Working in Guyana: a Work Permit That Is Not in Any Act
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to Guyana · Residency through work
Guyana's immigration statute has no work permit. The words do not appear in the Immigration Act, in the Immigration Regulations, in the Labour Act, or in either of the CARICOM free-movement Acts; the only statute that uses them is the Investment Act, which promises the Government will help investors obtain "work permits in compliance with the Immigration Act" - an Act that does not create one. What the Act creates is a permit to enter and remain, which the officer must mark "for purposes of employment", capped at three years from the date of entry. Everything a foreign worker actually meets is administrative: the Ministry of Home Affairs runs an Employment Visa on Arrival and a Landing Permit for Employment Status, requires the vacancy to have been advertised in the newspapers for three consecutive months, asks for police clearance, a medical report and the employer's tax and social-insurance receipts, charges GYD 28,700 or US$140, and takes about a month. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs then says the visa and the work permit are issued together on arrival, for three years.
At a glance
- Work permit in the Immigration Act
- Does not exist. The phrase appears nowhere in the Act, its Regulations or the Labour Act
- What the Act does issue
- A permit to enter and remain, marked "for purposes of employment"
- Ceiling under the Act
- Three years from the date of entry
- Period the Ministry of Foreign Affairs grants
- Three years in the first instance, renewable for three years at a timeas of 2026-10-06
- Labour-market test
- The vacancy advertised in the newspapers for three consecutive monthsas of 2026-10-06
An administrative requirement. No instrument we read imposes it.
- Fee
- GYD $28,700 or USD $140as of 2026-10-06
- Processing time stated
- One monthas of 2026-10-06
- Employer security
- The officer may require the employer to give security to repatriate the worker if the employment ends within two years of entry
- Effect of a job offer at the border
- A traveller with bona fide employment awaiting him is not to be treated as likely to become a charge on public funds
Requirements
- A sponsor or employer in Guyana whose business is registered and compliant with the National Insurance Scheme and the Revenue Authority
- The vacancy advertised in the newspapers for three consecutive months, with a copy of the advertisement in the application
- A signed contract between employer and employee
- Police clearance and a medical report for the applicant
- Credentials, passport bio-data page, photographs for applicant and sponsor, and a marriage certificate where applicable
- Application lodged with the Head of Immigration Support Services at the Ministry of Home Affairs before the worker travels
- Payment of GYD 28,700 or US$140 once approval is received
- Any document not in English translated
In detail
The permit the Act does not have
Section 12 of the Immigration Act lets an immigration officer grant a permit to enter and remain and requires him to state its purpose, one option being "for purposes of employment". That is the whole statutory scheme for foreign work. There is no second instrument, no application to a labour ministry, no schedule of occupations and no quota. The word "permit" in the Act means permission to be in the country, not permission to work; the two are the same document. Guyana is unlike Belize and Barbados in this, where employment is licensed separately from entry.
Where the three-month advertisement comes from
The single most onerous condition a foreign worker meets in Guyana - that the job must have been advertised in the newspapers for three consecutive months before the application - is not in the Immigration Act, the Immigration Regulations or the Labour Act. It is item 12 on a one-page requirements sheet published by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The same sheet asks for police clearance, a medical report, the employer's income tax and National Insurance receipts, the business registration, and photographs of both applicant and sponsor. It is an entire labour-market test built outside the statute, and a reader looking for it in the law will not find it.
Three years, and what the oil economy changed
The Act caps a permit and all its extensions at three years from the date of entry. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advisory grants an employment visa for three years in the first instance and renews it for three years at a time, which goes past the Act's ceiling unless each renewal is treated as a fresh entry. Guyana's demand for foreign technical labour grew sharply after oil production began in 2019, and the processing route - apply through the employer before the worker travels, receive the visa and the work permit together at the airport - is plainly built for that traffic. None of it is traceable to an amendment of the Immigration Act, which has not been amended since 2007 in the text the law portal publishes.
