Hi all advice required!

Im a 33 year old mother of one and would desperately like to leave the uk for Barbados. I believe the country is beautiful and want to visit for the first time this year. My parents are orginally from jamaica so use to the caribbean ways.

I need advice on where's safe to stay, renting for up to six months, and demand for jobs in social work????

Thanks Diane.

The first thing which has to be established is whether you will be permitted to live and work on the island. Do you hold Caricom citizenship and have a degree or suitable qualifications to entitle you to a skills certificate ? If so this may be a way as a Caricom citizen to live and work in Barbados legally.
Until you have established whether you will be permitted to reside in the island the rest of your questions are rather futile at this stage.

Thanks for your responce, both my parents are jamaican but i was born in the uk. Therefore im not sure that i meet the CARICOM status, i am qualified and have many years experience in social care feilds but im also not sure of the demand in the country for this profession????

I would say your first port of call would be to gain duel citizenship, that is on the jamaican side. You should be entightled to this through descent, your parents both being Jamaican. Your second port of call would be to get a Caricom skills certificate if you are elegible. This will allow you to live and work in the Caricom islands legally. It will not happen overnight, but hopefully this has opened up some more possibilities for you.

Diggyd, I am a qualified social worker of 14 years with a degree in social work, living in Barbados for the last 8 months. Like you I am from the UK, however, I have Barbadian citizenship. Although there is a need for more social workers the demand over here is low. since I have been here there has been 3 advertised vacancies for social workers. It is unlike the Uk where there is a great demand for social workers, even if you were to apply for a job in Barbados the process is rather long and you could be waiting 6 months or more for a reply which appears to be standard practice. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I hope you have another means of income.

Thank you so much for your comments.

well no the answer would most certainly definately be that i have no another mean's of income, i would hope to get a job doing something lol!!! anything for that matter.

I am also a qualified level two hairdresser, which would be another option. And i guess that is actually good news that there is not so much demand in the country for social workers. The countires affairs must be in a reasonable state of play.

as a non citizen and non caricom, you would be required to have a work permit, would would also mean having a job/employer to apply for that work permit. But the job that you do has to basically be something that no one else here can do.

The suggestion was that you try to sick Jamaican Citizenship which would make your entrance into Barbados easier as a Caricom Citizen, but there are still stipulations about work (as far as I know).

Yes i have looked into the jamaican citizenship, and found that i would require a skills certificate and a degree qualification to work in the country.

As i have not got the citizenship yet im still trying to get the documents together for that first. I was also advised that this may take up to a year, so guess im not desting for paradise just yet.

Many thanks for your responce.