The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has ex­tend­ed the work per­mits for those Venezue­lan na­tion­als who reg­is­tered in the 2019 ex­er­cise, for a fur­ther six months, un­til De­cem­ber 31, 2023.

The orig­i­nal mi­grant per­mits were on­ly sup­posed to be valid for one year and should have ex­pired in 2020. How­ev­er, giv­en the pan­dem­ic, there have been mul­ti­ple six-month ex­ten­sions since then.

The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty urged card­hold­ers to vis­it the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion En­force­ment Unit be­tween June 20 and Ju­ly 28, 2023, to ex­tend their per­mits and up­date their reg­is­tra­tion cards.

The fol­low­ing is a list of in­struc­tions from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty...

A list of Min­is­ter’s Per­mits num­bers will be post­ed to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty’s web­site (via link https://na­tion­alse­cu­ri­ty.gov.tt/ser­vices/workper­mit-ex­emp­tionex­ten­sion/). and so­cial me­dia pages, in­di­cat­ing the sched­uled dates when per­sons hold­ing those card num­bers must vis­it the rel­e­vant Im­mi­gra­tion of­fice.

Reg­is­trants are to present the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments:

●      Com­plet­ed Im­mi­gra­tion Form 17A (avail­able on Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty’s web­site (via https://na­tion­alse­cu­ri­ty.gov.tt/ser­vices/workper­mit-ex­emp­tionex­ten­sion/)

●      Cer­tifi­cate of Char­ac­ter (or re­ceipt, if CoC is not avail­able by the sched­uled ap­pli­ca­tion date)

●      Pre­vi­ous­ly is­sued Min­is­ter’s Per­mit

●      Pre­vi­ous­ly is­sued Reg­is­tra­tion Card

●      Pass­port- sized pho­to­graph (for self and mi­nors de­clared on ap­pli­ca­tion form)

Doc­u­ments are to be pack­aged, la­belled with reg­is­trants’ names and up­dat­ed con­tact in­for­ma­tion, and sub­mit­ted at the rel­e­vant Im­mi­gra­tion of­fice lo­ca­tions as fol­lows:

1.   Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion En­force­ment Unit, 135 Hen­ry Street, Port of Spain;

2.   Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion En­force­ment Unit, No. 2 Knox Street, San Fer­nan­do; and

3.   Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion En­force­ment Unit, Port Au­thor­i­ty, Scar­bor­ough, To­ba­go.

PLEASE NOTE that fail­ure to vis­it the rel­e­vant Im­mi­gra­tion of­fice by Ju­ly 28, 2023 will pre­vent fur­ther pro­cess­ing, and in­com­plete ap­pli­ca­tions will be con­sid­ered as with­drawn.

Reg­is­trants are urged to in­form the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion of any changes in their ad­dress and con­tact de­tails when they vis­it the rel­e­vant Im­mi­gra­tion of­fice.  With­out ac­cu­rate and up­dat­ed con­tact in­for­ma­tion, the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion will be un­able to ad­vise the reg­is­trant on the sta­tus of their ap­pli­ca­tion.

Ap­proved ap­pli­cants will be is­sued with new Min­is­ter’s Per­mits, which will be valid un­til De­cem­ber 31, 2023, and their ex­ist­ing reg­is­tra­tion cards will be up­dat­ed with a stick­er in­di­cat­ing the date of ex­piry at De­cem­ber 31, 2023.

In the in­stances where reg­is­tra­tion cards have been lost, stolen or mu­ti­lat­ed, new cards will on­ly be is­sued up­on com­ple­tion of the rel­e­vant statu­to­ry de­c­la­ra­tion and pay­ment of a re­place­ment fee of $500.

Reg­is­trants will be ad­vised on the Min­istry’s web­site when their Min­is­ter’s Per­mits are ready for col­lec­tion.