Moving to Saint Kitts and Nevis Under CARICOM or the OECS
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Jamaica on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
91 exceptions recorded across 34 countries · none match Jamaica to Saint Kitts and Nevis · Residency under a regional treaty
Two blocs, two entirely different answers, and the Immigration Act names both. A citizen of one of the six other Eastern Caribbean states that are party to the Protocol of the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union is granted, by statute, a permit to enter and remain for a stay of indefinite duration, needs no passport to prove who they are, and needs no work permit - and none of that depends on their qualifications. A citizen of the wider Caribbean Community gets much less: the Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act admits graduates, media workers, sportspersons, artistes, musicians, nurses and teachers from twelve named states, on a certificate, and gives them six months followed by an indefinite period. Everyone else from CARICOM is an ordinary visitor.
At a glance
- OECS Protocol: right conferred
- Permit to enter and remain for indefinite duration
Section 4(3) of the Immigration Act says the officer "shall grant" it, so it is not discretionary. It was inserted by Act 1 of 2012 to implement Article 12 of the Protocol of the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union.
- OECS Protocol Member States
- 7, including Saint Kitts and Nevis
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as the OECS Commission lists them. Six of them are origins for someone moving here.
- OECS Protocol: work permit
- Not required
Section 19(1) of the Immigration Act excludes a citizen of a Protocol Member State from the permit requirement, and the OECS Commission states the same for a citizen and their third-country spouse.
- OECS Protocol: driving licence
- Mutually recognised
Stated by the OECS Commission, not by the Vehicles and Road Traffic Act, which contains no OECS provision. See the driving record.
- OECS entry without the Protocol
- 6 months as of right
Section 14(8) of the Immigration Act covers a citizen of any OECS member state, whether or not it is a party to the Protocol, and writes the period in words.
- CARICOM qualifying states under the Skilled Nationals Act
- 12, excluding Saint Kitts and Nevis itself
Counted from the First Schedule as printed: thirteen entries, of which one is Saint Christopher and Nevis, and section 2 defines a qualifying state as a member other than Saint Christopher and Nevis. Haiti and The Bahamas do not appear.
- CARICOM skilled national: period granted
- 6 months, then indefinite
Section 3(1) of the Skilled Nationals Act, on a Saint Kitts and Nevis certificate. Section 4(1), on a home-state certificate, gives six months with no indefinite extension.
- CARICOM skilled national: who qualifies
- Graduates, media workers, sportspersons, artistes, musicians, nurses, teachers
Section 8(1) of the Skilled Nationals Act, read with its definitions. Nurses and teachers were added by Act 14 of 2008, after the five categories named in Article 46 of the Revised Treaty.
- CARICOM: ordinary nationals
- No special entry right in the Act
The Skilled Nationals Act is keyed to a certificate. A CARICOM national without one enters as a permitted entrant under section 14 of the Immigration Act like anyone else.
- Right of establishment
- A treaty obligation, not a provision of local law we found
Articles 32 and 33 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas bind member states to remove restrictions on establishment by nationals of other member states. Nothing in the Immigration Act or the Skilled Nationals Act implements it, and the Aliens Land Holding Regulation Act still treats CARICOM nationals as aliens.
Requirements
- Under the OECS Protocol: citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Lucia or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and not being a prohibited person
- Under the OECS Protocol: proof of citizenship with photo identification is enough at the border - a passport is not required
- Under the Skilled Nationals Act: a passport from one of the twelve qualifying CARICOM states listed in the First Schedule, entry for the purpose of gainful employment or self-employment, and a certificate of recognition of CARICOM skills qualification
- Under the Skilled Nationals Act, the certificate route: a Saint Kitts and Nevis certificate under the Second Schedule gives six months and then an indefinite period; a certificate issued by the competent Minister of the home state gives six months only
- Under either: no work permit is needed - section 19(1) of the Immigration Act exempts approved CARICOM citizens and citizens of a Protocol Member State by name
In detail
What the OECS actually confers
The Eastern Caribbean Economic Union was established by the Revised Treaty of Basseterre in 2010 and free movement began on 1 August 2011. Saint Kitts and Nevis implemented it by Act 1 of 2012, which did three separate things to the Immigration Act. It inserted section 4(3), requiring an immigration officer to grant a citizen of a Protocol Member State a permit to enter and remain for a stay of indefinite duration. It amended section 19(1) and (2) so that such a citizen needs no work permit and may be employed without one. And it added "citizen of a Protocol Member State" as a seventh class in the Act's scheme. The OECS Commission adds three things the Act does not say: that a government-issued identity card, driving licence or voter card suffices for travel, that driving licences are mutually recognised, and that social security benefits are portable. Those are statements by the Commission about the regime, and this record marks them as such rather than treating them as Kittitian law.
