Country-wide policy
Every Immigration Fee Doubled on 1 January 2026
The Immigration (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025 revoked and substituted four Schedules to the Immigration Regulations with effect from 1 January 2026. Set against what they replaced, every figure that survived is exactly twice what it was. The work permit application went from TT$600 to TT$1,200 and the monthly charge from TT$450 to TT$900 with the minimum from TT$1,350 to TT$2,700; the Certificate of Residence from TT$400 to TT$800 for a CARICOM national and from TT$1,000 to TT$2,000 for everyone else; the Student's Permit from TT$200 to TT$400; the Visa Waiver from TT$400 to TT$800; the Change of Status from TT$100 to TT$200; ship clearance from TT$100 to TT$200 for the first three hours. One item did not double: the Certificate for Facilitation of Entry, which had cost TT$100 for a CARICOM national and TT$500 for anyone else, was dropped from the Schedule entirely and the remaining items renumbered. The half-rate for citizens of CARICOM countries survived, and its cross-references were correctly updated to the new numbering.
Topics it changes
- Visiting as a tourist
- Residency through work
- Residency as a student
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
At a glance
- Instrument
- Immigration (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations, 2025 (Legal Notice No. 493 of 2025)
- Made
- 29 December 2025
The Regulations carry the words Dated this 29th day of December, 2025 over the Minister's signature.
- Effect from
- 1 January 2026
- Work permit application
- TT$600 to TT$1,200
The substituted Fourth Schedule prints 1200.00 at item (ii); the Schedule it replaced printed $600.00.
- Work permit duration
- TT$450 to TT$900 a month, minimum TT$1,350 to TT$2,700
The substituted Fourth Schedule prints 900.00 per month subject to a minimum of 2,700.00 at item (iii); the Schedule it replaced printed $450.00 and $1,350.00.
- Certificate of Residence, CARICOM
- TT$400 to TT$800
Item (iv)(a) of the substituted Fourth Schedule prints 800.00; the Schedule it replaced printed $400.00 at item (v)(a).
- Certificate of Residence, non-CARICOM
- TT$1,000 to TT$2,000
Item (iv)(b) of the substituted Fourth Schedule prints 2000.00; the Schedule it replaced printed $1,000.00 at item (v)(b).
- Student's Permit
- TT$200 to TT$400
- Visa Waiver
- TT$400 to TT$800
Item (vi) of the substituted Fourth Schedule prints 800.00; the Schedule it replaced printed $400.00 at item (vii).
- Certificate for Facilitation of Entry
- Abolished
The item that went instead of doubling
Item (iv) of the old Fourth Schedule was a Certificate for Facilitation of Entry, charged at TT$100 for citizens or residents of Caribbean Free Trade Association territories and Caribbean Common Market countries and TT$500 for anyone else. It is not in the Schedule the 2025 Regulations substituted. Everything below it moved up a letter - the Certificate of Residence from (v) to (iv), the Student's Permit from (vi) to (v), the Visa Waiver from (vii) to (vi), the Change of Status from (viii) to (vii), the amnesty certificate from (ix) to (viii) and letters confirming citizenship or residence from (x) to (ix) - and paragraph B, which gives citizens of CARICOM countries half the fee, was renumbered with them, from items (i), (v), (vi), (viii) and (x) to items (i), (iv), (v), (vii) and (ix). The mapping is exact, which is worth saying because renumbering a schedule and forgetting the cross-references is the commonest way an instrument goes wrong.
The ambiguity that survived the renumbering
Paragraph B halves the fees at the renumbered item (iv), which is the Certificate of Residence, and item (iv)(a) is already expressed as the rate in respect of persons from Caricom Countries - TT$800 against TT$2,000 for everyone else. Read literally a CARICOM national pays half of the CARICOM rate, TT$400. The same double discount existed in the Schedule this one replaced, where the CARICOM rate was TT$400 and paragraph B named the same item. Nothing in the instrument resolves it, and we have not asserted either reading as the position.
