Guyanese passports, citizenship suddenly in high demand

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“We have to be careful,” Guyana Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo cautioned during a recent press conference as he related how the Immigration Department and the government by extension were now dealing with a bombardment of requests for Guyanese passports and citizenship.

“Suddenly people coming in for passports,” he said.

“Getting Guyanese citizenship is now suddenly enormously valuable for many people.

“Some people who would never look back to Guyana in all these years are now looking to find a great grandparent who had Guyanese blood to get a Guyanese passport because there is value in it,” the Vice President related.

But the value Jagdeo speaks of has little to do with how the Guyanese passport is ranked internationally. It deals directly with how the benefits from the burgeoning oil and gas sector can be accessed by locals now that the government has enacted local content laws.

“The people of this country must benefit from the industry,” Jagdeo assured noting that the government will do what needs to be done to protect Guyanese individuals and businesses.

“We want to keep it like that and grow it in a way… not to be exclusionary but our people have to benefit and we will do whatever it takes,” he said.

The local content law specifies clearly who a Guyanese is in order to benefit from the oil and gas proceeds. The law also spells out what a Guyanese company is and mandates the percentage of Guyanese that must serve in management and the wider organisational staffing.

That law was passed in December and came into force immediately, it is against this backdrop that Jagdeo spoke about the sudden rush for Guyanese citizenship and associate travel documents. — News Room Guyana

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10 COMMENTS

    • I hope all Antiguans see how other countries treat foreigners. Antigua is the most welcoming country in the WI, but Antiguans do not enjoy the same hospitality in other countries. PPP don’t want all dem picky head smaddy in Guyana to thief de oil money. I hope all de Guyanese and dem go home before de oil money done.

      • Thief what oil money? They don’t want all them picky head people so they will become the majority and vote the PPP out of power. A lot of the Indians in Guyana are very racist, even some in government.

  1. It is for this reason why Antiguans who reside in Antigua should not be treated as second class citizens in their very own homeland. Antigua, is only used as a stepping stone for many of these non nationals.

  2. Come to Antigua if you can’t get the Guyanese passport. Between the PM, cop and businessman, you’ll have no problem getting one or two Antigua passports

  3. Come to Antigua if you can’t get the Guyanese passport. Between the PM, cop and businessman, you’ll have no problem getting one or two Antigua passports.

  4. Are these Guyanese going to be ungrateful and now see their safe haven, Antigua and the other OECS islands as a “small dot ” on the map as they did years gone by?

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