What CARICOM confers, and what it does not
CARICOM is routinely described as giving free movement. The Revised Treaty does not. Article 45 states free movement as a goal to which member states commit themselves; Article 46 then takes "a first step" by giving five categories of national the right to seek employment. Saint Kitts and Nevis enacted that first step in 1997 as the Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act, and added nurses and teachers in 2008. The right that results is real and substantial - six months and then an indefinite period, with the family treated as citizens for movement purposes - but it is conditional on a certificate and on a qualification. A CARICOM national who is a plumber, a shopkeeper or a retiree gets none of it. The contrast with the OECS, where every citizen of six neighbouring states gets an indefinite stay regardless of what they do, is the sharpest regional-bloc distinction in this whole comparison.
Right of establishment: an obligation without an implementing provision
Articles 32 and 33 of the Revised Treaty bind member states not to introduce new restrictions on the right of establishment and to remove existing ones, where establishment means non-wage-earning activity and the creation and management of enterprises. We looked for the Kittitian provision that gives effect to this and did not find one. The Immigration Act makes no mention of establishment. The Skilled Nationals Act is about employment and self-employment by certificate-holders. And the Aliens Land Holding Regulation Act, which forfeits to the Crown land held by an unlicensed alien, defines "alien" by reference to the Immigration Act and carves out nobody on CARICOM grounds. On the face of the statutes we read, a Barbadian or Jamaican buying premises to trade from is in the same position as anyone else.
The two blocs overlap, and the Act handles both
Five of the six other OECS Protocol states - Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - are also CARICOM members and appear in the First Schedule to the Skilled Nationals Act. For their citizens the OECS route dominates: indefinite stay, no certificate, no qualification test. Montserrat is in both lists too but is a British Overseas Territory, and the Skilled Nationals Act has a special provision in section 2(2) for Montserrat passports. The Skilled Nationals Act matters most for the states that are in CARICOM but not in the Protocol: Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Jamaica
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
«Subject to section 8 and pursuant to Article 12 of the Protocol, an immigration officer shall grant a permit for a citizen of a Protocol Member State to enter and remain in Saint Christopher and Nevis for a stay of indefinite duration.»The strongest entry right in the Act and the only one expressed as a treaty obligation. Section 8 is the prohibited-persons provision and section 4(4) lets the right be revoked on that ground with due process.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
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«“Citizen of a Protocol Member State” means a person who is a citizen of a Member State of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States that is a party to the Protocol of the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union;»Membership of the OECS is not enough: the state must be party to the Protocol. The Act does not list which states those are, so the list has to come from the OECS Commission.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«“approved CARICOM citizen” means a national of another Member State who is qualified to work in the State having been certified as a university graduate, self-employed person, entrepreneur or other category of person duly recognized by the State under the Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act, Cap. 25.04;»Note the words "self-employed person" and "entrepreneur" here, which do not appear in the Skilled Nationals Act's own list of qualifications. The two statutes describe the same class slightly differently.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«an immigration officer shall, subject to sections 5, 14, and 16 of this Act, permit a national to whom this section applies and any dependant of that person to enter and remain in the Federation initially for a period of six months and thereafter for an indefinite period if the person satisfies the requirements made under regulations by the Minister.»The indefinite part is conditional on requirements "made under regulations by the Minister". The only subsidiary legislation printed with the Act is the Advisory Committee Regulations, S.R.O. 53/2011, so what those requirements are is not visible in the consolidated text.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«permit a national to whom this section applies and any dependant of that person to enter and remain in the Federation for a period not exceeding six months.»The difference between sections 3 and 4 is whose certificate you carry: a Saint Kitts and Nevis certificate under section 7 opens the indefinite route, a home-state certificate gives six months.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(1) Antigua and Barbuda
(2) Barbados
(3) Belize
(4) Dominica
(5) Grenada
(6) Guyana
(7) Jamaica
(8) Montserrat
(9) St. Christopher and Nevis
(10) St. Lucia
(11) St. Vincent and The Grenadines»Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago follow as entries (12) and (13), separated in the printed text by a rule. Haiti, a CARICOM member since 2002, is not in the Schedule, and neither is The Bahamas.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«shall, notwithstanding the provisions of any other law but subject to section 14 and 16, not be subject to any restriction on freedom of movement, including the freedom to leave and re-enter Saint Christopher and Nevis without further permission, which would not apply if that spouse or dependent family member were a citizen of Saint Christopher and Nevis.»The family of a certificate holder is put on the same footing as a citizen for movement purposes. This is a stronger right than the certificate holder's own, which remains revocable under section 12.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«The rights and privileges conferred by this Act on a relevant passport holder shall not exceed that State’s reciprocal rights and privileges.»A ceiling keyed to what the other state gives Kittitians. Subsection (3) presumes reciprocity in the absence of proof to the contrary, so it bites only where someone proves the home state gives less.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«accord to the following categories of Community nationals the right to seek employment in their jurisdictions:»Quoted with the double space the publisher's text carries. The five categories that follow - university graduates, media workers, sportspersons, artistes, musicians - are the ones Saint Kitts and Nevis implemented in 1997 and extended to nurses and teachers in 2008.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Depositary and publisher of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the single market material built on it.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what a member state's law actually is. The treaty binds states rather than conferring rights a reader can exercise at a counter, and its establishment articles have no implementing provision in at least one member we have read. Our capture of the treaty also has irregular article headings, so no negative claim about its contents may rest on it.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
