Working in Barbados
Section 17 of the Immigration Act is the work permit rule, and the interesting part of it is who it does not apply to. As it stands since 2020 it bites on everyone except a citizen, a permanent resident, an immigrant, and a national of a CARICOM Member State to whom the Revised Treaty's right of establishment, provision of services or free movement articles apply. That exemption is not aspirational: it was written into the Immigration Act by the schedule of consequential amendments to the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act, 2020-3, which commenced on the day it was assented. Everyone else needs a permit from the Minister. The Department grants short-term permits up to eleven months and long-term permits up to three years, charges a $300 application fee, and sets the final fee by a monthly scale in the Regulations that prices a job differently depending on whether the holder is a Caribbean national or a citizen of another country.
At a glance
- Short-term work permit
- valid for a period up to eleven months
The Department's figure. The Regulations distinguish instead by form: a permit for a period not exceeding six months is applied for on Form C-3.
- Long-term work permit
- valid for a period of up to 3 years
- Labour market test
- Long-term only. The Department requires proof that no resident or Barbadian national is capable and willing to fill the post
- Application fee, as the Department charges
- $300.00 BDS
Stated in capitals on the Department's work permit page, which adds that the final fee varies with the category of work and the length of time requested.
- Application fee, as the Regulations prescribe
- $200.00
- Final fee
- A monthly amount set by occupation in the Second Schedule to the Regulations, doubled for citizens of countries outside the Caribbean Community
The Schedule prices each I.S.C.O. occupation in two columns, Caribbean Nationals and Citizens of Other Countries, and regulation 9(2A) makes the amount a monthly one multiplied by the months of the permit and payable in advance. Individual occupation rates are not reproduced here.
- CARICOM nationals exercising Treaty rights
- No work permit required
Requirements
- An employer or sponsor to apply on the employee's behalf - the Department puts the responsibility on the employer
- For a short-term permit: a detailed cover letter from the employer, Form C-3, four passport photographs and a copy of the passport bio-data page
- For a long-term permit: Forms C-1 and C-2, a completed medical form including external X-rays in report form, four photographs, two character references, evidence of qualifications and a cover letter from the employer explaining the nature of the business and why the applicant is needed
- For a long-term permit, proof that no resident or Barbadian national is capable and willing to fill the post
- The application fee, and the final fee set by the category of employment and the length of the permit
In detail
The exemption that was actually enacted
Section 17(1) has carried a CARICOM exemption since before the 2007 edition: a national of a Member State to whom the right of establishment under Articles 32, 33, 34(c), 36 and 37 applies, and to whom the provision of services under Articles 37 and 38 applies, is outside the work permit requirement. The 2007 text joins those two limbs with "and", which would require both to apply at once. The 2020 amendment rewrote the subsection into three alternatives - establishment, services, and free movement under Articles 45 and 46 - and added the dependants of such a person. That amendment commenced on 17 February 2020, the day of assent. There is no deferred Notice and nothing waiting to be brought into force.
Two permits, and a price list by nationality
The Immigration Department distinguishes short-term permits, valid up to eleven months, from long-term permits, valid up to three years and available only where the employer can show that no resident or Barbadian national is capable and willing to do the job. The application fee it publishes is $300 BDS and it says the final fee varies with the category of work and the length of time requested in accordance with the international standard code fee regulations. That is Part II of the Second Schedule to the Immigration (Forms and Fees) Regulations, which lists occupations by I.S.C.O. unit number and gives two monthly rates for each: one for Caribbean nationals and a higher one for citizens of other countries. Regulation 9(2A) multiplies the monthly rate by the months of the permit and makes it payable in advance.
Where the fees disagree
The Regulations prescribe $200 on application for a work permit. The Department publishes $300. We found no instrument raising the prescribed figure, and the Regulations' own list of amendments ends at S.I. 2007/28. Either a later instrument exists that the Attorney General's Office has not published in this file, or the Department is charging a fee the Regulations do not prescribe. Both readings are worth knowing before an application is filed, and neither is resolved by anything we could read.
