Friday, March 29, 2024

Visa waiver proposed for CARICOM citizens to enter US virgin islands

A new bill  H.R.407 has been introduced in the Congress to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to establish the Virgin Islands visa waiver program.

The new Act  is known as the Virgin Islands Visa Waiver Act of 2019 was introduced by Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett.

Under the proposed VWP rules,  citizens of members and associate members of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will be allowed to enter US Virgin island for a period not exceeding 30 days.

The bill must be passed in senate, then house and then has to be approved by President to become law.

CARICOM members
Status Name Join date Notes
Full member  Antigua and Barbuda 4 July 1974
 Bahamas 4 July 1983 Not part of customs union
 Barbados 1 August 1973 One of the four founding members
 Belize 1 May 1974
 Dominica 1 May 1974
 Grenada 1 May 1974
 Guyana 1 August 1973 One of the four founding members
 Haiti 2 July 2002 Provisional membership on 4 July 1998
 Jamaica 1 August 1973 One of the four founding members
 Montserrat 1 May 1974 British overseas territory
 Saint Kitts and Nevis 26 July 1974 Joined as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla
 Saint Lucia 1 May 1974
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1 May 1974
 Suriname 4 July 1995
 Trinidad and Tobago 1 August 1973 One of the four founding members
Associate  Anguilla July 1999 British overseas territory
 Bermuda 2 July 2003 British overseas territory
 British Virgin Islands July 1991 British overseas territory
 Cayman Islands 16 May 2002 British overseas territory
 Turks and Caicos Islands July 1991 British overseas territory

The United States Virgin Islands (USVI; also called the American Virgin Islands), officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, is a group of islands in the Caribbean and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States.  Approximately 2.5 million tourists per year visit, most arriving on cruise ships

US Virgin islands

The U.S. Virgin Islands are an organized, unincorporated United States territory. Although they are US citizens, US Virgin Islanders residing in the territory are ineligible to vote for the President of the United States. They are, however, eligible to vote if they become residents of mainland US states.

The US Democratic and Republican parties allow U.S. Virgin Islands citizens to vote in their presidential primary elections for delegates to the respective national conventions.  People born in the U.S. Virgin Islands derive their US citizenship from Congressional statute.

Read the bill here

Prabhu Balakrishnan
Prabhu Balakrishnan
Founder of Citizenship by Investment Journal. Chief Editor with over 15 years experience in PR and News publishing. He Loves writing about citizenship, residency and wealth migration. CIP Journal is a Leading publication founded in 2017 bringing latest news from CBI/RBI market.

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