The days of persons returning to the Barbados Immigration Department (BID) to collect documents has come to an end.
Persons may now opt to have their documents delivered directly to them wherever they are, during working hours.
This follows the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the BID and the Barbados Postal Service at the Immigration Department’s Princess Alice Highway headquarters.
Chief Immigration Officer, Margaret Inniss, explained that the service was an expansion of that currently being offered for passports, and would include the collection of documents for citizenship, work permits, immigrant status, permanent residence, special entry permit, and the endorsement of passports.
However, Ms. Inniss explained that in cases where specific documents for citizenship required the applicant to take an oath, they would not be delivered as the oath had to be done in the presence of an Immigration Officer.
“Every service where you have to come back and collect a document, we are now in partnership with the Barbados Postal Service, so that they can be delivered to you, at the beach [or] at work,” she said.
Ms. Inniss stated that an 85 per cent reduction in persons returning to the Immigration Department to collect documents was expected as a result of the new service. She added that the other 15 per cent would be those who needed to return to take the oath.
The Chief Immigration Officer also noted that the security of the system was proven after several tests, and zero complaints recorded. As a result, she said the Immigration Department was confident in releasing additional services for delivery.
Acting Postmaster General, Joann Busby, further confirmed that all documents delivered on behalf of the Immigration Department and the Barbados Licensing Authority were in secure packages with a secure seal.
“The only way to open them is to cut them. Once they are placed in that packaging…, they cannot be tampered with. We also have labels in three parts. There is a section for the recipient to sign, [and] that information goes back to Immigration…,” she said, noting that recipients must present a form of identification before receiving their package.
Ms. Busby added that the new service was an expansion of the postal service’s door-to-door delivery service by post express couriers. She explained that since the postal service started delivering passports in 2020, there were steady increases.
“Over the calendar year January to December 2022, the delivery of passports on behalf of the Immigration Department accounted for 60 per cent of post express courier deliveries. If we compared the first quarter for 2022 and 2023, that is January to March, respectively, it shows a 400 per cent increase in deliveries to customers this year,” she said.
Minister of Home Affairs and Information, Wilfred Abrahams, pointed out that while the service was not mandatory, it was convenient, and urged residents to use the service.
Mr. Abrahams said the “bulk of persons” applying for Barbados passports now opted to use the service. He noted that it was anticipated that there would be a similar response for the other documents.