Country-wide policy
Two Bills That Would Replace the Immigration and Citizenship Acts
On 21 April 2026 the Government laid the Immigration Bill, 2026 and the Barbados Citizenship Bill, 2026. The Immigration Bill would repeal Chapter 190 outright and replace it: a points test for permanent residence, an express route for the spouse of a citizen and for a retired person with sufficient financial resources, a right for a direct descendant of a citizen to be registered as a permanent resident, automated passport control kiosks, advance passenger information shared with intelligence agencies, and a lengthening of the long-stay permit from three years to five. Both Bills were still before the House of Assembly when this was written and neither has commenced. Nothing in this record is law. It is here because the Act they would replace is the Act every other Barbados record rests on, and because what the Bills do not contain is itself a finding: neither of them implements the 2025 free movement arrangement.
Topics it changes
- Visiting as a tourist
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency through ancestry
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
- Becoming a citizen
What it requires
- Treat the Immigration Act, Chapter 190 as the law until the Bill is passed and commenced
- Watch the Parliament of Barbados bills register for the stage, not the news
At a glance
- Laid in the House of Assembly
- 21 April 2026
The date the Parliament's bills register gives for both Bills.
- Stage when read
- Still before the House of Assembly. Not passed, not assented, not commenced
- Permitted entrant ceiling the Bill proposes
- 5 years in the first instance, against 3 years in the Act
Clause 4(1)(a) of the Bill against section 13(1)(a) of the Act in force.
- Points needed for permanent residence under the Bill
- at least 10 points, as set out in the Fourth Schedule
Clause 7(1). The method of awarding points is left to regulations subject to negative resolution.
- Free movement provisions in the Bill
- None. Its only reference to CARICOM movement is to make its permitted entrant provision subject to the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) Act
What the Bill would change
Permanent residence would stop being a single section and become two. Clause 6 lists people who may be registered on application: the spouse of a citizen, and a retired person and his dependants if they have sufficient financial resources. It also gives an entitlement to a person who has renounced Barbadian citizenship, and to a direct descendant of a citizen. Clause 7 adds a points route for anyone awarded at least ten points on age, Barbadian descent, education, skill, experience and financial resources, with the method of awarding points left to regulations subject to negative resolution. A person who was an immigrant under the old Act would become a permanent resident on commencement.
What the Bill does not change
It does not implement free movement. Its single operative CARICOM reference makes the permitted entrant clause subject to the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) Act, which is the Skills Certificate statute. There is no indefinite stay stamp, no contingent rights, no schedule of protocol member states, and no reference to enhanced cooperation anywhere in it. The Bill's "domestic space" schedule, which lists Anguilla, the Bahamas, Bermuda and the rest of the Caribbean alongside the CARICOM states, is about advance passenger information for ships and aircraft, not about movement rights.
What the law says
«This Bill would revise the law regulating the entry of persons into Barbados
and would provide for related matters.»Clause 40 of the Bill is headed Repeal of Cap. 190 and clause 41 is its commencement provision, so the Bill replaces rather than amends.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The legislature's own site, carrying every Bill with its text as a PDF and a stage table recording the date of each reading in each House. It is the only way to tell whether a Bill has passed, and it is the register to check before believing any report that Barbados has legislated. It also mirrors gazette issues containing Bills.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: A Bill is not law and must never be cited as one. The text published is the Bill as introduced or as amended at a named date, not the Act as passed - for that the Official Gazette is the publisher. The stage table is the authoritative thing here; the PDF is a draft. It must not be cited for the content of any Act in force.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«Second Schedule, 5 years in the first instance, as that officer considers appropriate in the particular case;»The equivalent provision in the Act in force caps the same category at three years.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The legislature's own site, carrying every Bill with its text as a PDF and a stage table recording the date of each reading in each House. It is the only way to tell whether a Bill has passed, and it is the register to check before believing any report that Barbados has legislated. It also mirrors gazette issues containing Bills.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: A Bill is not law and must never be cited as one. The text published is the Bill as introduced or as amended at a named date, not the Act as passed - for that the Official Gazette is the publisher. The stage table is the authoritative thing here; the PDF is a draft. It must not be cited for the content of any Act in force.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«and who is awarded at least 10 points, as set out in the second column of the
Fourth Schedule in respect of the criteria set out in the first column may, upon
application to the Minister in the prescribed form, and on payment of the
prescribed fee be registered as a permanent resident.»The criteria named in sub-clause (1)(a) are age, Barbadian descent, education, skill, experience and financial resources. Sub-clause (2) lets points above ten be transferred to a dependant over eighteen.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The legislature's own site, carrying every Bill with its text as a PDF and a stage table recording the date of each reading in each House. It is the only way to tell whether a Bill has passed, and it is the register to check before believing any report that Barbados has legislated. It also mirrors gazette issues containing Bills.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: A Bill is not law and must never be cited as one. The text published is the Bill as introduced or as amended at a named date, not the Act as passed - for that the Official Gazette is the publisher. The stage table is the authoritative thing here; the PDF is a draft. It must not be cited for the content of any Act in force.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«A person who is a direct descendant of a citizen of Barbados is entitled
upon application to the Minister in the prescribed form to be registered as a
permanent resident.»An entitlement, and not limited to one generation on its face. If enacted this would be a materially wider descent route than anything in the law in force, where descent reaches only a child of a citizen born in Barbados.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The legislature's own site, carrying every Bill with its text as a PDF and a stage table recording the date of each reading in each House. It is the only way to tell whether a Bill has passed, and it is the register to check before believing any report that Barbados has legislated. It also mirrors gazette issues containing Bills.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: A Bill is not law and must never be cited as one. The text published is the Bill as introduced or as amended at a named date, not the Act as passed - for that the Official Gazette is the publisher. The stage table is the authoritative thing here; the PDF is a draft. It must not be cited for the content of any Act in force.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«Subject to this Act and the Caribbean Community (Movement of
Skilled Nationals) Act, Cap. 186A, an immigration officer may permit»The Bill's only operative reference to CARICOM movement. It preserves the Skills Certificate Act and says nothing about enhanced cooperation or contingent rights.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The legislature's own site, carrying every Bill with its text as a PDF and a stage table recording the date of each reading in each House. It is the only way to tell whether a Bill has passed, and it is the register to check before believing any report that Barbados has legislated. It also mirrors gazette issues containing Bills.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: A Bill is not law and must never be cited as one. The text published is the Bill as introduced or as amended at a named date, not the Act as passed - for that the Official Gazette is the publisher. The stage table is the authoritative thing here; the PDF is a draft. It must not be cited for the content of any Act in force.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
Practical notes
A Bill is not a law and nothing in this record may be relied on. It is recorded so that a reader who meets a confident account of Barbados' new points system knows where that account comes from and that it has not commenced.
The Barbados Citizenship Bill, 2026 was laid on the same day and would replace Chapter 186. We did not read it: the Act it would replace is itself unreadable in the Government's published copy, and we chose not to describe a replacement for a text we cannot state.
The Bills went to a joint select committee which took public comments in May 2026. The Parliament's bills register still showed them at House stage when this was read.