamas: what is the cost of living?
The cost of living is high and the local currency is the BSD. Treat any figures as estimates.
Bahamas: do you need health insurance?
No free public cover for foreigners; private travel or international health insurance is strongly advised.
Bahamas: can you drive on a foreign licence?
Visitors may drive on a valid foreign licence for up to three months; an IDP helps if it is not in English, and driving is on the left.

Terms worth knowing

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Last verified: 2026-07-28

Voymo gives general information to help you organise your move. It is not legal, tax, or immigration advice, always confirm with an official source or a qualified professional before you act.

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