Country-level policy
Georgetown is the seat of the Caribbean Community Secretariat, and a reader might expect that to show in Guyanese law as a headquarters agreement, a privileges and immunities regime for Secretariat staff, or a special status for Community nationals. It shows in two places and neither is about the headquarters. The Caribbean Community Act 2006 gives the Revised Treaty the force of law in Guyana and provides that where it conflicts with any other law except the Constitution it prevails - a stronger incorporation than most members enacted. And a 1982 Order under the Privileges and Immunities Act declares the Community and the Common Market to be organisations to which section 13 of that Act applies and gives them the legal capacities of a body corporate. That Order was made under the original 1973 Treaty, confers none of the Fifth Schedule privileges on officers or staff on its face, and has not been replaced. We found no headquarters agreement in the Laws of Guyana, and no provision anywhere that treats a Community national differently because the Secretariat is here.
Guyana's statute book is published under the Law Revision Act, which establishes a Law Revision Commission chaired by the Attorney-General, lets it publish in loose-leaf or any other form it determines, and makes every authorised page bear the number of the Law Revision Order that put it there. Section 9 then says those pages are, in all courts and for all purposes, the sole and proper Statute Book of Guyana for the law in force on the relevant revision date. The authority is therefore the L.R.O. number printed at the foot of every page, and on mola.gov.gy two different numbers are in circulation. The first three volumes carry L.R.O. 1/2022; everything from volume four onwards carries L.R.O. 1/2012, which the Attorney General told the National Assembly in June 2026 shows the law as it stood on 31 December 2012. Immigration, citizenship, aliens, the CARICOM Acts, income tax, customs and road traffic are all in the older half.
Four CARICOM states - Barbados, Belize, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - have extended free movement among themselves beyond the Skills Certificate, so that each other's nationals may enter, live, work and remain indefinitely without a permit. Guyana is not one of them, and the right place to see that is its own statute book rather than a communique. Belize legislated for its version, with an Indefinite Stay Stamp at the port and a statutory appeal; Guyana has no equivalent Act and no equivalent provision. What Guyana's law does contain is the Skills Certificate regime of Chapter 18:08, the right of establishment in Chapter 18:10, and section 12(7A) of the Immigration Act, which admits Community nationals exercising rights under either of those Acts without a permit. Nothing in any of them extends to a Community national who holds no certificate and is establishing no enterprise. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs list confirms the position from the other side: a CARICOM national gets visa-free entry under article 45 of the Revised Treaty, and the Immigration Act then gives six months.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«for purposes of employment; or»Known to be out of date. The last amendment worked into this Chapter predates 2013. Guyana completed a revision to 31 December 2022 which the Attorney General laid before the National Assembly in June 2026, and the law portal has not yet replaced this Chapter with it.
The whole of what the Act says about working. There is no separate instrument, no quota, no occupation list and no labour-market test in the statute.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guyana's law portal, publishing the Laws of Guyana chapter by chapter as PDFs. The Law Revision Act, Chapter 2:02, makes the Law Revision Commission - chaired by the Attorney General, with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel a member by office - responsible for preparing, publishing and maintaining the edition, lets it choose the form of publication, requires every page to carry the number of the Law Revision Order that authorised it, and provides by section 9 that those pages are in all courts and for all purposes the sole and proper Statute Book of Guyana for the law in force on the relevant revision date. The portal also carries draft bills and ministry news.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It serves two editions at once and says so nowhere on its listing. On 2026-10-06, 52 of its 461 chapter entries carried L.R.O. 1/2022 - volumes 1 and 2 and part of volume 3 - and the remaining 409 carried L.R.O. 1/2012. The Attorney General told the National Assembly in June 2026 that 1/2012 shows the law as at 31 December 2012 and 1/2022 all laws enacted to 31 December 2022, so the L.R.O. number at the foot of each page is the only way to tell which edition you are reading. Everything that matters for migration - the Immigration Act, the Guyana Citizenship Act, the Aliens Act, all five CARICOM chapters, the Income Tax Act, the Customs Act, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act - is still in the 2012 half. It must never be cited for what the law is now: the Income Tax Act it publishes prints a flat 33 1/3 per cent and has no section 36A, while the Revenue Authority charges 25 and 35 per cent under a section 36A. It publishes no amending Acts and no statutory instruments at all, so there is nothing on the site to check a Chapter against. Several chapters omit their own subsidiary legislation or schedules and say so in a note. Filenames carry a volume label and a unix timestamp, so a chapter's URL cannot be guessed and changes when the file is replaced.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«4. (1) Where bona fide employment in Guyana is
a prohibited awaiting an immigrant (not being a person who is suffering
immigrant
where bona fide
from infirmity of body or mind or ill-health) he shall not be
employment in considered by an immigration officer to be a person who is,
Guyana awaits under section 3(l)(g), likely if he entered Guyana to become a
him. charge on public funds.»Known to be out of date. The last amendment worked into this Chapter predates 2013. Guyana completed a revision to 31 December 2022 which the Attorney General laid before the National Assembly in June 2026, and the law portal has not yet replaced this Chapter with it.
