The final issue of belongerships caps a bumper year
2019 has been an unusual one in terms of the number of people who have been awarded belongership status in the British Virgin Islands. As a testament to the government’s Fast-Track Programme to regularise expatriate residents who had been living in the territory for more than 20 years, a total of 1,523 people have been awarded certificates for residency or belongership under the islands’ Virgin Islands Party administration. Other recipients represented persons whose applications had not been dealt with on a timely basis.
Under the Fast-Track Programme, 648 people received certificates of belonger status, and 542 received certificates of residency and belongership combined. Of the applications that had not been processed promptly, 129 were for residency and 204 for belongership.
While welcoming the newest citizens at the three-hour-long ceremony, Premier Andrew Fahie noted his government will be embarking on a number of other initiatives in the near future to further strengthen the Labour and Immigration Department including completing the harmonisation, streamlining and the digitisation of that department to provide better efficiencies, monitoring and enforcement, full implementation of the online work permit system, and a jobs board to support the workforce development programme.
