Working in Grenada
This replaces the general rule for you
No work permit for a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, unless the citizenship was bought
A citizen of Antigua and Barbuda needs no work permit in Grenada. The Work Permit Exemption (Citizen of a Protocol Member State) Order of 2015 declares citizens of Protocol Member States exempt from the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act so far as the permit requirement goes, provided they entered Grenada lawfully. A second instrument made the same day removes the fee as well, for the same five states by name. But the exemption Order carries a proviso that nothing else in the region does: it does not apply to someone who became a citizen of a Protocol state under an economic or honourary citizenship programme, unless that programme is comparable to Grenada's own and the Minister responsible for citizenship has approved it as such. One qualification matters more here than anywhere else in the region: Antigua and Barbuda runs an investment citizenship programme, and the Order that frees a Protocol citizen from the work permit requirement expressly does not apply to a person who became a citizen that way, unless the Minister responsible for citizenship has approved the programme as comparable to Grenada's.
A work permit is not issued under the Immigration Act at all. It comes from a separate 1968 statute, the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act, which makes it an offence for a foreign national or a Commonwealth citizen to work without one and for anyone to employ them. The Minister of Labour decides in his absolute discretion; permits run twelve months and the fee is set by nationality - nothing for a CARICOM skills certificate holder and for a citizen of five named Eastern Caribbean states, EC$1,000 for a short list of CARICOM countries and Cuba, EC$3,000 for other Commonwealth, European and American nationals, EC$5,000 for everyone else. The Ministry's own guidance adds categories, deadlines and an advertising requirement that the Act does not contain.
At a glance
- Work permit validity
- 12 months
Paragraph 6 of the Second Schedule to the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Regulations. The fee is charged for every period of twelve months or part of one.
- Application fee
- EC$100
Paragraph 5 of the Second Schedule as substituted by S.R.O. 48 of 2014. The figure printed in the Chapter is still ten dollars.
- Permit fee, named CARICOM states and Cuba
- EC$1,000
Paragraph 1 of the Second Schedule as substituted by S.R.O. 26 of 2015: The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Montserrat, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba.
- Permit fee, other Commonwealth, EEC and United States
- EC$3,000
Paragraph 3 of the Second Schedule, unamended since S.R.O. 26 of 2008.
- Permit fee, everyone else
- EC$5,000
Paragraph 4 of the Second Schedule.
- Permit fee, five OECS states
- Nil
Paragraph 1B of the Second Schedule, inserted by S.R.O. 26 of 2015: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Christopher-Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
- Work permit for an OECS Protocol citizen
- Not required at all
The Work Permit Exemption (Citizen of a Protocol Member State) Order, S.R.O. 24 of 2015, exempts them from the Act, subject to a carve-out for economic citizens. That is a separate thing from the fee exemption.
- Work permit for a CARICOM skills certificate holder
- No fee
Paragraph 2 of the Second Schedule. The Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act separately removes the restriction on gainful employment for a certificate holder, so the fee exemption is a backstop.
- Entertainers from the named CARICOM states
- EC$2,500 a band, EC$500 an individual
Paragraph 1A of the Second Schedule, inserted by S.R.O. 26 of 2015. A Cabinet directive of 15 May 2017 waives fees for CARICOM artistes entirely, according to the Ministry's guidelines; we found no instrument.
- Advertising before applying
- 3 consecutive weeks
Printed in the guidance that forms part of Form 1 in the First Schedule as substituted by S.R.O. 24 of 2017. It is a condition in a form rather than a provision of the Act.
- Processing time
- 12 working days
Also from the guidance in Form 1. The Act sets no time limit.
- Replacement or late renewal
- EC$100
Both figures are in the Form 1 guidance introduced by S.R.O. 24 of 2017. Regulation 6(3) of the principal Regulations says no fee is payable for a replacement, which the form contradicts.
Requirements
- A job offer from an employer in Grenada, who applies and who certifies the steps taken to employ nationals first
- A work permit granted by the Minister responsible for labour before you start work
- The position advertised for three consecutive weeks before the application is made, under the guidance printed in the application form
- A non-refundable application fee of EC$100, then the permit fee for your nationality band
- A police certificate, qualifications, references, proof of finance, and compliance certificates from the Inland Revenue Division and the National Insurance Scheme
- Immigration status to match: the permit holder must take the permit to the Immigration and Passport Office
In detail
The permit and the status are different things
A work permit in Grenada says you may work. It does not say you may stay. The Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act creates the permit and the offence; the Immigration Act creates the entry permit and the permanent residence permit, and neither statute refers to the other on this point. The Ministry's guidance closes the gap administratively by telling the permit holder to take the permit to the Immigration and Passport Office, and an instrument of 2019 created a change of condition to visitor on business for someone already here who wants to apply. A reader should plan for two decisions by two ministries and should not assume one secures the other.
