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At a press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he is confident that the Visa Waiver agreement to grant Dominicans access to the United Kingdom (UK) will eventually be reinstated.<\/p>\n
In July 2023, the British Home Office stated that nationals from Dominica who intend to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) must now apply for a visa due to changes in that country\u2019s immigration regime. The revisions were a result of concerns over the island\u2019s (and another country, Vanuatu) Citizenship by Investment Program (CBI).<\/p>\n
\u201cCareful consideration of Dominica\u2019s and Vanuatu\u2019s operation of a citizenship by investment scheme has shown clear and evident abuse of the scheme, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the UK,\u201d Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said in a statement to the British parliament.<\/p>\n
The new\u00a0visa\u00a0regime took effect on July 19, 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn regards to the UK and the Visa issue, we continue to engage with the United Kingdom,\u201d Mr. Skerrit said. “We had meetings with them while in Grenada, the Permanent Secretary, Missi Henderson, and the head of the Unit \u00a0on a technical level.”<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cWe continue to engage them on a political level.”<\/p>\n
According to the Prime Minister the UK foreign secretary has reached out to him and this is a matter that has\u00a0been raised with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I believe that eventually, we are confident that the Visa waiver agreements that we had in the United Kingdom will be reinstated,\u201d Mr. Skerrit explained. \u201cWe are very confident in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his government has always maintained that the decision was a bit premature taking into consideration discussions his government was having with the UK at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then they took a decision they felt was in their interest to do and we don\u2019t chastise them for that, but we continue to discuss with them. We maintain excellent relations with the United Kingdom\u2026,\u201d Mr. Skerrit stated. \u201cWe have excellent relations with them, so we will continue to dialogue with them with a view to laying any concerns which they may have and to have the visas reinstated with the United Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furthermore, he noted that Dominica\u2019s visa-free access to countries continues to increase, but the UK Visa-free is important to Dominica, \u201cand we will continue to pursue it with great vigor and determination.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he is confident that the Visa Waiver agreement to grant Dominicans access to the United Kingdom (UK) will eventually be reinstated. In July 2023, the British Home Office stated…","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":329702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[235,76,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage-carousel","category-international-relations","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n