Labour’s promised online payment system coming ‘early next year’
The Ministry of Labour & Immigration is looking to put systems in place to establish and have its promised online payment system operational in a few short months.
According to the Minister of Labour & Immigration Vincent Wheatley, sometimes it is too difficult to conduct business with the government and that should not be the case.
“I call on Jeremy Hodge, the person who is in charge of making the online payments a reality, [and] he told me by early next year, we will have that paper before Cabinet which will pave the way so you can pay online [at the Labour and Immigration Department],” the minister said.
“I always thought it was foolish for you to go online to apply for a work permit and then go and stand up in line to pay for,” Wheatley added.
The minister was speaking at an entrepreneur meet-up hosted by Forge BVI on Thursday, October 21.
Gov’t will drive people away if it doesn’t improve
He said if the government does not make conducting business with the Labour and Immigration departments easier, it will drive people away from bringing their business to the Virgin Islands.
“We have to make it easier for people to enter the territory and do business. People who are conducting business are going and around saying, is it the BVI, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos or Australia. They are going to go where it’s easiest to operate,” the minister stated.
Wheatley further said the territory has faced some hardships over the past several years and the government must make everything easier on customers.
“Some businesses are struggling. We don’t need to add any more stress to businesses who are trying to get employees hired or getting them to change jobs,” Wheatley stated.
The minister’s update comes months after the government’s July 2021 launch of its online work permit system.
The first of several expected elements of an e-government platform, the system allows employees to apply for work permits without having to visit the departments of Immigration and Labour until payments are to be made.
For years, the processes at Labour & Immigration often results in long queues of persons to be gathered outside the departments to conduct business.
Copyright 2024 BVI News, Media Expressions Limited. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
How about a f**king simple dropbox outside to facilitate payments by cheque and just email a receipt? The cheque would include the application number assigned online so its known what the payment is for. We read stuff like this and still wonder why we have a COI. These guys rush and prioritise all manner of nonsense but the important stuff is always last. If this was a positive moment the Minister would have been beating his chest but because its bad he is calling out Jeremy. Its WRONG to have people apply online and still stand IN LINE to pay $50!!!! If not a dropbox then have all fees paid upon collecting the permit.
this is the guy who wants to get rid of the 70% of expatriate workers – speech August 19th 2020
“Let’s make this a priority, let’s start shifting that ratio around because the current model of 30 to 70 is not sustainable,”
“If there is too much resistance we will be forced to do things like places like Cayman do, which is after five years, pack up and leave and never come back. That’s how they have solved their problem, and to me, that’s an extreme way of doing it. I don’t want to start there; if it is going too slow, it will force us to go draconian and say “you know what? You don’t want to move, so we will force you to move by limiting your work permits.”
What about the work permit system, So slow
Since the same minister put his hand in the Labour Dept everything went downhill and he put unnecessary stress and anxiety on work permit holders and employers.
Inland Revenue and Social Security certificates took forever and people went over their immigration time.
Your online work permit application system doesn’t work. It tells employers the permit is still pending when it has been ready for 3 weeks.
You have to make an appointment to pay the $50 application fee which has a waiting list of over a month.
Time to step aside Mr Minister
the online system leaves much to be desired. applications should have been kept in the manual format until all areas were covered and addressed training of staff, online payment system, etc before rolling out the online system.
He is a waste of time. Always in the news with a bunch of BS. People who working do not talk. Look kye. This waste of time just try to be relevant.
The Acting *** Is a joke snd is very very very bad news for the Department, that is why all the oermits are snailing out of there and have back ups. She need shifting to solid waste.
When will IRD go online??? That will impress me. What a horrible experience when you have to go down there. And process of doing a simple task?! Don’t get me started.??♂️