Belize’s Immigration Kickback Wizard “Corruption”

Need a tourist stamp on your passport and you’re past the 30-day deadline? Call
the Expeditor. Takes one day and a fee.
Need a work visa for yourself, a worker or a human trafficking victim and don’t
want to wait the two months it usually takes immigration to process your applica
tion? Call the Expeditor. Takes one day and a fee.
Wanting a work visa so you can stay in Belize and start a business and not inter
ested in the long interview process? And you’re not interested in dealing with
the pesky paperwork required by immigration: purchase agreements; bank informat
ion; lease; and licenses etc? No patience for waiting the two months normally r
equired by immigration for processing all this. Presto. With the Expeditor’s h
elp, it takes one day, and a fee and you get a passport stamp indicating you hav
e a one-year visa.
Residency status can be granted expeditiously if you follow the business work vi
sa steps and add a fee for the Expeditor. Usually you have to wait a year befor
e you get approval from immigration for your residency status. With his help, y
ou are moved through the process almost overnight. The more money you have the
faster it goes. Ask software kingpin John McAfee how he got his residency on th
e express route.
So, are these stamps, visas and other documents real? Yes. They do come from t
he Belize immigration department. The Expeditor has a network of contacts withi
n the department who are just as attached to graft as they are to their do-nothi
ng jobs. The fees paid to the Expeditor are shared with top immigration officia
ls. He gets his cut, the officials get their share and there is still enough mo
ney left over to actually put the cost of the document into the general review f
und of Belize and have it go down in their “books” as a legitimately rendered do
cument.
To put things into perspective on the amount of money he gets and shares with im
migration brass: a work visa is supposed to cost $150 (Belize) and comes with a
two month waiting period. Working through the Expeditor is faster, but it will
cost you ten times as much.
It’s true the Expeditor does have some small expenses he has to look after. He
has a network of hustlers he keeps on a string. Taxi drivers are particularly i
n-the-know on how to get, for example, tourist stamps. If he’s an Expeditor fra
nchisee, taxi driver gets a small cut, too. Chicken feed.
In all corrupt systems there is always a key fixer. In the case of Belize, ther
e is a man called the Expeditor. Working out of Belmopan, this wizard of kickba
ck is highly placed among his government cronies and has a special relationship
with the immigration department.
Every year, he makes millions for himself and Belize immigration’s corrupt top m
anagement. Here’s how.
For immigration bosses and their partner, the Expeditor, business is good.