Jamaican visa reqs for Cayman nationals reinstated

[Yvonne N.]

The CARICOM Special Visa, which was introduced during the World Cup Cricket (CWC) 2007 will no longer be in effect as of 16 May, 2007.

Cayman passport holders were exempted from the visa requirement during the period of 1 February through to 15 May; however visas will again be required for travel to Jamaica on or after 16 May.

“During the world cup cricket a special visa was put in place to facilitate easy and more secured travel during this period,” explained Elaine Harris, Honorary Vice Consul of the Jamaican Consulate Office.

“With this special visa certain countries were exempt and among those countries was the UK and its dependent territories, so that superseded whatever visa requirements were in place at that time.

“However now that the World Cup Cricket has ended the Caricom special visa actually ends on the 15 May and therefore on 16 May everything will be reinstated—so whatever visa implementations were in place prior to the World Cup Cricket will be back in place,” she said.

“So for all nationals traveling to Jamaica who require a visa this is just a reminder that the visa policy has been reinstated and the application will be done through our office.”

Other nationals traveling to Jamaica should be reminded that the visa requirements or exemptions that existed prior to the CWC will again be reinstated on 16 May.

Processing time for the Jamaican visa is 24 hours and the application forms should be submitted to the Jamaican Consulate office at the Dot Com Centre on Dorcy Drive in the Industrial Park.

Net News

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaican visa reqs for Cayman nationals reinstated


Nice way to cut aff yu noze fi spite yu face!

Remittance growth slows

Camilo Thame, Business Observer writer
Wednesday, May 23, 2007



Although remittance inflows grew 9.2 per cent last year, they actually continued a trend over the last five years where the rate of growth of inflows from residents and firms overseas have been slowing down.

In 2001, remittances grew by 19.1 per cent followed by 20.3 per cent in 2002. But although increasing yearly, the size of the growth has been declining in percentage terms and, since 2004, in dollar value as well.

By 2004, remittances, which stood at US$1.47 billion, were 15.4 per cent or US$195 million higher than the previous year. However, 2005 saw a US$156-million or 10.6 per cent increase and in 2006 the growth was even lower - US$149 million or 9.2 per cent.

Although the growth in remittances during the first two months of the year compared to the corresponding two months in the previous year historically tracks below the annual growth rate - around 1.5 percentage points since 2005 - the growth for January and February this year was only 4.8 per cent or US$13 million more than the US$266 million in remittances received during the corresponding two months in 2006.

A major factor in the slowing of growth is stricter immigration laws being implemented in countries where Jamaican nationals have settled.

<span style="color: #990000">"There has been a fall off in remittances coming out of Cayman," explained National Commercial Bank remittance manager of international business division, Darcy Parkins. "Primarily because of changes in immigration law, a lot of workers are coming home, from around the middle of last year to now."

The Cayman Islands implemented a law in 2004 which required work permit holders who have been on the island for seven years to take a two-year sabbatical before being able to return to the United Kingdom dependent legally.

Cayman is the third largest source of remittance for Jamaica, beating out Canada, but following the US and the UK.</span>

Another factor is the worldwide trend of tighter restrictions on financial transactions in light since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in the United States in 2001.

In the case of Jamaica, the remittance industry has been regulated for some time now by the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ), but according to Parkins, governance "started in earnest in 2004", with the first audit being done in 2005.

"Now, certain things are in place, such as, customers must be positively identified with photo identification," she added.
Previously, persons could collect amounts below US$300 by answering 'test questions'.

Changes in regulations from the point of origins can also affect inflows to Jamaica, according to JN Money Services general manager, Emile Spence, who pointed out that changes in regulations will make it more difficult to send money and those changes could impact undocumented persons.

For instance, remittances out of the UK have slightly declined due to what some believe was the effect of regulations there that required persons to present identification for amounts below £500, which previously did not require any documentation.

Illegal immigrants would then have difficulty in sending money to their home country.

Projections for 2007 place remittance growth at 10-11 per cent over last year, bringing total inflows close to US$2 billion.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines...ROWTH_SLOWS.asp