Gov’t grants Belonger status, certificates of residence to 400 expat applicants
Hundreds of expatriates living in the British Virgin Islands have been granted BVI Belonger status and certificates of residence under the Premier Andrew Fahie administration.
This decision was made on October 25 during a Cabinet meeting.
In a report on that meeting on Tuesday, November 12, the government said Cabinet, “reviewed and approved the grant of Certificates of Residence and Belonger Status to 400 applicants who have met the legal requirements of Section 2 (4) and Section 3 of the Immigration and Passport Amendment Act, 2019”.
The move is part of the VIP government’s regularization initiative that grants Belongership and permanent residency to select expatriate residents.
Figure doubles that of NDP
That 400 figure doubles the approximate 200 that the previous National Democratic Party (NDP) government had granted in the last two years of their administration.
In a May 2019 sitting of the House of Assembly, Premier Andrew Fahie reported that 75 Belongerships were issued between January 1, 2017, and February 10, 2018, under the NDP’s governance.
He said a total of 115 were found to be issued between January 1, 2018, and to February 10, 2019.
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Oh lawd more island people getting rights here, government as bad, thought Andrew the was for the locals, we can’t keep giving status to these island people we can’t go down island and get what they getting in the VI. We getting to overpopulated same thing in St Thomas.
Everyone of these people has been tested and examined in detail. They have no criminal records, they are workers , not people who lie under trees, they have committed large portions of their lives to BVI, not gone off and lived in the US.
They contribute to the economy, many are investors bringing in outside capital.
How many “ barn here “ natives can say the same?
The same way a lot of folks from Tortola living in STT
who said this islands belongs to local people, you all like to get you baby in the usa thats nice.
racial people
All you Belongers are squatters on the VI land. You are not indigenous to the land. You in fact have dirtied and soiled a beautiful land with your filth and racist ways. You raise criminals and drug addicts. The rest you ship off to the US for the Americans to have to deal with. It is utterly outrageous that any of you take a position about letting anyone become a citizen of the Territory. No other place on earth is the requirement so stringent and takes so long to become a citizen as in this Territory. The Belonger is an evil lot.
that means every last person on this side of the planet need to go back where they came from including you bub. Even the ‘indigenous’ are not indigenous to this side of the world. That is a racist statement in itself, so you are also evil.
It is just not right to have persons living legally in a country for years upon years and not give them a pathway to citizenship. What the Government needs to do is seriously manage the channel that people are using to enter and remain in the Territory, work permit.
I hope that *readers overseas* don’t think that all BVI landers think like this. There are a few closet minded people here, not everyone is. We’re all Caribbean people.
Well tell your people stop going the santo domingo and other down islands where they opening business and buy houses so they can clean they drugs money. take that send to talking bs. Free news by a down island people not fron there
More island people here. Wow them taking over the VIRGIN ISLANDS, Tortola & St Thomas these island people trying take over.
What y’all think was going to happen? That y’all could treat them like slaves for ever and they wasn’t plotting against y’all. Thank the richer bvislanders who made this all possible because they said we were unqualified to make a living in our own country. All those privileged bvislanders and politians married to some foreigner, who you think they was looking out for.
The VI to small to keep naturalizing these damn island people. Them see we does go down island to live? Come on now premier I hope this the last set of naturalizations.
We need for these island people to stop coming to the VI, them is a disgrace to our country & culture.
they can’t come if we didn’t allow it.
Stop naturalizing these island people now them feel we on the same level, if you not from the BVI or USVI take your island a** back to your Caribbean islands
Your level of ignorance is so transparent one can clearly see you wrote all 5 comments…
As someone that comments a lot as “Blah” I will retire that name as I do not want to be mistaken for a dirty ignorant b**tard like yourself.
are you just crazy or stupid BVI is a Caribbean island
Them think it is us,. fools
To much island people getting naturalized especially the Vincentians coming here killing with them dirty behaviors
Premier you are doing the right thing.
I do not agree with persons who are against this initiative because if persons lived here for so long and positively contributed then what is the noise about.
I guess those people who dont like persons being naturalised can always leave. People round these parts are fond of saying, “boats and plans leaving daily”, well if you dont like it leave. You true BVIslanders are all entitled to move to the UK so if you dont like it here, time to go.
@Jane…that was a good line you have me cracking up….lmaorotf….lol… even my head hurt.
I already saw it coming from 2012. We are outnumbered and treated as last class citizens in our country. Right, after the storm I said they think they built country for us before, now it is definitely true. Lolol I got tired of being treated as less than in my own country. You are only working until you drop(that is if they allowed you to have work) You are working towards nothing. When I said we have sold ourselves back into slavery, someone said, ” We have invested in our future”. I was like whose future?? look around, who is really on top?? while the blacks fight amongst themselves. I kindly left on liat.