The words set off on their own lines inside this quotation are the section's marginal note and the amending-Act references, which the publisher prints down the left-hand edge of the page; the extraction places them inline. The letter l in "section 3(l)(g)" is the publisher's: it is a lower-case L where a figure 1 belongs.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guyana's law portal, publishing the Laws of Guyana chapter by chapter as PDFs. The Law Revision Act, Chapter 2:02, makes the Law Revision Commission - chaired by the Attorney General, with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel a member by office - responsible for preparing, publishing and maintaining the edition, lets it choose the form of publication, requires every page to carry the number of the Law Revision Order that authorised it, and provides by section 9 that those pages are in all courts and for all purposes the sole and proper Statute Book of Guyana for the law in force on the relevant revision date. The portal also carries draft bills and ministry news.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It serves two editions at once and says so nowhere on its listing. On 2026-10-06, 52 of its 461 chapter entries carried L.R.O. 1/2022 - volumes 1 and 2 and part of volume 3 - and the remaining 409 carried L.R.O. 1/2012. The Attorney General told the National Assembly in June 2026 that 1/2012 shows the law as at 31 December 2012 and 1/2022 all laws enacted to 31 December 2022, so the L.R.O. number at the foot of each page is the only way to tell which edition you are reading. Everything that matters for migration - the Immigration Act, the Guyana Citizenship Act, the Aliens Act, all five CARICOM chapters, the Income Tax Act, the Customs Act, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act - is still in the 2012 half. It must never be cited for what the law is now: the Income Tax Act it publishes prints a flat 33 1/3 per cent and has no section 36A, while the Revenue Authority charges 25 and 35 per cent under a section 36A. It publishes no amending Acts and no statutory instruments at all, so there is nothing on the site to check a Chapter against. Several chapters omit their own subsidiary legislation or schedules and say so in a note. Filenames carry a volume label and a unix timestamp, so a chapter's URL cannot be guessed and changes when the file is replaced.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«he
may, if he thinks fit, require the prospective employer in
Guyana of the immigrant to furnish the prescribed security
under regulation 11 to repatriate the immigrant if the
employment is terminated within two years from the date on
which the immigrant entered Guyana.»Known to be out of date. The last amendment worked into this Chapter predates 2013. Guyana completed a revision to 31 December 2022 which the Attorney General laid before the National Assembly in June 2026, and the law portal has not yet replaced this Chapter with it.
