Bahamas
BEATS (advertised, not obtainable): health insurance requirements
No insurance mandate for this visa
The Bahamas Extended Access Travel Stay is still advertised by the Ministry of Tourism and its own 2020-era site, but the Department of Immigration, which would issue it, lists it nowhere, its fee schedule carries no matching line, and the only application link no longer resolves. No closure has ever been announced. The honest position is that BEATS is advertised but not obtainable, so plan on entering as a visitor.
The requirements at a glance
| Local-licensed insurer required | No: compliant international IPMI is accepted |
|---|---|
| Accepted proof | BEATS as published asked every applicant and dependant for proof of medical insurance covering the Bahamas, with no minimum sum. That condition is moot while there is no way to apply. Visitor entry asks for a passport valid six months, an onward ticket, proof of funds and a completed immigration card. |
The published BEATS terms were a US$25 application plus a US$1,000 permit, dependants at US$25 plus US$500 each, 12 months renewable to three years, with no income threshold. For visitors, US and Canadian passport holders can be admitted for stays of up to eight months, while British and Australian visitors commonly receive 90 days. There is no Bahamian income or capital gains tax.
Two arms of the Bahamian government disagree in public: the Ministry of Tourism still calls BEATS a new programme, while the Department of Immigration does not acknowledge it in its permit catalogue, fee scale or eServices portal, and the sole application link has dropped out of DNS.
Our take
Immigration advisers reported the programme as apparently suspended as early as January 2022, while noting no official notice had been issued. Four years on that is still the position, with tourism advertising it and immigration silent. Do not build a relocation on it.
The visitor route is a better fallback than it sounds, at least on a US or Canadian passport: up to eight months is longer than most Caribbean nomad permits grant, and it asks nothing beyond a passport, onward travel and means of support.
What happens if you get it wrong
Waiting on a BEATS approval as the basis of a plan. There is no working application address, so an application may simply go nowhere without ever being refused.
Underinsuring because the islands look developed. This is an archipelago: serious cases are moved to Nassau and frequently on to Miami, and that flight is the expense cover exists for.
Interactive
Verified pricesWhat would it cost in Bahamas without insurance?
You pay, out of pocket
$3,000–$10,000
A serious private admission or common surgery.
Bars to scale. A flight home is in another league.
That is the bill you carry alone. Insurance exists for exactly this.
See what cover costsTypical private-care estimates for illustration, not a quote. Actual bills vary by hospital, city and severity.
FAQ
There is no working way to apply. The programme site is unchanged since 2021 and tourism still advertises it, but the Department of Immigration does not list it in its ways to apply, its fee schedule or its eServices portal, and the application link no longer resolves in DNS.
No closure has ever been announced, which is why it cannot be called dead. Immigration advisers described it as apparently suspended in January 2022 and noted the absence of any official notice. Nothing has changed since.
As a visitor. US and Canadian passport holders can be admitted for up to eight months, British and Australian visitors commonly 90 days, with the officer at the port setting the exact length.
Visitor entry requires none, and the BEATS insurance condition is moot while the permit cannot be obtained. The reason to hold cover is geography: serious cases move to Nassau and often on to Miami.
What policy actually satisfies this visa
This route does not make insurance a condition of the application, so nobody will ask you for a certificate. That is worth separating from the question of whether you should carry cover, because the immigration rule and the hospital bill are decided by different people.
The countries that impose no insurance rule are not, as a group, the countries where being uninsured is cheap. Several of them expect payment before treatment and fly serious cases abroad. The absence of a rule is not the absence of a risk, and the calculator above puts a figure on the difference.
The visa tells you the minimum. It does not tell you what to actually carry. Those are different questions, and the paperwork minimum is nearly always the smaller of the two answers.
Get a policy that satisfies this visa
Three minutes of honest questions, then we'll match you to insurance that meets Bahamas'srequirements and actually works where you're going.
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