Hi Simone
What you have been told about Mauritius is absolutely wrong. Over the last 3 years Mauritius has embraced bold reforms that have made it among the most open for foreign investors and among the low tax economies in the world. Mauritius ranked 8th (of 178 countries) for the ease of starting a Business (
http://www.doingbusiness.org/) and 18th for the freest economy in the world (source: Heritage Foundation). Mauritius has a number of schemes that allows non-citizens to come and invest or work in the now open economy. Among them is the popular Occupation Permit.
The Occupation Permit allows non-citizen to live and work in Mauritius for up to 3 years. After 3 years, you can apply for either a 10 year occupation permit or a permanent residence permit. You are eligible to the latter only if some conditions are met. An application for occupation permit can be made under the following categories:
Investor – The business activity should generate an annual turnover exceeding Rs 3.0 million
Professional – The basic salary of the professional should exceed Rs30,000 per month
Self-Employed – Income from the self-employed business activity should exceed Rs600,000 annually.
A complete application is determined within 3 days only.
It won’t be difficult for both of you to register under the above categories. Mauritius is actually working at making the ICT sector the fifth pillar of the economy. The demand for experienced IT professionals reached an all-time high during the last months with low increase in the supply (source:www.lexpress.mu). Mauritian companies especially in the Textile and Telecommunication sector are recruiting more foreign IT professionals. You should register as a professional if you can found a job that pays you more than Rs30,000 monthly.
Alternatively you can register as a Self-employed or investor but should meet the annual turnover/income requirements.
Should you require more information please contact me.