Fees by nationality, and what the Ministry actually charges
The Second Schedule is a four-tier table keyed to nationality, rewritten by instrument in 2008, 2014 and 2015. Its current state is: nothing for a CARICOM skills certificate holder, nothing for citizens of five Eastern Caribbean states, EC$1,000 for eight named countries and Cuba, EC$3,000 for other Commonwealth, European Economic Community and United States nationals, EC$5,000 for everybody else, plus EC$100 to apply. The Ministry of Labour's own guidelines reproduce the bands with one difference: they put Guyana in the EC$1,000 band and cite the very instrument that leaves Guyana out of it. We record the instrument as the law and the guideline as what you will be charged, because that is the honest description of the position and because the difference is three thousand dollars less one.
Rules that live in a form
The three things an applicant most needs to know - that the job must be advertised for three consecutive weeks, that the Ministry works to twelve working days, and that a lost permit or a late renewal costs EC$100 - are not in the Act and not in the body of the Regulations. They are printed in the guidance beneath Form 1, which S.R.O. 24 of 2017 substituted into the First Schedule. That makes them law, because the Schedule is part of the Regulations, and it also makes them invisible to anyone reading the Act. One of them contradicts the Regulations themselves: regulation 6(3) says no fee is payable for the replacement of a lost permit.
Who does not need a permit at all
Four groups. Citizens of the Eastern Caribbean states that are party to the Protocol, by the Work Permit Exemption Order of 2015 - though not if they obtained that citizenship by investment, unless the programme is comparable to Grenada's and the Minister approves. CARICOM nationals holding a Certificate of Recognition of Caribbean Community Skills Qualification, whose right to work comes from the Skilled Nationals Act itself. Judges, public servants and certain defence counsel, by section 10. And the 1968 exempted classes, which read like a list of who visited a small island in that decade: writers, broadcasters, sculptors and painters for thirty days a year; directors, auditors, commercial travellers and people inspecting plant for fourteen.
Country-level policy
Grenada publishes its law well, in two halves that do not meet. The Chapters are the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010, and most of them are amended only to the mid-2000s: the Immigration Act stops at Act 6 of 2007, the Citizenship Act at Act 31 of 2002, the Income Tax Act at Act 2 of 2010. The Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders since are published separately, by year, as enacted. Nothing in either half tells you that the other exists. Read the Immigration Chapter and you will not know that Eastern Caribbean citizens have an indefinite stay or that Schengen passports enter visa-free. Read the Income Tax Chapter and you will take the rate as thirty per cent when it is twenty-eight. Read the Banking Chapter and you will be reading an Act repealed in 2015.
What applies to you
No work permit for a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, unless the citizenship was bought
A citizen of Antigua and Barbuda needs no work permit in Grenada. The Work Permit Exemption (Citizen of a Protocol Member State) Order of 2015 declares citizens of Protocol Member States exempt from the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act so far as the permit requirement goes, provided they entered Grenada lawfully. A second instrument made the same day removes the fee as well, for the same five states by name. But the exemption Order carries a proviso that nothing else in the region does: it does not apply to someone who became a citizen of a Protocol state under an economic or honourary citizenship programme, unless that programme is comparable to Grenada's own and the Minister responsible for citizenship has approved it as such. One qualification matters more here than anywhere else in the region: Antigua and Barbuda runs an investment citizenship programme, and the Order that frees a Protocol citizen from the work permit requirement expressly does not apply to a person who became a citizen that way, unless the Minister responsible for citizenship has approved the programme as comparable to Grenada's.
- Citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda acquired otherwise than under an economic or honourary citizenship programme
- Lawful entry into Grenada under the Immigration Act or another enactment entitling you to enter and remain
- If the citizenship was acquired by investment, ministerial approval of that programme as comparable to Grenada's
What the law says
«Subject to this section and to the Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act, Chapter 39B, an individual who is a foreign national or a Commonwealth citizen shall not engage in any occupation for reward or profit, or be employed, in Grenada»The prohibition catches Commonwealth citizens as well as other foreigners, which is unusual and is a legacy of 1968. The express subjection to the Skilled Nationals Act is how the CARICOM regime overrides it.
