There is much confusion as to who sits on the Immigration Board.
This is a Board that has many faces and it depends on what application is being considered as to who sits in judgment on a person’s or a company’s future.
For example, the permanent residence permit for American Anna Nicole Smith would have been decided by the Cabinet, although it is claimed that her permit got extra special treatment by being personally delivered to her by the Minister of Housing and Immigration.
All matters of permanent residence and citizenship are Cabinet decisions. Immigration Minister Shane Gibson heads the board made up of the Director of Labour, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, Director of Immigration, and support staff from Immigration – usually another deputy and senior immigration officer. They deal with applications for work permits and their renewals, spousal permits, and annual residency permits for second home owners.
Despite Minister Gibson’s assurance that he has injected efficiency into his department, it still seems that there is no consistency in decisions or how quickly they are dealt with. For example, spousal permits, initiated by the FNM, have been made a nonsense in the hands of the Christie government.
Whoever heard of a foreign spouse being free for the first five years of the marriage to work wherever he or she pleases without a work permit, but at the completion of five years needs a work permit to be employed.
From time to time there have been many marriages of convenience in the Bahamas. However, there were far more genuine marriages that were put under a great deal of strain – some of them resulting in divorce – by the Bahamianisation policy wickedly administered by the Pindling administration. The main sufferers were Bahamian women married to foreign men. Their husbands were not allowed to work in the Bahamas to support the family. These women were forced to leave the land of their birth; their children were not accepted as Bahamians, but the illegitimate children of Bahamian women – inheriting their citizenship through their mothers – had the full right of citizenship.
The Ingraham government, determined to right these wrongs, and reverse these unfair anomalies introduced the Spousal Permit.
In doing this the FNM government had to come up with a scheme that would, as far as possible, eliminate marriages of convenience. It was decided that if a couple could stand the strains of the marriage bond for five years then the marriage could be considered stable.
And so it was decided that the Ministry would interview the couple, and a spousal permit at the time of the marriage, applied for by the Bahamian partner, would be issued. For five years the non-Bahamian partner was free to work wherever he or she could find employment. At the end of the five year period, there was another Ministry interview. The couple would then decide whether they would apply for permanent residence or citizenship for the non-Bahamian partner. Once government was satisfied that the marriage was genuine, whichever permit the couple chose was automatically granted. But today, under the PLP, the rules have been changed.
We know a young couple who is being unfairly treated by this government.
This particular couple has been married for eight years. There are three Bahamian children of the marriage, which took place in May, 1998. At the time of their marriage they received a spousal permit and the Bahamian husband was told that at the end of five years, after an interview, they could choose whether his wife wanted permanent residence or citizenship.
Unfortunately for them, their five years was up under the Christie government. In April, 2003 the Bahamian husband applied for permanent residence for his wife.
When nothing had come through by the time she decided to visit her family in the summer, she was given a letter by her lawyer stating that she had applied to Immigration and was just awaiting a reply for status. She travelled with this letter. But still there was no reply to her husband’s application.
She continued to travel, but every time she had difficulty returning to the Bahamas. Eventually her spousal permit was taken from her at the airport, and her lawyer’s letter was ignored. She was bluntly told that she had no status until she applied for a work permit.
She then wrote to Immigration asking for a travel document. The replv Was that she could not get a travel document, becasue a work permit was waiting to be picked up and paid for at Immigration for her to be the employee of her husband. She was uncertain of the fee being charged, but knew it was the rate for a housekeeper. Government had now turned her into her husband’s chattel.
As the couple bad not requested a work permit, they refused to collect the one waiting at immigration. When she was granted a spousal permit, she was distinctly told she would be given whatever status she wanted at the end of five years. No work permit would be required. The couple is holding government to that commitment.
Her husband has phoned Immigration, but no one answers the phone. His wife now travels in and out of the Bahamas as a tourist.
We have told her about lmmigration Minister Gibson’s fast-track scheme and suggested that her husband contact Immigration again. Maybe when Mr Gibson learns that this couple will make a more substantial contribution to this country than Anna Nicole Smith, the Minister will also personally deliver a permanent residence permit to this Bahamian man’s wife.
Editorial from The Tribune