The Act's only employer obligation, and it is a discretion rather than a condition.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guyana's law portal, publishing the Laws of Guyana chapter by chapter as PDFs. The Law Revision Act, Chapter 2:02, makes the Law Revision Commission - chaired by the Attorney General, with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel a member by office - responsible for preparing, publishing and maintaining the edition, lets it choose the form of publication, requires every page to carry the number of the Law Revision Order that authorised it, and provides by section 9 that those pages are in all courts and for all purposes the sole and proper Statute Book of Guyana for the law in force on the relevant revision date. The portal also carries draft bills and ministry news.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It serves two editions at once and says so nowhere on its listing. On 2026-10-06, 52 of its 461 chapter entries carried L.R.O. 1/2022 - volumes 1 and 2 and part of volume 3 - and the remaining 409 carried L.R.O. 1/2012. The Attorney General told the National Assembly in June 2026 that 1/2012 shows the law as at 31 December 2012 and 1/2022 all laws enacted to 31 December 2022, so the L.R.O. number at the foot of each page is the only way to tell which edition you are reading. Everything that matters for migration - the Immigration Act, the Guyana Citizenship Act, the Aliens Act, all five CARICOM chapters, the Income Tax Act, the Customs Act, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act - is still in the 2012 half. It must never be cited for what the law is now: the Income Tax Act it publishes prints a flat 33 1/3 per cent and has no section 36A, while the Revenue Authority charges 25 and 35 per cent under a section 36A. It publishes no amending Acts and no statutory instruments at all, so there is nothing on the site to check a Chapter against. Several chapters omit their own subsidiary legislation or schedules and say so in a note. Filenames carry a volume label and a unix timestamp, so a chapter's URL cannot be guessed and changes when the file is replaced.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«21. The Government shall facilitate foreign investors
c.18:02
and foreign personnel of investors in obtaining work permits
in compliance with the Immigration Act.»The only use of the phrase "work permits" in any statute we read, and it points at an Act that does not create one. The marginal reference c.18:02 is to the Consular Conventions Act, which appears to be a cross-reference error for the Immigration Act, Cap. 14:02.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guyana's law portal, publishing the Laws of Guyana chapter by chapter as PDFs. The Law Revision Act, Chapter 2:02, makes the Law Revision Commission - chaired by the Attorney General, with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel a member by office - responsible for preparing, publishing and maintaining the edition, lets it choose the form of publication, requires every page to carry the number of the Law Revision Order that authorised it, and provides by section 9 that those pages are in all courts and for all purposes the sole and proper Statute Book of Guyana for the law in force on the relevant revision date. The portal also carries draft bills and ministry news.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It serves two editions at once and says so nowhere on its listing. On 2026-10-06, 52 of its 461 chapter entries carried L.R.O. 1/2022 - volumes 1 and 2 and part of volume 3 - and the remaining 409 carried L.R.O. 1/2012. The Attorney General told the National Assembly in June 2026 that 1/2012 shows the law as at 31 December 2012 and 1/2022 all laws enacted to 31 December 2022, so the L.R.O. number at the foot of each page is the only way to tell which edition you are reading. Everything that matters for migration - the Immigration Act, the Guyana Citizenship Act, the Aliens Act, all five CARICOM chapters, the Income Tax Act, the Customs Act, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act - is still in the 2012 half. It must never be cited for what the law is now: the Income Tax Act it publishes prints a flat 33 1/3 per cent and has no section 36A, while the Revenue Authority charges 25 and 35 per cent under a section 36A. It publishes no amending Acts and no statutory instruments at all, so there is nothing on the site to check a Chapter against. Several chapters omit their own subsidiary legislation or schedules and say so in a note. Filenames carry a volume label and a unix timestamp, so a chapter's URL cannot be guessed and changes when the file is replaced.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«The Vacancy that the applicant will be filling, MUST be advertised in the
newspapers for three (3) consecutive months and a copy of the advertisement should
be included in the application.»The sheet is a scanned page with a recognised text layer; the stored reading is a recognition of a picture rather than the Ministry's own characters. The same wording appears on the Ministry's Landing Permit for Employment Status sheet.
«Upon receipt of approval, payments of GYD $28,700 or USD $140 MUST be made.»This instrument is published only as an image. The wording above was read off that picture and checked by eye, so it did not pass the machine verbatim check the other quotations passed. Treat it as accurate but re-read the scan before relying on it.
