Category: Living in Mauritius

The Part Nobody Talks About Every Mauritius expat blog tells you how to arrive. How to get your permit, open a bank account, find a school, rent a villa. What almost nobody discusses is what happens when you leave. People leave Mauritius for all kinds of reasons. A job opportunity elsewhere. Ageing parents who need […]

Nobody Warned Me About the Cheese I moved to Mauritius eighteen months ago from London, and the thing I was least prepared for was the price of cheddar. A block of Cathedral City that costs £3.50 at Tesco runs MUR 450 (about £8) at the Jumbo hypermarket in Riche Terre. Parmesan is worse. A decent […]

The Short Answer Mauritius is the safest country in Africa and significantly safer than most places expats emigrate from. The intentional homicide rate is 2.2 per 100,000 inhabitants (2022 data), lower than the United States (6.3), comparable to France (1.34), and laughably far from South Africa (45). There are no armed gangs, no carjackings, no […]

The Great Northward Migration South Africans are not moving to Mauritius because they suddenly fell in love with tropical islands. They are moving because Mauritius offers something South Africa increasingly does not: predictability. Predictable electricity, predictable safety, predictable government. The island is not perfect (we will get to that), but for South African families weighing […]

Why Mauritius Keeps Drawing Britons Eastward The UK-to-Mauritius pipeline is not new. Mauritius was a British colony until 1968, English remains an official language, the legal system still leans on common law, and you drive on the left. For British expats, it feels familiar enough to be comfortable and foreign enough to be interesting. What […]

You need health insurance in Mauritius. The public system is free and functional for emergencies, but anyone planning to stay long-term and wanting reliable care will go private. I covered the broader healthcare picture in the healthcare guide, so this piece focuses on the specific question: which international insurer should you actually go with? Three […]

The Occupation Permit (OP) is the main work and residence permit for non-citizens who want to live and work in Mauritius. It combines a work permit and a residence permit into a single document, issued by the Economic Development Board (EDB). What follows is the practical process: how to apply, what documents you need, how […]

Planning to buy property, not rent? See our region-by-region property buying guide, which covers purchase prices, PDS schemes and investment considerations by area. Mauritius is small – roughly 65km by 45km – but where you choose to settle makes a real difference to daily life. Each region has its own character, infrastructure, price bracket and […]

Mauritius does not sell citizenship. There is no single application that grants a family of four Mauritian passports in exchange for a bank transfer. What Mauritius does offer is a structured (if somewhat slow) pathway from residency to citizenship. For families willing to commit to actually living on the island, the route is clear and […]

Mauritius drives on the left (right-hand drive vehicles, same as the UK and Japan). Importing a car is possible but expensive. In most cases it makes more sense to buy locally. The basics Right-hand drive only. Left-hand drive (LHD) vehicles are not permitted for registration in Mauritius. If your car is LHD (as in continental […]