zanne

The only person that can answer that question for you is the man/woman at the work permit desk here in BB. When I tried to do this last year I was told flat out no-- you can not have a pending citizenship application and work permit application at the same time.

lettiesmall1957

Hie Zanne,
Thank you very much for your quick reply.

lettiesmall1957

I find this forum more informative and very friendly, rather than going into the immigration office, sometimes I cant even understand what the front ladies will be saying to me,I have to ask them twice over, and obviously skeptical that I might offend them to keep on saying , 'pardon me'. I have a question , you see the things are not written down in black and white , what this means and so forth. As the marriage citizenship takes 3 years, some people have been lucky with theirs coming out before the three years is up, so if the citizenship comes out , what exactly is one issued with, eg, things like passport, id cards and etc.

zanne

Once your citizenship is approved, you get a letter telling you to pay the fee, you pay a fee then the immigration office prepares your certificate-- this can take awhile. Then there are two card that you get (1) the national ID which comes from the Electoral Board on Fairchild Street, across from the bus station, and (2) an NIS card from NIS on Collymore Rock.

Honestly I cannot see how they can deny the spouse of a citizen the ability to work if the national spouse wants to live in this country--I have no problem with the waiting period but in this day and age most families are 2 income just to get by. Waiting for this stuff and trying to "get by" and keep my family together is one of the most stressful things I have ever been through.

lettiesmall1957

Zanne,
Thank you, much appreciated. oh yes, I also am going thru a real nasty experience, in all my life I have always worked , coz one income is not enough especially wth today's expences, Its rather an uphill struggle, as you say, trying to keep up with all this. But anywhere, we will have to be patient .

zanne

Me too, I have worked since I was 12 or 13 in the summers, all through school, etc.

bimchick

Basically, you can't work whether you are married to a Bajan or not until you are a citizen. You may work once you have a workpermit, but the country doesn't care AT ALL if you're married in regards to working without a work permit. Being married to a Bajan does not speed up the work permit process nor does it negate the need for a work permit. Sorry.

TheBrasssics

Hi BimChick and others....

As new members to this forum, we read with interest the stories about Immigration's helpfulness. We are within 5 years of UK retirement and have purchased a house on the island - hoping to be able to retire in BGI.

It confuses Immigration that I will be on 60, since apparently one cannot retire until 65!! So I am, as yet, not even allowed to apply for residency it appears. Does anyone actually know the rules?

I read from BimChick's post in December that you may have a car for sale? WE are certainly in the market for one, although it would have to be Automatic - as it appears most Bajan cars are. Please advise...

bimchick

Hi,

I sold that car in December...sorry!