Country-level policy
Barbados publishes its law in three places that do not agree with each other about how current it is, and none of them says so on its face. The Supreme Court's statute library carries the Chapters, printed by the Government Printer, with a Law Revision Order year in the running head of each page - 2007 on the newest pages of the Immigration Act and the Income Tax Act, 1997 on the Income Tax pages that carry the residence and domicile rules. The Attorney General's Office carries annual Acts and statutory instruments, and its series of annual Acts stops at 2020. The Government Printing Department publishes the Official Gazette, which is where an Act of 2021 or later is actually found. A reader looking for the law in force has to use all three, and an amendment made between 2021 and today is invisible in the first two.
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.
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«A person other than a citizen, permanent resident, immigrant or national of a Member State to whom»Known to be out of date. This sub-section was deleted and substituted by the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act, 2020-3, Fifth Schedule. The edition published here does not show the substitution.
The sentence closes: may not in Barbados engage in any occupation or accept employment without having first obtained a written permit for the purpose granted by the Minister. This is the text as the 2007 edition prints it; it was replaced in 2020 and the replacement is cited separately.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The statute library of the Barbadian judiciary, publishing the Chapters of the Laws of Barbados and the subsidiary legislation as PDFs printed by the Government Printer. It is the only place the consolidated Chapters are published as a browsable set, and it carries the Constitution, the Immigration Act Chapter 190, the Income Tax Act Chapter 73, the Customs Act Chapter 66, the Exchange Control Act Chapter 71 and the Caribbean Community Acts.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It consolidates and does not issue, and its editions are old and dated per page rather than per Act: the Immigration Act and the Income Tax Act print Law Revision Order years of 2007 on their newest pages and 1997 or 2002 on others, and no page says what the Act looks like today. It must not be cited for anything amended after about 2008 without checking the amending Act - section 17(1) of the Immigration Act was substituted in 2020 and this edition does not show it. Several of its files are scans with no text layer: the Barbados Citizenship Act Chapter 186 is unreadable and the Road Traffic Act Chapter 295 is largely so, and neither may be quoted from this publisher. Extraction of the Immigration Act PDF silently loses four pairs of pages, so an absence in it is not evidence of absence in the Act. It must also not be relied on for completeness, and the gap is the publisher's rather than ours: its Immigration Act lists sections 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 30 and 31 in its own arrangement of sections and prints none of them. Two independent extractions of the file agree, every page but the last carries a text layer, and the headings Charging of member of crew, Persons unlawfully entering, Applications for work permits and Deportation orders each appear exactly once, in the contents. A negative claim read off this Chapter - that the Act says nothing about something - can be neither trusted nor disproved from it.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«free movement referred
to in Articles 45 and 46 of
the Treaty applies;»Cited to the resulting section of the Immigration Act, naming the Act that put it there. The substituted subsection exempts a person to whom the right of establishment under Articles 32, 33, 34(c), 36 and 37 applies, the provision of services under Articles 37 and 38, or free movement under Articles 45 and 46 - and, subject to the Skilled Nationals Act, that person's dependants.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government's law portal, with four sections: annual Acts, annual statutory instruments, consolidated statutes and subsidiary legislation, and indices. The annual series is where an Act is found as enacted, with its assent and commencement dates on its face - the Remote Employment Act 2020-23 and the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act 2020-3 both come from here. Files are served from a flat /attachments/ path.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The annual Acts and statutory instruments series stops at 2020. An Act of 2021 or later is not here at all, so the absence of an instrument on this site proves nothing about years after 2020 - for that, the Official Gazette is the publisher to use. Its consolidated statutes list is a partial mirror of the judiciary's and does not carry the Immigration Act or the Citizenship Act. It consolidates and does not issue, so a commencement date read here is the Act's own statement rather than a gazette record.