CARICOM skills certificate
One regime, and six different places to draw the line - which is the whole finding, because the line decides whether a person gets six months or an indefinite stay, and every account of CARICOM free movement treats the certificate as a single thing. Every account of CARICOM free movement treats the skills certificate as a single thing: qualify, get the certificate, move. The implementing statutes do not agree with each other about what the certificate is for, and the difference decides whether a person gets six months or an indefinite stay.
**Saint Lucia and Grenada split by which form.** Saint Lucia gives indefinite entry to the holder of a certificate issued in the form in its own Schedule 2, and six months to the holder of a certificate in another state's equivalent form. The issuer is the same in both limbs - the government of a qualifying state - and only the form differs. Saint Lucia then closes the loop in a way no other member does: any citizen of a qualifying Caribbean Community state may apply to **its** Minister for the better, Schedule 2 certificate. A Jamaican can hold the Saint Lucian form.
**Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Vincent split by who issued it.** A certificate issued by the state you are entering is indefinite; one issued at home buys six months while the receiving state upgrades it. This is the opposite question from Saint Lucia's and is easy to get backwards.
**Barbados splits by whether it has been verified.** Any member state's certificate gives six months, and - uniquely in this set - the right to work from day one rather than after a permit. The same certificate, verified by the Barbados Accreditation Council with the issuing authority, gives indefinite entry, stamped in the passport in those words.
The qualifying occupations diverge too, and the published consolidations hide it. Barbados adopted the full CARICOM list only in 2020, and its list includes security guards, which Belize's Act does not. Saint Lucia brought the full ten categories in by a single instrument of 2019, down to associate-degree holders and household helpers with a vocational qualification. Grenada did the same in 2015 - and its consolidated Chapter still prints the Order as amended to 2008, so the most useful widening of the regime is invisible in the text its own government publishes.
**Guyana splits by issuer and then adds a bridge.** Its own Minister's Schedule II certificate gives indefinite duration; another state's equivalent form gives six months, after which the holder applies to have it verified and then applies again, to the Chief Immigration Officer. Two applications where Barbados has one.
**Trinidad and Tobago splits by issuing office, and its verification does not promote you.** A certificate issued by its own Government gives indefinite entry; another member state's gives six months, and verification yields "a period to be determined by the Chief Immigration Officer" - a discretion with no stated criterion, where the regional handbook its own ministry publishes says indefinite stay shall be granted. Section 6 then opens its Minister's office to any qualifying state's national, so the split is by issuing office and the office is open to everyone. Its published Chapter is frozen before the 2022 Act that **swapped sections 3 and 4**, so a reader of the consolidation attaches the right rule to the wrong section.
**Suriname does not draw the line by period at all.** Its Act confers no entry right and no duration; it regulates recognition of status and access to the labour market, and that access runs **during the short stay, before recognition is decided**. Its occupation list has been frozen at eight heads since 2008, where Guyana, Saint Lucia and Barbados each widened theirs to the full CARICOM baseline.
**And one country's silence means something different from the rest.** Where a state has no implementing Act the right is usually unavailable - that is Saint Kitts. Suriname is monist: article 105 of its Constitution gives self-executing treaty provisions binding force on publication, and article 106 provides that domestic rules "vinden geen toepassing" where they are incompatible with them, whether made before or after. So it legislates machinery around a treaty rather than transposing it, and the absence of an Act is not the absence of a right.
Where it actually bites
Membership is one thing and what a destination does with it is another. These are the countries covered here that treat these nationalities differently, and on which question.
Guyana- Visiting as a tourist · CARICOM nationals: six months at the border, and you may arrive without a passport
Jamaica- Becoming a citizen · Registration rather than naturalisation for Commonwealth citizens
- Residency through work · Caribbean Community nationals and the work permit
- Visiting as a tourist · Arriving on a Caribbean Community skills certificate
Suriname- Visiting as a tourist · CARICOM nationals: no entry fee, no authorisation for short stay, and six months at the border that no instrument provides
Trinidad And Tobago- Residency through investment · CARICOM nationals are not foreign investors
- Residency through work · CARICOM nationals: no work permit with a skills certificate, and half the fees without one
- Visiting as a tourist · CARICOM nationals: no visa, and six months as a visitor
- consolidatesCaribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act, s. 4
Attorney General's Chambers, Saint Lucia · consolidated to 2023
About this source
The Revised Laws of Saint Lucia, published by the Legislative Drafting Department of the Attorney General's Chambers as a data bank reached by remote computer. It is not a convenience copy of the statute book: the Revised Edition of the Laws Act, Cap. 1.07 lets a revised edition exist in that form (s. 4(2)(e)), requires a Resolution of Parliament before the Attorney General may bring one into force (s. 10(4)), and provides that what results is, in all courts of justice and for all purposes whatsoever, the sole authentic edition of the laws (s. 10(5)). Knowingly altering it to deceive is an offence. Arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and printing on its face the in-force date of the principal Act and of every amending Act and Statutory Instrument - which neither the Grenadian nor the Vincentian portal does, and which is what makes a commencement question answerable here.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must never be cited for what the law is now. The current edition is the 2023 Supplement, in force 22 July 2025 by S.I. 112 of 2025, and the masthead says only 'Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2023)' - nothing on any page says anything is missing. The Citizenship of Saint Lucia Act printed there reaches a parent and not a grandparent, because Act 7 of 2024 is not in it. The Immigration Act printed there has no section 22A, because Act 10 of 2024 is not in it, so the two 2025 fee-waiver Orders rest on a power the edition does not show. The Citizenship by Investment Regulations printed there show a National Economic Fund minimum of US$100,000, amended to S.I. 162 of 2023 and no further; the figure in force since 1 July 2024 is US$240,000 and three later instruments are invisible. It must also not be relied on for reachability: on 5 October 2026 roughly a third of section addresses answered with the publisher's own 'The page can't be found' or a content-management login page while serving the real text to a plain request, including the Immigration Act interpretation and entry sections, every Schedule to the Immigration (Visa) Order, the whole Citizenship of Saint Lucia Act, the whole Labour Act, the Income Tax Act interpretation section, and every operative section of both customs Acts. A negative claim must never be made from a page that would not load. It is also not the publisher of record for anything gazetted after the revision: that is the National Printing Corporation.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesCaribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act, s. 5
