UPDATE: Online application for entry permits being tested- Premier Smith
In a statement this afternoon, Dr Smith spoke of two changes which he believes will help to ease the long wait and lines at the Department of Immigration.
“We have therefore decided that as of Monday, February 19, [2018] any company can have their entry permits processed for the employees by having all the documents for the employees sent from the company directly to the Immigration Department. This would also apply for the owners or managers of companies.”
Dr Smith added that Government is also now testing an online application process for entry permits and “we expect this to be up and running within the next few weeks.
“Again, this will add to the efficiency of the application process at the Immigration Department.”
Volunteer workers must apply to Immigration Dept
There have been reports that the Department of Immigration and Marine Police have been stopping volunteers from working on Jost van Dyke due to lack of documentation.
Premier Smith said the VI welcomes volunteer groups who are coming to assist with the rebuilding and restoration process.
"We ask that the organisation or person responsible for volunteer groups or the volunteer to apply to the Immigration Department. Persons must write to the Chief Immigration Officer, indicating the name of the parent organisation; when persons are expected to arrive in the Territory and the length of the stay. This request will then be facilitated by the Immigration Department.”
Silence on Ritter-Freeman being replaced
Dr Smith; however, did not state whether Acting Chief Immigration Officer Mrs Geraldine Ritter-Freeman will be removed from the post.
Senior National Democratic Party (NDP) officials, who spoke to our newsroom, have confirmed that Mrs Ritter-Freeman will return to the Premier’s Office in her substantive post as Deputy Secretary by the end of March 2018.
Meanwhile, former Acting Chief Immigration Officer, Virgin Islander Ian B. Penn, who has a law degree, is expected to take over from April 1, 2018, according to the same source.
During a press conference at the Alamanda Conference Room, Office of the Premier, on February 15, 2018, Premier Smith was asked by a reporter to confirm whether Mrs Ritter-Freeman is still the Acting Chief Immigration Officer.
“At the moment she is, yes,” Dr Smith had responded.
See previous article published February 15, 2018
Changes will be made @ Immigration Department!- Premier Smith
- said an announcement will be made tomorrow, February 16, 2018; Changes will result in reduced waiting times & long lines
The Department of Immigration continues to face heavy criticisms from the public for failing to address especially the long waiting times and long lines that worsened since hurricanes Irma and Maria struck the Territory in September 2017.
Persons were particularly disturbed to learn that even volunteer workers from overseas have had to endure waiting an entire day to get their documentation sorted, providing that they show up way before 8:30 A.M. and are lucky to get a number.
There are reports of persons turning up at the Department even before 4:00 A.M. to hopefully be one of the firsts to get a number when they are shared.
On a daily basis more than one hundred persons are turned away, most of them are persons seeking extensions to remain legally in the Territory while their work permits are processed.
During a press conference at the Alamanda Conference Room, Office of the Premier, today, February 15, 2018, Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL), was asked by a reporter if he was willing to make any comment on the situation at Immigration Department, where there seems to be a lack of efficiency.
Changes will be made
Premier Smith stated that changes will be made at the Department and an announcement on it will follow.
“What is happening is the Immigration Department is going about its work in the normal way and because of the disaster, because of the need to have many people coming in to work and rebuilding and reconstructing, it became a bit excessive, the workload, but I’ve had discussions with the Immigration Department and we are going to be instituting some changes, which I will make an announcement on tomorrow [February 16, 2018]. We’re just going to conclude the discussions.”
The leader of Government business assured there will be results once the changes are made.
“These changes when instituted will definitely result in reduced waiting times, removal of those long lines from immigration and much more efficiency in what we are doing.”
Will Ritter-Freeman be moved?
There have been reports that one of the changes could be the removal of Acting Chief Immigration Officer Mrs Geraldine Ritter-Freeman.
When asked to confirm if Mrs Ritter-Freeman is still the Acting Chief Immigration Officer, Premier responded, “At the moment she is, yes.”
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41 Responses to “UPDATE: Online application for entry permits being tested- Premier Smith”
Does it seem as if the ( NDP ) Government only acts “ after “ something happens?
Does it seem as if “so many things “ that they did are incompleted or just plan did NOTTmake sense ?
We need to find out WHO are advising the ADVISORS
Some thing is NOT right in this little country.
People begging labour for their work permit and labour telling them they cant find it and if it ready they have to go back in 2 months to pick it up by appointment only. Utter nonsense.
People on the street talking the truth but nobody listening. So every body seeing long line by immigration and now immigration is the problem.
Wake up premier and take a long hard look at labour and you will find the root of your problem. The public need your help to get their work permits that been held up in labour from before the hurricanes. When you do that they wont have to be flocking to immigration.
We who not from here know the truth and what we does experience but ayo bvi people dont listen. Its labour department knockkng people about and making immigration look bad
The renewal process is the easy kill. I understand this may be on the cards to be addressed. Why one admin person cannot take the passports to be stamped (with a cheque or when electronic receipt of payment is confirmed) is a mystery.
Bahamas, not considered normally up there with Singapore, HK and the other BOTs in financial services, is instituting a 15 day limit for approval of permits. Even if just for the FS and tourism jobs, this should be easily attainable with the staff numbers available and with better more streamlined process.
The are business and social media discussions of how people are finding BVI systems, not just the hurricane damage, just too unreasonable and they are moving elsewhere even if it costs a little more up front.
It's HIGH time for all of us in BVI to bind together and defend our economy and our future.
1. Allow persons who come into the territory to be fluid in which jobs they take, and for whom they work for a minimum of three years in the first instance, after being in the territory for one year. In this way, persons will be free to elevate themselves and tbeir families as they make the country their home. Why should a person be indentured in 2018? Our present way of hiring persons from other countries, coupled with their poor treatment, borders on exploitation at its best and slavery at its worst.
2. Station Immigration officers at Labour department, and Labour personel at Immigration department. In effect, these two departments need to work hand in hand.
3. Have persons apply, renew and pay for their working status/ permit online. They should then print the receipt and have it for safe keeping, like an ESTA document which we need to go to USA on our UK passport. What the form contains such as employer and so on can be fine tuned to suit 'sensitive palates', but this is 2018!
4. I could go on, but I'll stop. Most times it is not the person(s) that create(s) the problems, but it is lack of clear and forward thinking procedures and policies that will cripple institutions and nations. Like now.
And yes; I was born and raised here, but these people are under duress! And what we are doing to them is retrogressive, especially now, post Irma.
Can I ask Labour Dept back for my application that I just submitted before you made this announcement? Since they are the problem, I want it to go straight to Immigration. NONSENSE. How to fix this???