«Visa on Arrival and Work Permit will be issued on arrival;
7. Visas will be granted for a three (3) year period;»About this source
Publishes Guyana's visa policy: a numbered list of the countries whose nationals need no visa to enter, a second list of the countries Guyanese may enter without one, the visa application forms, and an advisory setting out the criteria and fees for visas issued on arrival to visitors, employees, students and business people. It is also the ministry that determines whether a person qualifies as a re-migrant, settler or returning student for the customs concession.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: The two lists sit on one page under separate headings and are about opposite directions of travel; they overlap, they are dated differently - 17 July 2025 and 16 October 2025 - and they disagree on entries such as Haiti. Any capture that loses the headings merges them into one list, and a reading taken through an extraction service does exactly that. Read it with the headings intact or not at all. The visa-on-arrival advisory is undated on its face and gives periods the Immigration Act cannot produce - a five-year business visa against a three-year statutory ceiling - so it must be cited as the Ministry's practice and never as the law. The visa-exempt list is not an instrument: the statutory list is the Schedule to the Immigration (Passports) Order, which is much shorter and from 1993.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Place of employment must be an established business and must be registered
and be compliant with NIS and GRA rules/regulations;»About this source
Publishes Guyana's visa policy: a numbered list of the countries whose nationals need no visa to enter, a second list of the countries Guyanese may enter without one, the visa application forms, and an advisory setting out the criteria and fees for visas issued on arrival to visitors, employees, students and business people. It is also the ministry that determines whether a person qualifies as a re-migrant, settler or returning student for the customs concession.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: The two lists sit on one page under separate headings and are about opposite directions of travel; they overlap, they are dated differently - 17 July 2025 and 16 October 2025 - and they disagree on entries such as Haiti. Any capture that loses the headings merges them into one list, and a reading taken through an extraction service does exactly that. Read it with the headings intact or not at all. The visa-on-arrival advisory is undated on its face and gives periods the Immigration Act cannot produce - a five-year business visa against a three-year statutory ceiling - so it must be cited as the Ministry's practice and never as the law. The visa-exempt list is not an instrument: the statutory list is the Schedule to the Immigration (Passports) Order, which is much shorter and from 1993.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Ministry of Home Affairs publishes two near-identical sheets, Employment Visa on Arrival and Landing Permit for Employment Status, with the same thirteen requirements. Only the first mentions a fee. Which one applies to a given worker is not explained on either sheet.
The Ministry of Home Affairs requirement sheets are scans. What is stored here is a recognition of the page, not the Ministry's own text, and the quotations are marked accordingly.
This record rests on sections 3 and 12 of the Immigration Act and regulations 3, 4 and 11 of the Immigration Regulations in the 2012 revised edition, sections 19 to 21 of the Investment Act, a search of the whole Labour Act, Chapter 98:01, for the phrase "work permit", and the published requirement sheets of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- consolidatesImmigration Act, Chapter 14:02 of the Laws of Guyana
Ministry of Legal Affairs and Attorney General's Chambers, Guyana · consolidated to 2012-12-31
Known to be out of date. The last amendment worked into this Chapter predates 2013. Guyana completed a revision to 31 December 2022 which the Attorney General laid before the National Assembly in June 2026, and the law portal has not yet replaced this Chapter with it.