What the law says
«2. These Regulations shall have effect from 1st January, 2026.»About this source
The Government's legislative database at laws.gov.tt. It carries three things nothing else does: a chronological list of Legal Notices and Government Notices from 1838 to 2026, each downloadable as the Government Printer's PDF of the Legal Supplement; an alphabetical and chronological register of Acts and Ordinances from 1838 to 2026 with commencement dates; and lists of Acts by status, including unproclaimed Acts. This is where the Proclamation bringing parts of the 2022 CARICOM Act into force, the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Immigration Regulations amendments, the work permit exemption Orders and every Finance Act from 2017 to 2026 were read. Documents are reached by a numeric download identifier rather than by name.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its consolidated Acts are the same edition as the Law Revision Commission's, updated to 31 December 2016, and it labels its own post-2006 versions Unofficial Update; it must not be cited for the current text of any Act. Its Unproclaimed Acts page is captioned Acts not in operation as at December 2015 and must not be read as current. Its download addresses are opaque numeric identifiers with no relation to the Act or Notice number, so an instrument cannot be reached without going through a listing first, and the year filter on the legal notices page works only by HTTP POST - a year in the query string is silently ignored and the current year is served instead, which is how a reading can appear to cover 2023 and in fact cover 2026. Its full-text search returns results in a sidebar without the document, so an apparently empty result is not evidence of absence.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«(i) For variation of extensions of
Landing Certificate [beyond
ninety days from date of arrival]
… … … … … … 200.00
(ii) On application for the grant of
Work Permit … … … … … 1200.00
(iii) For the duration of Work Permit 900.00
per month
subject to a
minimum
of 2,700.00»About this source
The Government's legislative database at laws.gov.tt. It carries three things nothing else does: a chronological list of Legal Notices and Government Notices from 1838 to 2026, each downloadable as the Government Printer's PDF of the Legal Supplement; an alphabetical and chronological register of Acts and Ordinances from 1838 to 2026 with commencement dates; and lists of Acts by status, including unproclaimed Acts. This is where the Proclamation bringing parts of the 2022 CARICOM Act into force, the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Immigration Regulations amendments, the work permit exemption Orders and every Finance Act from 2017 to 2026 were read. Documents are reached by a numeric download identifier rather than by name.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its consolidated Acts are the same edition as the Law Revision Commission's, updated to 31 December 2016, and it labels its own post-2006 versions Unofficial Update; it must not be cited for the current text of any Act. Its Unproclaimed Acts page is captioned Acts not in operation as at December 2015 and must not be read as current. Its download addresses are opaque numeric identifiers with no relation to the Act or Notice number, so an instrument cannot be reached without going through a listing first, and the year filter on the legal notices page works only by HTTP POST - a year in the query string is silently ignored and the current year is served instead, which is how a reading can appear to cover 2023 and in fact cover 2026. Its full-text search returns results in a sidebar without the document, so an apparently empty result is not evidence of absence.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«B. Citizens of Caricom countries shall pay one-half the fees
stipulated at (i), (iv), (v), (vii) and (ix).”.»About this source
The Government's legislative database at laws.gov.tt. It carries three things nothing else does: a chronological list of Legal Notices and Government Notices from 1838 to 2026, each downloadable as the Government Printer's PDF of the Legal Supplement; an alphabetical and chronological register of Acts and Ordinances from 1838 to 2026 with commencement dates; and lists of Acts by status, including unproclaimed Acts. This is where the Proclamation bringing parts of the 2022 CARICOM Act into force, the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Immigration Regulations amendments, the work permit exemption Orders and every Finance Act from 2017 to 2026 were read. Documents are reached by a numeric download identifier rather than by name.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its consolidated Acts are the same edition as the Law Revision Commission's, updated to 31 December 2016, and it labels its own post-2006 versions Unofficial Update; it must not be cited for the current text of any Act. Its Unproclaimed Acts page is captioned Acts not in operation as at December 2015 and must not be read as current. Its download addresses are opaque numeric identifiers with no relation to the Act or Notice number, so an instrument cannot be reached without going through a listing first, and the year filter on the legal notices page works only by HTTP POST - a year in the query string is silently ignored and the current year is served instead, which is how a reading can appear to cover 2023 and in fact cover 2026. Its full-text search returns results in a sidebar without the document, so an apparently empty result is not evidence of absence.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«A. Fees in respect of the Issue of Miscellaneous Permits and Certificates— 9 of 1990
6 of 1993
(i) For variation or extensions of Landing Certificate [beyond 117/1994
ninety (90) days from date of arrival] … … $100.00 138/2007].
