Fee waiver being sought for persons seeking multiple extensions
Labour & Immigration Minister Vincent Wheatley has indicated that a fee waiver was being looked at for persons who were forced to seek multiple extensions at the Immigration Department as a result of the Labour Department’s delayed work permit processing times.
Work permit holders seeking an extension of time in the territory are usually required to pay a fee for each extension.
“What we are trying to do is to ask the FS (Financial Secretary) if he is willing to waive the fee for persons to have to wait for two and three-time requests. I haven’t heard back from them as yet but once [the] Labour [Department] is speeding up the permit system, [the] Immigration [Department] will fall in line with that,” the Minister indicated at a recent press conference.
“The issue was always at [the] Labour [Department] in terms of getting the permits over to [the] Immigration [Department] on time,” he added.
The Minister said he was hopeful that persons having to seek multiple extensions for time in the territory would be a thing of the past very shortly.
Over the past few months, the Labour Department has faced significant challenges with processing new and renewal work permit applications, causing a backlog of more than 1,700 work permits.
This has forced persons on work permits, which are generally issued on an annual basis, to seek multiple extensions to stay in the BVI.
Many persons have since gone past six months in extended time as a result of the delays.
In the meantime, Minister Wheatley said the backlog figures did not represent permit applications that were not submitted online during the months of delays.
He also disclosed that one-third of the backlog of more than 1500 renewal work permit applications received online has since been cleared by a task force he had set up to address the issue.
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I’VE PAID SINCE SEPTEMBER 2021 WILL I GET A REFUND ? DO I REALLY HAVE TO PAY FOR MY WORK PERMIT HAVING NOT BEEN ABLE TO WORK AND NOW I HAVE TO PUT IN MY RENEWAL WORK PERMIT BECAUSE ITS STILL NOT READY ?
There should be no fees for extension if delayed by government processing. And the date it is ISSUED, not submitted, is when the term of that permit should begin.
Why multiple? Why not one?
You are told to submit your renewal not less than 6 weeks before the expiration date. if you do so, why are you then obliged to pay $50 because the Immigration Department can’t do their job properly. $50 for some folks on minimum wage is more than a days’ wages.
The fee is $10. It’s not the issue. It’s the TIME and the lost productivity being forced to take most of the day off work to go sit in immigration over and over again. That’s what is costing us millions.
Ten you say..no its not ten. Ten is for tourist extension..workers here on permit have to pay $25. For extension.
I applied in September 2021 for my work permit renewal at the beginning of November. I finally got my stamp last week after 3 extensions costing $75 in total. This should have been deducted from my work permit fee.
I suppose I should have been grateful that I got it in March and not July like in 2021!
Renewing a permit for the same employer should only take 5 to ten minutes.
Here wincent go again putting foot in mouth.
Everything is clearing up now so he’s coming out with his bull_____, lord help these island people from Wincect