Why does them being here mean you treated like “less than”?
Any outsider observing our blogs would easily conclude that it is the BVIslander that ACTS like they “less than”, not the down islander making them “less than”.
Look, if you less, you less. You can’t go shouting that you less because so and so is not. You need to shape up and stop acting like a child.
We act like they want to eat as much cake as they want, any time, and still have the whole cake.
I get sick of my fellow BVIslanders picking and choosing how they being “taken over”, “oppressed”, “treated like less than” all the time, when in fact we are a lucky country and most of the worst abuses are committed by BVIslanders against outsiders – virtual slavery of immigrant workers, human trafficking, racial abuse and xenophobia against island people and whites, etc.. The list is long.
If we truly want to better our population, we would make the intelligent moves, not mumu decisions made because we are entitled born here people who feel insulted by an outsider doing something better we. Our population is so small we just don’t have the numbers to be great at everything, qualified for every role, capable of finding the most effective solutions. Admit that. Accept help where it helps us. Be big enough to do the right thing when it is the right thing and let’s stop making ourselves into “less than” anything but the best.
Y’all r island ppl too!
What y’all didn’t know? Set ah fools
Premier you stupid sah.we soon taking over.
Your level of ignorance is so transparent one can clearly see you wrote all 5 comments…
I think we need to get rid of this VIP government like we did to the NDP
it doesn’t matter. all politians are cut from the same cloth. They only want into government to be on treasury nipples not because they came. If being a politian came with no income no one would want to sign up for that work. see how much people cared about country then.
Is this party trying to secure votes for next election ?
OH LORD WE WILL SOON BECOME EXTINCT IN OUR OWN LAND…..FIRST IT WAS THE CARIBS AND ARAWAKS NOW US
you are admitting that it is actually not your own land – and that it is Carib and Arawak land. Soon to become a Santo Domingo suburb!
it is no one’s land. Every one migrated just like the carib and arawaks. Y’all need to stop with this racist talks. cause I don’t hear y’all use that line on the americans.
These people have been here for 20 years or more. If you were going to go extinct you’d already be a pile of fossils.
we vex
We had expected this from Myron, not Andrew !!!!!!!!!
Wonder if the USA and UK is saying the same about the B.V.I people. Because every week they seem to be parking up and moving to those places to live or make their babies. I even hear some of them living in the streets of America.
They are not. Compared to the other countries, we are a speck on their radar. Since we all jamaicans to them, they need to worry about the jamaicans. They be like BVI who???
We got rid of NDP cause we thought they were for outsiders and now VIP doing the same with these island people.
Y’all thought NDP was not for locals but y’all now seeing who ain’t hmmm sad if lavity was alive this wouldn’t of been happening.
The reality is that both BVI and down islanders HATE HATE HATE each other and still cannot do without each other. SHAME!!!
CONGRATUALTIONS TO THESE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN HERE WELL OVER 10 YEARS AND HAVE CONTRIBUTED A SIGNAFICANT AMOUNT TO US!!! I KNOW ALOT OF YOU ARE HERE 25 YEARS GOING AND GOT KNOCKED ABOUT THE PLACE. IT IS JUST ASHAME THAT YOU LITERALLY BOUGHT YOUR RIGHTS.
SAYING THAT TO SAY, THE ABOVE COMMENTS ARE A CLEAR DEPICTION OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS ISLAND. CHRISTIAN SOCIETY?? YOU ARE NOT AFFECTING THE PEOPLE IN NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM BY BEING SO HATEFUL AND DISGRACEFUL. YOU ARE ONLY SHOWING YOUR TRUE COLOURS.
AFTER YOU SPEND A WEEK IN THE US AND WANT TO GET RIGHTS FOR YOUR BABY, NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!!! BUT TO COME HERE AND BASH PEOPLE FOR DOING THE SAME AND EVEN BETTER.. BY GETTING THEIR KIDS HERE. PURE SHAME, VERY SAD, NOT ON THEIR PART, BUT YOURS. YOU GUYS ARE DISTASTEFUL TO SAY THE LEAST!!!
You sound like an IDIOT! The comments are NOT a depiction of who true BVIslanders are, any ignorant asshole can blog over and over using different names on a web site. If BVIslanders were as bad as you say why so many people from other countries are here for over 20 years? We must have been welcoming enough for people to come to work and stay here. I am happy for those people that got their status as they have been here for so long I don’t see anything wrong with it. But for you to speak as if a few stupid blogs mean all BVI people are ignorant and hating people is just downright stupid. BVI has ALWAYS been a welcoming place so do not try painting the entire Territory because of a few ignorant comments.