(ii) On application for the grant of Work Permit … … $600.00
(iii) For the duration of Work Permit … … … $450.00
per month subject to a
minimum of
$1,350.00
(iv) Certificate for Facilitation of Entry—
(a) for citizens or residents of Caribbean Free Trade
Association Territories and of Caribbean Common
Market Countries… … … … $100.00
(b) for persons who are not citizens or residents referred
to in (a) … … … … $500.00
(v) Certificate of Residence:
(a) in respect of persons from Caricom Countries $400.00
(b) in respect of persons fron non-Caricom Countries $1,000.00
(vi) Student’s Permit … … … … $200.00
(vii) Visa Waiver … … … … $400.00
(viii) Change of Status … … … … $100.00
(ix) Certificate of Residence under Amnesty Programme—
(a) Application fee (non-refundable) … … $200.00
(b) Certificate Fee … … … … $300.00
(x) Issue of letters confirming citizenship or residence … $200.00
B. Citizens of Caricom countries shall pay one-half the fees stipulated at items (i), (v), (vi),
(viii) and (x).»Quoted as printed: the publisher sets the regulation reference and the amendment history in the right-hand column, so the legal notice numbers appear inside the Schedule. This is the text the 2025 Regulations revoked.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Commission established by section 3 of the Law Revision Act, Chap. 3:03, whose statutory function under section 4 is to prepare, publish and maintain the revised edition of the written laws of Trinidad and Tobago. It serves the whole statute book as one PDF per Chapter from a flat path, each file carrying the Chapter number as its name, together with the subsidiary legislation made under that Act printed behind it and an index of it on the front. The Constitution is served separately. This is where every consolidated Chapter cited for this country comes from: the Immigration Act 18:01 with the Immigration Regulations, the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act 18:03, the Citizenship Act 1:50, the Income Tax Act 75:01, the Caribbean Community Act 81:11 with the whole Revised Treaty as its Schedule, the Customs Act 78:01, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act 48:50 with the 1986 driving exemption Notice, the Foreign Investment Act 70:07, the Exchange Control Act 79:50, the Proceeds of Crime Act 11:27 with the Financial Obligations Regulations, the Health Surcharge Act 75:05 and the Regional Health Authorities Act 29:05.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It says on every page that it is not the law. Each page carries the words UNOFFICIAL VERSION and UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016, and the Current Authorised Pages table on the front of each Chapter has a column headed Authorised by L.R.O. which is empty. Under sections 6 and 15 of the Law Revision Act only pages authorised by a Law Revision Order form part of the Laws and are the proper Statute Book, so these files are a copy and not the edition. It must therefore never be cited as the authentic text, and never for the law after 31 December 2016: the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act printed here is the pre-2022 text, in which sections 3 and 4 are the other way round from the sections now in force, and the Income Tax Act printed here states a personal allowance of seventy-two thousand dollars that has twice been raised since. It must also not be used for commencement after that date, because no instrument later than the cut-off appears in it at all. Its layout sets each section's marginal note inside the text column rather than in a margin, so a section number usually sits in the middle of a line and a sentence is interrupted by the note's words; quotations have to reproduce that, and our own check for sections an edition lists and does not print reports these Chapters as incomplete when they are not. Its server sends an incomplete TLS chain, so a plain client rejects it until the GeoTrust intermediate is supplied.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Regulations are made under section 44 of the Immigration Act and are subject to negative resolution of Parliament, so they took effect without a vote.
The same instrument substituted the Third, Fifth, Seventh and Eighth Schedules - ship clearance, travelling salesmen's licences, travel documents and overseas missionaries' permits - on the same doubling pattern.
This record rests on Legal Notice No. 493 of 2025 as gazetted and on the Fourth Schedule to the Immigration Regulations as published in the Revised Laws updated to 31 December 2016, which is the text it replaced.