Attorney General's Chambers, Saint Lucia · consolidated to 2023
About this source
The Revised Laws of Saint Lucia, published by the Legislative Drafting Department of the Attorney General's Chambers as a data bank reached by remote computer. It is not a convenience copy of the statute book: the Revised Edition of the Laws Act, Cap. 1.07 lets a revised edition exist in that form (s. 4(2)(e)), requires a Resolution of Parliament before the Attorney General may bring one into force (s. 10(4)), and provides that what results is, in all courts of justice and for all purposes whatsoever, the sole authentic edition of the laws (s. 10(5)). Knowingly altering it to deceive is an offence. Arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and printing on its face the in-force date of the principal Act and of every amending Act and Statutory Instrument - which neither the Grenadian nor the Vincentian portal does, and which is what makes a commencement question answerable here.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must never be cited for what the law is now. The current edition is the 2023 Supplement, in force 22 July 2025 by S.I. 112 of 2025, and the masthead says only 'Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2023)' - nothing on any page says anything is missing. The Citizenship of Saint Lucia Act printed there reaches a parent and not a grandparent, because Act 7 of 2024 is not in it. The Immigration Act printed there has no section 22A, because Act 10 of 2024 is not in it, so the two 2025 fee-waiver Orders rest on a power the edition does not show. The Citizenship by Investment Regulations printed there show a National Economic Fund minimum of US$100,000, amended to S.I. 162 of 2023 and no further; the figure in force since 1 July 2024 is US$240,000 and three later instruments are invisible. It must also not be relied on for reachability: on 5 October 2026 roughly a third of section addresses answered with the publisher's own 'The page can't be found' or a content-management login page while serving the real text to a plain request, including the Immigration Act interpretation and entry sections, every Schedule to the Immigration (Visa) Order, the whole Citizenship of Saint Lucia Act, the whole Labour Act, the Income Tax Act interpretation section, and every operative section of both customs Acts. A negative claim must never be made from a page that would not load. It is also not the publisher of record for anything gazetted after the revision: that is the National Printing Corporation.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesCaribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act, s. 6
Attorney General's Chambers, Saint Lucia · consolidated to 2023
About this source
The Revised Laws of Saint Lucia, published by the Legislative Drafting Department of the Attorney General's Chambers as a data bank reached by remote computer. It is not a convenience copy of the statute book: the Revised Edition of the Laws Act, Cap. 1.07 lets a revised edition exist in that form (s. 4(2)(e)), requires a Resolution of Parliament before the Attorney General may bring one into force (s. 10(4)), and provides that what results is, in all courts of justice and for all purposes whatsoever, the sole authentic edition of the laws (s. 10(5)). Knowingly altering it to deceive is an offence. Arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and printing on its face the in-force date of the principal Act and of every amending Act and Statutory Instrument - which neither the Grenadian nor the Vincentian portal does, and which is what makes a commencement question answerable here.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must never be cited for what the law is now. The current edition is the 2023 Supplement, in force 22 July 2025 by S.I. 112 of 2025, and the masthead says only 'Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2023)' - nothing on any page says anything is missing. The Citizenship of Saint Lucia Act printed there reaches a parent and not a grandparent, because Act 7 of 2024 is not in it. The Immigration Act printed there has no section 22A, because Act 10 of 2024 is not in it, so the two 2025 fee-waiver Orders rest on a power the edition does not show. The Citizenship by Investment Regulations printed there show a National Economic Fund minimum of US$100,000, amended to S.I. 162 of 2023 and no further; the figure in force since 1 July 2024 is US$240,000 and three later instruments are invisible. It must also not be relied on for reachability: on 5 October 2026 roughly a third of section addresses answered with the publisher's own 'The page can't be found' or a content-management login page while serving the real text to a plain request, including the Immigration Act interpretation and entry sections, every Schedule to the Immigration (Visa) Order, the whole Citizenship of Saint Lucia Act, the whole Labour Act, the Income Tax Act interpretation section, and every operative section of both customs Acts. A negative claim must never be made from a page that would not load. It is also not the publisher of record for anything gazetted after the revision: that is the National Printing Corporation.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesCaribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act, 2020-3
Office of the Attorney General of Barbados
About this source
The Government's law portal, with four sections: annual Acts, annual statutory instruments, consolidated statutes and subsidiary legislation, and indices. The annual series is where an Act is found as enacted, with its assent and commencement dates on its face - the Remote Employment Act 2020-23 and the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act 2020-3 both come from here. Files are served from a flat /attachments/ path.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The annual Acts and statutory instruments series stops at 2020. An Act of 2021 or later is not here at all, so the absence of an instrument on this site proves nothing about years after 2020 - for that, the Official Gazette is the publisher to use. Its consolidated statutes list is a partial mirror of the judiciary's and does not carry the Immigration Act or the Citizenship Act. It consolidates and does not issue, so a commencement date read here is the Act's own statement rather than a gazette record.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source