Applicants seeking to regularise their immigration status in the British Virgin Islands attended meetings held throughout the territory this week
Marsha-Ann Gumbs, private secretary to the premier, spent more than an hour answering questions from approximately 300 potential applicants who attended the multi-purpose sports complex on Tortola on the procedure by which persons who have lived in the British Virgin Islands for a minimum of 15 years and have contributed to the community can become permanent residents and Belongers.
Additional meetings were held this week on each of the territory’s main islands.
The British Virgin Islands government plans for the first time to issue residency and belongership simultaneously, a departure from previous policy that required a 12 month wait between the two.
The amnesty programme announced last week is designed to help address the large backlog of applications and to process new ones and least 13 additional immigration staff have been hired to help with this objective. Instead of May 13, applications will now be accepted from May 27, giving applicants only five days to submit their forms and supporting documentation, but chief immigration officer Ian Penn suggested the department may work extended hours, including weekends, until the accumulated work is cleared.
Opposition members of parliament have challenged some of the changes to the law and policy, particularly the reduction in the length of the residency requirement from 20 to 15 years, but Premier Andrew Fahie has said he expects this change will be upheld.
Premier Fahie also announced his government’s intention to amend the Immigration and Passport Act in the House of Assembly on Friday but did not provide further details.