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Commencement: 17th February, 2020»The Act carries its commencement on its face and it is the date of assent. There is no commencement Order to find, and no provision was left to be brought into force later - which is the difference from Grenada.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government's law portal, with four sections: annual Acts, annual statutory instruments, consolidated statutes and subsidiary legislation, and indices. The annual series is where an Act is found as enacted, with its assent and commencement dates on its face - the Remote Employment Act 2020-23 and the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act 2020-3 both come from here. Files are served from a flat /attachments/ path.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The annual Acts and statutory instruments series stops at 2020. An Act of 2021 or later is not here at all, so the absence of an instrument on this site proves nothing about years after 2020 - for that, the Official Gazette is the publisher to use. Its consolidated statutes list is a partial mirror of the judiciary's and does not carry the Immigration Act or the Citizenship Act. It consolidates and does not issue, so a commencement date read here is the Act's own statement rather than a gazette record.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«On application for a work permit $200.00»About this source
The Government's law portal, with four sections: annual Acts, annual statutory instruments, consolidated statutes and subsidiary legislation, and indices. The annual series is where an Act is found as enacted, with its assent and commencement dates on its face - the Remote Employment Act 2020-23 and the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act 2020-3 both come from here. Files are served from a flat /attachments/ path.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The annual Acts and statutory instruments series stops at 2020. An Act of 2021 or later is not here at all, so the absence of an instrument on this site proves nothing about years after 2020 - for that, the Official Gazette is the publisher to use. Its consolidated statutes list is a partial mirror of the judiciary's and does not carry the Immigration Act or the Citizenship Act. It consolidates and does not issue, so a commencement date read here is the Act's own statement rather than a gazette record.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«There is payable on behalf of an applicant who is»The sentence continues: a national of a member country of the Caribbean Community, or a citizen of a foreign country, the fee set out in the second or third column of Part II of the Second Schedule. Part II then runs the I.S.C.O. occupation list with two money columns, and the second is consistently the higher.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government's law portal, with four sections: annual Acts, annual statutory instruments, consolidated statutes and subsidiary legislation, and indices. The annual series is where an Act is found as enacted, with its assent and commencement dates on its face - the Remote Employment Act 2020-23 and the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act 2020-3 both come from here. Files are served from a flat /attachments/ path.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The annual Acts and statutory instruments series stops at 2020. An Act of 2021 or later is not here at all, so the absence of an instrument on this site proves nothing about years after 2020 - for that, the Official Gazette is the publisher to use. Its consolidated statutes list is a partial mirror of the judiciary's and does not carry the Immigration Act or the Citizenship Act. It consolidates and does not issue, so a commencement date read here is the Act's own statement rather than a gazette record.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Minister may remit the whole or part of a fee for a person employed in a religious, cultural or athletic field or full-time with the Government, for an entrepreneur certified by the Barbados Industrial Development Corporation as managing his own business, and for students at regional or approved tertiary institutions. A further paragraph lets the Minister waive any fee where circumstances warrant.
A permit is granted to the employer's job, not to the person: section 17(2) makes it an offence to employ a person without a permit in force in relation to that engagement.
The Immigration Bill, 2026 would replace the whole Act and move work permits to its sections 19 and 20. It was laid on 21 April 2026 and had not passed when this was written, so it changes nothing yet.
This record rests on section 17 of the Immigration Act Chapter 190, the Fifth Schedule to Act 2020-3, the Immigration (Forms and Fees) Regulations, 1979 and the Immigration Department's work permit page. Sections 18 and 19 of the Act, which govern the application and the security, were lost in extraction and are not quoted.
- consolidatesImmigration Act, Chapter 190 of the Laws of Barbados
Supreme Court of Barbados - Laws of Barbados · consolidated to 2007
Known to be out of date. Section 17(1) was substituted in 2020 and this edition does not show it.
