Current hysteria about immigration in Barbados,
 

Dear fellow ex-pat residents in Bim,

I have a problem that isn’t mine but I’m going to make it mine. I don’t know where to start so I thought I’d start with you. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

I’m an ex-pat here with my husband on a diplomatic visa for the next few years. We have no investment in the island (apart from loving it) and soon we’ll be gone. We have a Guyanese cleaner who comes to our house two mornings a week. The Guyanese lady is entirely legal and documented in Barbados.

She married a Bajan guy about ten years ago, in Barbados. A couple of years into the marriage, he left her and moved to Canada. They have never divorced. She works six days a week and she uses some of her earnings to pay a lawyer to determine if she can get residency or citizenship.

She has been paying the lawyer for six years. She is a very up-beat person. Yesterday, she came to our house and made every effort not to cry because she had been denied citizenship.

There are many things that I don’t know. I don’t have the slightest clue about Bajan immigration regulations.

The basic question: does a non-Bajan Caricom national married to a Bajan get any automatic residency rights in Barbados?

It would be so easy for an unscrupulous person to manipulate this lady. She has no idea. Perhaps her lawyer is excellent. Perhaps her lawyer is an idiot who has been taking money from her for six years and then gives her the bad news.

I want to be very cautious about inserting myself into this lady’s life, but at the same time I want to challenge anybody who has taken advantage of her. I would be more than willing to pay a couple of hundred dollars to a different lawyer to get some basic questions answered on her behalf.

Before I do that, can any of you, any non-Bajan Caricom spouse of a Bajan, tell me what rights are accorded to the legal spouses of Bajans in Barbados?

Thanks a million,
Julia.

Re: Current hysteria about immigration in Barbados,
 

These two things appear to conflict...if she is legal, as in a permanent resident, why bother with the citizenship angle...

Re: Current hysteria about immigration in Barbados,
 

b/c of the current situation one does have to ask probing questions, sorry...

* How can you be sure she is 100% legit?

* Is it possible that Immigration challenged the legality of the marriages her husband left so many yrs ago and her appeal for citizenship is based on a marriage that for all intents and purposes no longer exists?

* You say she is documented, but does not have residency? So what does she have?

I'd say it makes sense to meet with her and the lawyer to figure out what has been going on and what options she has. But, with the current climate, it may be difficult to make any case in her favour, sorry to say. The marriage and how it turned out might lend to some suspicion that it was done for papers alone.

Re: Current hysteria about immigration in Barbados,
 

Julia big up for daring to care - so refreshing

Karib spice has an excellent suggestion hows bout offerign to speak to her laywers to get the real run down before going any further - even if its just to make her understand why the decision has been made against her