LOL Says the person who just lashed IDIOT at a person they do not know.
Anyways, I guess you do not read comments in these articles often to see BVILANDER hate Island people, talking about FEW comments. Did you see the comments when Hon. Fahie initially started this scheme?? Believe it or not, there is a lot of hateful people here.
PS: People are here for money. Not friends. A lot of island people come here, work to support their families back home. Build etc. Don’t flatter yourself. A lot of you are far from WELCOMING.
Some of the bashers are down islanders’ children who were also born in BVI. I heard with my own ears the dislike that some who born here of one BVI parent and of one down island parent have towards the current down islanders looking status. Personally as a child of both BVI born parents, I could care less. We ALL going die one day
WHAT WE NEED IS A DONALD TRUMP STYLE PREMIER THAT WILL PROTECT THE INDIGENOUS BVISLANDER
Do you mean indigenous BVIslanders with U.S. passports?!
So foy rather p**s off 15000 bvislanders to please 400 outsiders? He will learn what time it is next election.
If all 15,000 BVIslanders are as filled with hate as you are, I weep for them. But I think the silent majority are tolerant and reasonable about this common sense move.
Keep letting s**t run out of all you mouth the devil keep counting every day
He counting yours too
?
Why you all believe you all are so special hating others like others are not humans most of you have down island wife’s or husband the devil have a special place for you all in the lake of fire which burneth with brimstone and fire keep hating.
Wickedness will prevail but only for a little while keep on hating us down island people like you all call us
The world is a cycle. We who leave for UK and USA will return later after the down island people build it up. But before we go/return we will make sure we have prime land which we ain’t selling. Ha ha ha …
When is the announcement?
Them think it is us,. fools
What about the others that have fulfilled the requirements? Are there more? Is this the first or final grants?
If final, what happens to the monies collected to those that did not get approved?
Can somebody answer this? Reporters? Did you ask? No statement from government?
Thank you in advance
All applications cannot be approved at the same time as there is a process. These are the first 400 applications that have been processed.
Some of the comments on this article are shameful. I hope that many people don’t have the xenophobic views as I’ve see here. Suppose the U.S stop BVI people from getting children on their soil? these people who have been living here for 20+ years deserve their status. Remember the world is a cycle. Stop it guys people are reading this overseas.
Well, that us another 400 votes for VIP.
Black people need to unite. Enough hate for too long is still prevalent. It must stop.
The comments here illustrate the great disease and mental dysfunction of our Black people.
Not a word of unity. Every one of them display disunity and hate for each other.
Our Caribbean must soon come to realize that we are our own enemies, but the real enemy is sitting back and observing while we destroy ourselves.
We must bring out the forces of unity. This disunity among us must stop.
We must unite. For only through unity as a people will we maintain a seat into the future at the dinner table.
The American, English and EU man is here and have tremendous meat. and control at the table while we are hating each other for a crumb that drops from the table.
We are now teaching Mandarin in our schools. This, a very subtle Chinese path into the future control and take over of the territory.
In one hundred years, none of us will be here, but neither will the Island Man or BVIslander will be in control of these islands or their wealth.
Our grand and great, great grand children will not be diners at the table. but mere waiters.
So keep on hating each other Black people, and see how far we go and what we achieve.
May God help us as a people.
BVI stand for British Virgin ISLANDS. No where in that abbreviation have a C for continent. Therefore, we are all ISLAND PEOPLE. THE DISCRIMINATION IS REAL. Lord help us all. If you cut anyone of us we all bleed red, we’re all going to die someday and when we do, we’re still going back to dirt from whence we came. What really is the problem with how we treat each other. It’s okay for us to make our babies in the US for all the opportunities that comes with it but it’s not okay for the ISLAND PEOPLE to get babies here and the opportunities that come with it (hmm which ain much) because you can’t even get a passport, you can’t pruchase land, some still have to get work permit etc…One thing I know Karma is real too so ya’ll keep up that behaviour and see where it gets us.
ASKING FOR A FRIEND,CAN SOMEONE DEFINE THE TERM “ISLAND PEOPLE”
Everyone from and island is a island person. Island people are people from, St.Lucia, Tortola, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, Virgin Gorda, Anguilla, Caymans, St.Vincent, St.Kitts, Antigua, Jost Van Dyke, St. John, Etc. Don’t mind the term is only used selectively. We in the Caribbean are all island people.
$$
I wonder if this was how our forefathers was getting on while they were on the slave ships coming over from the mother land?
total one comes from dust and dust will return, and leave everything that has been sacrificed, in this world until the breath is rendered, so much evil, hatred, racism, and for what?