The government’s programme to regularise select expatriates, has been postponed indefinitely.
The recent announcement by Premier Andrew Fahie, was made just days after he suspended the amendments that were to be made to the Immigration and Passport Act in the House of Assembly.
The amendments would have been critical to facilitating the regularisation.
“In respect to the people of the Virgin Islands and for the process of listening to their views and reshaping our agenda, the submission days for the ‘Clear path to regularization: Residency and Belonger Status Programme from May 27 to 31, 2019 has been postponed,” the Premier said in a message posted on his social media page.
He however, advised applicants to complete the ‘preparation of all necessary documents’ required for the now-stalled application process.
Some locals were against the initiative and recently, a group of concerned citizens launched an online petition, staged a protest, and orchestrated social media blast in an attempt to dissuade legislators from voting in favour of the amendments.
The regularisation initiative was scheduled to begin on May 13 with the deadline for the submission of all applications for suitably qualified persons is May 31.
Under the initiative, expatriate residents who had been living in the territory for more than 15 years would have been granted a two-week period to retain a more permanent Immigration status in the territory.