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The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
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«Application for the grant of a work permit shall be addressed to the Minister who may, in his or her absolute discretion, grant it either with or without conditions or refuse to grant it.»Absolute discretion, no criteria, no appeal. Every category, test and deadline a reader meets in practice is built on top of this sentence by the Ministry rather than by Parliament.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Subject to these Regulations a work permit shall be valid for a period of twelve months.»About this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«1. Subject to paragraphs (2) and (lA), citizens of, and persons who belong to The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Montserrat, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Cuba shall pay a work permit fee of one thousand dollars.»Quoted with the publisher's lower-case letter l for the figure 1 in “(lA)”. Guyana was in the list this paragraph replaced and is not in the replacement, although it is in the entertainers' paragraph the same instrument inserts.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
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«lB. Citizens of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Christopher-Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines shall not be required to pay the fee prescribed under paragraph (1).»Five states, not six: Montserrat is a Protocol participant but is dealt with in paragraph 1 at the thousand-dollar rate, because it has no citizens of its own to name.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
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«Citizens of, or persons who belong to, Commonwealth countries other than those mentioned in paragraph (1) above, Member States of the European Economic Community and the United States of America shall pay a work permit fee of three thousand dollars.»Still phrased in terms of the European Economic Community, a body that ceased to exist under that name in 1993.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Persons other than those mentioned in paragraphs (1), (2) and (3) above shall pay a work permit fee of five thousand dollars.»About this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«The application fee for persons making an application for a work permit under paragraph (1), (3) and (4) shall be a non- refundable fee of one hundred dollars.»Quoted with the broken word the publisher prints. Note which paragraphs are named: the application fee is not charged under paragraph 2, the skills certificate exemption.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«be advertised for three (3) consecutive weeks before making»The advertising rule, the twelve working day processing time and the hundred-dollar replacement and late fees all live in the guidance printed on the form, which is part of the Schedule and therefore part of the law, but is not where anybody would look.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Applications will be processed within twelve (12) working days.»About this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(c) writers (including journalists), broadcasters, sculptors and painters (excluding industrial painters);»Exempt, but only for visits totalling thirty days in a calendar year. Company directors, inspectors and auditors, people visiting a local agent and commercial travellers are exempt for fourteen days a year under paragraphs (d) to (g).
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«A person having in his or her employment a foreign national or a Commonwealth citizen without there being in force a valid work permit or Order of exemption as required by subsection (2), and any foreign national or Commonwealth citizen who is engaged or employed in contravention of subsection (1), shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of five hundred dollars, and in default of payment to imprisonment for six months and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine of five hundred dollars for each day upon which the offence continues and to imprisonment for six months.»The daily continuing fine is the part that bites: the headline penalty is small, the accumulation is not.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Facilitates the entry of individuals, whose skills are in demand and provides them with a pathway to residency.»The Ministry's own description of its Work to Residency category. No such category exists in the Act, and nothing in the Immigration Act turns a work permit into a residence entitlement; this is a statement of how the Ministry says it exercises an absolute discretion.
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Decides work permits under the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act and publishes the guidelines applicants and employers work from.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law requires. Its guidelines put Guyana in the thousand-dollar fee band and cite S.R.O. 26 of 2015 for it, when that instrument is precisely what removed Guyana from the paragraph in question; the difference is EC$2,000 a year. Its five work categories, including a Work to Residency category promising a pathway to residency, exist nowhere in the Act or the Regulations and nothing in the Immigration Act gives a work permit any residence effect - they are an account of how an absolute ministerial discretion is exercised. Two of its fee exemptions rest on unpublished Cabinet decisions. The guidelines are dated June 2020 and the fee bands they recite come from instruments of 2008, 2014 and 2015.
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«OECS Citizens: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are exempt»The Ministry attributes this to S.R.O. 26 of 2015 and to Cabinet decision #520 of 30 March 2019. The instrument says it; the Cabinet decision is not published and we have not read it.