About this source
The statute library of the Barbadian judiciary, publishing the Chapters of the Laws of Barbados and the subsidiary legislation as PDFs printed by the Government Printer. It is the only place the consolidated Chapters are published as a browsable set, and it carries the Constitution, the Immigration Act Chapter 190, the Income Tax Act Chapter 73, the Customs Act Chapter 66, the Exchange Control Act Chapter 71 and the Caribbean Community Acts.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It consolidates and does not issue, and its editions are old and dated per page rather than per Act: the Immigration Act and the Income Tax Act print Law Revision Order years of 2007 on their newest pages and 1997 or 2002 on others, and no page says what the Act looks like today. It must not be cited for anything amended after about 2008 without checking the amending Act - section 17(1) of the Immigration Act was substituted in 2020 and this edition does not show it. Several of its files are scans with no text layer: the Barbados Citizenship Act Chapter 186 is unreadable and the Road Traffic Act Chapter 295 is largely so, and neither may be quoted from this publisher. Extraction of the Immigration Act PDF silently loses four pairs of pages, so an absence in it is not evidence of absence in the Act. It must also not be relied on for completeness, and the gap is the publisher's rather than ours: its Immigration Act lists sections 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 30 and 31 in its own arrangement of sections and prints none of them. Two independent extractions of the file agree, every page but the last carries a text layer, and the headings Charging of member of crew, Persons unlawfully entering, Applications for work permits and Deportation orders each appear exactly once, in the contents. A negative claim read off this Chapter - that the Act says nothing about something - can be neither trusted nor disproved from it.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- consolidatesCaribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act, 2020-3
Office of the Attorney General of Barbados
About this source
The Government's law portal, with four sections: annual Acts, annual statutory instruments, consolidated statutes and subsidiary legislation, and indices. The annual series is where an Act is found as enacted, with its assent and commencement dates on its face - the Remote Employment Act 2020-23 and the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act 2020-3 both come from here. Files are served from a flat /attachments/ path.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The annual Acts and statutory instruments series stops at 2020. An Act of 2021 or later is not here at all, so the absence of an instrument on this site proves nothing about years after 2020 - for that, the Official Gazette is the publisher to use. Its consolidated statutes list is a partial mirror of the judiciary's and does not carry the Immigration Act or the Citizenship Act. It consolidates and does not issue, so a commencement date read here is the Act's own statement rather than a gazette record.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersWork Permits
Barbados Immigration Department
About this source
The department that applies the Immigration Act: it controls entry and departure at the ports and processes applications for citizenship, permanent residence, immigrant status, work permits and entry visas. Its pages set out the documents it actually asks for under each statutory head, name the section each application is made under, and state the fees it charges. It also hosts the prescribed forms.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It states practice, not law, and its fees are not the fees the Immigration (Forms and Fees) Regulations prescribe - it publishes $300 on application where the Regulations say $200, and $1,200 or $1,500 on the grant where the Regulations say $800. It must not be cited for what an instrument requires, for the length of any statutory period, or for the entry visa fee in United States dollars, which no instrument we found carries. Its visa guidance points to a list published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rather than carrying one.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesImmigration (Forms and Fees) Regulations, 1979
Office of the Attorney General of Barbados
About this source
The Government's law portal, with four sections: annual Acts, annual statutory instruments, consolidated statutes and subsidiary legislation, and indices. The annual series is where an Act is found as enacted, with its assent and commencement dates on its face - the Remote Employment Act 2020-23 and the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act 2020-3 both come from here. Files are served from a flat /attachments/ path.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The annual Acts and statutory instruments series stops at 2020. An Act of 2021 or later is not here at all, so the absence of an instrument on this site proves nothing about years after 2020 - for that, the Official Gazette is the publisher to use. Its consolidated statutes list is a partial mirror of the judiciary's and does not carry the Immigration Act or the Citizenship Act. It consolidates and does not issue, so a commencement date read here is the Act's own statement rather than a gazette record.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source