«Member States commit themselves to the goal of free movement of their nationals within the Community.»A goal, not an obligation of result. Article 46 is the first step towards it and is confined to categories. CARICOM has never conferred general free movement, which is the single most common misstatement about it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Depositary and publisher of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the single market material built on it.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what a member state's law actually is. The treaty binds states rather than conferring rights a reader can exercise at a counter, and its establishment articles have no implementing provision in at least one member we have read. Our capture of the treaty also has irregular article headings, so no negative claim about its contents may rest on it.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
«The right of establishment within the meaning of this Chapter shall include»What follows is the right to engage in non-wage-earning activities of a commercial, industrial, agricultural, professional or artisanal nature, and to create and manage economic enterprises. Establishment is about self-employment and companies, not about employment.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Depositary and publisher of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the single market material built on it.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what a member state's law actually is. The treaty binds states rather than conferring rights a reader can exercise at a counter, and its establishment articles have no implementing provision in at least one member we have read. Our capture of the treaty also has irregular article headings, so no negative claim about its contents may rest on it.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
«the Member States shall remove restrictions on the right of establishment of nationals of a Member State in the territory of another Member State.»An obligation on the state, enforceable through the Community's own machinery. It is not a right a reader can exercise at a Kittitian counter, and we found nothing in Kittitian law implementing it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Depositary and publisher of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the single market material built on it.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what a member state's law actually is. The treaty binds states rather than conferring rights a reader can exercise at a counter, and its establishment articles have no implementing provision in at least one member we have read. Our capture of the treaty also has irregular article headings, so no negative claim about its contents may rest on it.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The membership of the OECS Protocol is not stated in any Kittitian instrument we read - the Immigration Act defines a Protocol Member State by reference to the Protocol itself. The list of seven used here is the OECS Commission's own, and if a state acceded or withdrew the Act would follow it automatically without being amended.
Section 3(1) of the Skilled Nationals Act makes the indefinite period conditional on "the requirements made under regulations by the Minister". The only regulations printed with the Act are the Advisory Committee Regulations of 2011, which are about the committee rather than about applicants. We did not find the regulations that set those requirements, and this record does not state what they are.
The Act's reciprocity provision in section 14 caps the rights a CARICOM passport holder gets here at what their own state gives a Kittitian. Reciprocity is presumed unless the contrary is proved, so in practice it is dormant, but it is a live limit on the face of the statute.
The OECS Commission's page is a statement by the Commission about the regime it administers, not an instrument. Where it says something the Immigration Act also says - the indefinite stay, no work permit - the two agree. Where it goes further - identity-card travel, driving licence recognition, social security portability, contingent rights for third-country spouses - we found no Kittitian provision, and those points are recorded as the Commission's statements.
Saint Kitts and Nevis also appears in the Immigration Act's Fifth Schedule "domestic space" list of ten CARICOM countries, inserted by Act 2 of 2007. The Act defines the term but we found nothing in the operative sections that attaches a consequence to it.
- consolidatesImmigration Act, Cap. 6.02, Revised Edition showing the law as at 31 December 2020
Law Commission of Saint Christopher and Nevis · consolidated to 2020-12-31
About this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesCaribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act, Cap. 25.04, Revised Edition showing the law as at 31 December 2017
Law Commission of Saint Christopher and Nevis · consolidated to 2017-12-31
About this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- issuesRevised Treaty of Chaguaramas Establishing the Caribbean Community including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy
Caribbean Community Secretariat
About this source
Depositary and publisher of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the single market material built on it.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what a member state's law actually is. The treaty binds states rather than conferring rights a reader can exercise at a counter, and its establishment articles have no implementing provision in at least one member we have read. Our capture of the treaty also has irregular article headings, so no negative claim about its contents may rest on it.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
- administersFree Movement of Persons Regime in the Eastern Caribbean
Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Commission
About this source
Administers the Eastern Caribbean economic union and its free-movement regime, and describes what member states have agreed to implement.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for any member's law. Where we have checked, only a handful of its claims are mirrored in a national statute: its statements about identity-card travel, driving-licence recognition, social-security portability and third-country spouses had no implementing provision we could find, and must be attributed to the Commission rather than to a country. A programme it describes as being implemented is not in force by virtue of being described.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source