About this source
Guyana's law portal, publishing the Laws of Guyana chapter by chapter as PDFs. The Law Revision Act, Chapter 2:02, makes the Law Revision Commission - chaired by the Attorney General, with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel a member by office - responsible for preparing, publishing and maintaining the edition, lets it choose the form of publication, requires every page to carry the number of the Law Revision Order that authorised it, and provides by section 9 that those pages are in all courts and for all purposes the sole and proper Statute Book of Guyana for the law in force on the relevant revision date. The portal also carries draft bills and ministry news.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It serves two editions at once and says so nowhere on its listing. On 2026-10-06, 52 of its 461 chapter entries carried L.R.O. 1/2022 - volumes 1 and 2 and part of volume 3 - and the remaining 409 carried L.R.O. 1/2012. The Attorney General told the National Assembly in June 2026 that 1/2012 shows the law as at 31 December 2012 and 1/2022 all laws enacted to 31 December 2022, so the L.R.O. number at the foot of each page is the only way to tell which edition you are reading. Everything that matters for migration - the Immigration Act, the Guyana Citizenship Act, the Aliens Act, all five CARICOM chapters, the Income Tax Act, the Customs Act, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act - is still in the 2012 half. It must never be cited for what the law is now: the Income Tax Act it publishes prints a flat 33 1/3 per cent and has no section 36A, while the Revenue Authority charges 25 and 35 per cent under a section 36A. It publishes no amending Acts and no statutory instruments at all, so there is nothing on the site to check a Chapter against. Several chapters omit their own subsidiary legislation or schedules and say so in a note. Filenames carry a volume label and a unix timestamp, so a chapter's URL cannot be guessed and changes when the file is replaced.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesInvestment Act, Chapter 73:03
Ministry of Legal Affairs and Attorney General's Chambers, Guyana · consolidated to 2012-12-31
About this source
Guyana's law portal, publishing the Laws of Guyana chapter by chapter as PDFs. The Law Revision Act, Chapter 2:02, makes the Law Revision Commission - chaired by the Attorney General, with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel a member by office - responsible for preparing, publishing and maintaining the edition, lets it choose the form of publication, requires every page to carry the number of the Law Revision Order that authorised it, and provides by section 9 that those pages are in all courts and for all purposes the sole and proper Statute Book of Guyana for the law in force on the relevant revision date. The portal also carries draft bills and ministry news.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It serves two editions at once and says so nowhere on its listing. On 2026-10-06, 52 of its 461 chapter entries carried L.R.O. 1/2022 - volumes 1 and 2 and part of volume 3 - and the remaining 409 carried L.R.O. 1/2012. The Attorney General told the National Assembly in June 2026 that 1/2012 shows the law as at 31 December 2012 and 1/2022 all laws enacted to 31 December 2022, so the L.R.O. number at the foot of each page is the only way to tell which edition you are reading. Everything that matters for migration - the Immigration Act, the Guyana Citizenship Act, the Aliens Act, all five CARICOM chapters, the Income Tax Act, the Customs Act, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act - is still in the 2012 half. It must never be cited for what the law is now: the Income Tax Act it publishes prints a flat 33 1/3 per cent and has no section 36A, while the Revenue Authority charges 25 and 35 per cent under a section 36A. It publishes no amending Acts and no statutory instruments at all, so there is nothing on the site to check a Chapter against. Several chapters omit their own subsidiary legislation or schedules and say so in a note. Filenames carry a volume label and a unix timestamp, so a chapter's URL cannot be guessed and changes when the file is replaced.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesLabour Act, Chapter 98:01
Ministry of Legal Affairs and Attorney General's Chambers, Guyana · consolidated to 2012-12-31
About this source
Guyana's law portal, publishing the Laws of Guyana chapter by chapter as PDFs. The Law Revision Act, Chapter 2:02, makes the Law Revision Commission - chaired by the Attorney General, with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel a member by office - responsible for preparing, publishing and maintaining the edition, lets it choose the form of publication, requires every page to carry the number of the Law Revision Order that authorised it, and provides by section 9 that those pages are in all courts and for all purposes the sole and proper Statute Book of Guyana for the law in force on the relevant revision date. The portal also carries draft bills and ministry news.