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Decides work permits under the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act and publishes the guidelines applicants and employers work from.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law requires. Its guidelines put Guyana in the thousand-dollar fee band and cite S.R.O. 26 of 2015 for it, when that instrument is precisely what removed Guyana from the paragraph in question; the difference is EC$2,000 a year. Its five work categories, including a Work to Residency category promising a pathway to residency, exist nowhere in the Act or the Regulations and nothing in the Immigration Act gives a work permit any residence effect - they are an account of how an absolute ministerial discretion is exercised. Two of its fee exemptions rest on unpublished Cabinet decisions. The guidelines are dated June 2020 and the fee bands they recite come from instruments of 2008, 2014 and 2015.
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«Foreign Nationals of The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba:»The Ministry puts Guyana in the thousand-dollar band and cites S.R.O. 26 of 2015 for it. The instrument omits Guyana from that paragraph. On the face of the Regulations a Guyanese worker who is not an entertainer pays three thousand dollars; at the counter the Ministry charges one thousand.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Decides work permits under the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act and publishes the guidelines applicants and employers work from.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law requires. Its guidelines put Guyana in the thousand-dollar fee band and cite S.R.O. 26 of 2015 for it, when that instrument is precisely what removed Guyana from the paragraph in question; the difference is EC$2,000 a year. Its five work categories, including a Work to Residency category promising a pathway to residency, exist nowhere in the Act or the Regulations and nothing in the Immigration Act gives a work permit any residence effect - they are an account of how an absolute ministerial discretion is exercised. Two of its fee exemptions rest on unpublished Cabinet decisions. The guidelines are dated June 2020 and the fee bands they recite come from instruments of 2008, 2014 and 2015.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Ministry of Labour's guidelines are dated June 2020 and describe five work categories - Work to Residency, Essential Skills, Specific Purpose or Event, Students and Trainees, and a dependants category - none of which appears in the Act or the Regulations. They are an account of how an absolute discretion is exercised, and they are not binding on the Minister who exercises it.
The divergence over Guyana is on the face of two documents we read in full. S.R.O. 26 of 2015 substituted paragraph 1 of the Second Schedule and the replacement omits Guyana, while inserting Guyana into the new entertainers' paragraph 1A. The Ministry's 2020 guidelines list Guyana in the thousand-dollar band and cite S.R.O. 26 of 2015 as authority.
The waiver of fees for CARICOM entertainers rests on a Cabinet directive of 15 May 2017 and the OECS fee exemption partly on Cabinet decision #520 of 30 March 2019, both named in the Ministry's guidelines. Neither is a published instrument and we have not read either. The OECS exemption also has a statutory basis in paragraph 1B, which we have read.
No instrument we read sets out what happens when a work permit is refused. There is no appeal in the Act and the Minister's discretion is expressed as absolute.
Nothing in the statutory scheme ties a work permit to a route to permanent residence. The Ministry's Work to Residency category is the only place that idea appears, and the Immigration Act gives it no effect.
- consolidatesForeign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act, Chapter 115, Continuous Revised Edition of the Laws of Grenada 2010
Laws of Grenada · consolidated to 2010
About this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesForeign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) (Amendment) Regulations, 2015 (S.R.O. No. 26 of 2015)
Laws of Grenada
About this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesForeign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) (Amendment) Regulations, 2014 (S.R.O. No. 48 of 2014)
Laws of Grenada
About this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesForeign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) (Amendment) Regulations, 2017 (S.R.O. No. 24 of 2017)
Laws of Grenada
About this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- administersMinistry of Labour, Work Permit Guidelines: A General Guide to the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens Employment System in Grenada, June 2020
Ministry of Labour (Grenada)
About this source
Decides work permits under the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act and publishes the guidelines applicants and employers work from.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law requires. Its guidelines put Guyana in the thousand-dollar fee band and cite S.R.O. 26 of 2015 for it, when that instrument is precisely what removed Guyana from the paragraph in question; the difference is EC$2,000 a year. Its five work categories, including a Work to Residency category promising a pathway to residency, exist nowhere in the Act or the Regulations and nothing in the Immigration Act gives a work permit any residence effect - they are an account of how an absolute ministerial discretion is exercised. Two of its fee exemptions rest on unpublished Cabinet decisions. The guidelines are dated June 2020 and the fee bands they recite come from instruments of 2008, 2014 and 2015.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesWork Permit Exemption (Citizen of a Protocol Member State) Order, 2015 (S.R.O. No. 24 of 2015)
Laws of Grenada
About this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source