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It serves two editions at once and says so nowhere on its listing. On 2026-10-06, 52 of its 461 chapter entries carried L.R.O. 1/2022 - volumes 1 and 2 and part of volume 3 - and the remaining 409 carried L.R.O. 1/2012. The Attorney General told the National Assembly in June 2026 that 1/2012 shows the law as at 31 December 2012 and 1/2022 all laws enacted to 31 December 2022, so the L.R.O. number at the foot of each page is the only way to tell which edition you are reading. Everything that matters for migration - the Immigration Act, the Guyana Citizenship Act, the Aliens Act, all five CARICOM chapters, the Income Tax Act, the Customs Act, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act - is still in the 2012 half. It must never be cited for what the law is now: the Income Tax Act it publishes prints a flat 33 1/3 per cent and has no section 36A, while the Revenue Authority charges 25 and 35 per cent under a section 36A. It publishes no amending Acts and no statutory instruments at all, so there is nothing on the site to check a Chapter against. Several chapters omit their own subsidiary legislation or schedules and say so in a note. Filenames carry a volume label and a unix timestamp, so a chapter's URL cannot be guessed and changes when the file is replaced.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- administersRequirements for Employment Visa on Arrival
Ministry of Home Affairs, Guyana
About this source
The ministry that runs immigration in Guyana through its Immigration Support Services unit, and the only publisher of what a foreign worker, student, business visitor or citizenship applicant actually has to produce. It publishes one-page requirement sheets for the Employment Visa on Arrival, the Landing Permits for employment, business and student status, and for naturalisation and the two kinds of registration as a citizen, together with the application forms.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Nothing it publishes has a statutory source. The phrase "work permit" appears in no Guyanese statute, the three-month newspaper advertisement of a vacancy appears in no instrument, and study is not among the purposes the Immigration Act allows a permit to be issued for. Its sheets must therefore be cited as what the Ministry requires and never as what the law requires. Every requirement sheet is a scanned page with a poor embedded recognition layer - the headings come out as nonsense - so a reading of one is a recognition of a picture and must be stored and quoted as ocr. The sheets carry no date; the ones read here sit in the Ministry's December 2021 upload directory. The Ministry links from its applications page to at least one address that answers 404.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- administersRequirements for Landing Permit for Employment Status
Ministry of Home Affairs, Guyana
About this source
The ministry that runs immigration in Guyana through its Immigration Support Services unit, and the only publisher of what a foreign worker, student, business visitor or citizenship applicant actually has to produce. It publishes one-page requirement sheets for the Employment Visa on Arrival, the Landing Permits for employment, business and student status, and for naturalisation and the two kinds of registration as a citizen, together with the application forms.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Nothing it publishes has a statutory source. The phrase "work permit" appears in no Guyanese statute, the three-month newspaper advertisement of a vacancy appears in no instrument, and study is not among the purposes the Immigration Act allows a permit to be issued for. Its sheets must therefore be cited as what the Ministry requires and never as what the law requires. Every requirement sheet is a scanned page with a poor embedded recognition layer - the headings come out as nonsense - so a reading of one is a recognition of a picture and must be stored and quoted as ocr. The sheets carry no date; the ones read here sit in the Ministry's December 2021 upload directory. The Ministry links from its applications page to at least one address that answers 404.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- administersAdvisory: criteria for visas on arrival, and visa fees
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Guyana
About this source
Publishes Guyana's visa policy: a numbered list of the countries whose nationals need no visa to enter, a second list of the countries Guyanese may enter without one, the visa application forms, and an advisory setting out the criteria and fees for visas issued on arrival to visitors, employees, students and business people. It is also the ministry that determines whether a person qualifies as a re-migrant, settler or returning student for the customs concession.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: The two lists sit on one page under separate headings and are about opposite directions of travel; they overlap, they are dated differently - 17 July 2025 and 16 October 2025 - and they disagree on entries such as Haiti. Any capture that loses the headings merges them into one list, and a reading taken through an extraction service does exactly that. Read it with the headings intact or not at all. The visa-on-arrival advisory is undated on its face and gives periods the Immigration Act cannot produce - a five-year business visa against a three-year statutory ceiling - so it must be cited as the Ministry's practice and never as the law. The visa-exempt list is not an instrument: the statutory list is the Schedule to the Immigration (Passports) Order, which is much shorter and from 1993.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source