Few Venezue­lans turned up on Fri­day at the Car­o­line Build­ing, 36 Wil­son Road, Scar­bor­ough.

There were more se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel and work­ers than Venezue­lans were at the cen­tre.

One Venezue­lan, Jor­marys Al­fon­so spent more than six hours in­side the cen­tre un­der­go­ing the reg­is­tra­tion process.

Her hus­band, Vic­tor Al­fon­so, who al­ready had a work per­mit, stood anx­ious­ly out­side as he did not know what was hap­pen­ing be­cause cel­lu­lar phones were not al­lowed in­side the build­ing.

“She has all her doc­u­ments as we made sure of that,” Vic­tor, who has been in To­ba­go for past 24 months un­der a mu­sic ex­change pro­gramme, said in flu­ent Eng­lish with a thick Venezue­lan ac­cent.

He spoke with Venezue­lans as they ar­rived and left the cen­tre. Many en­tered and left with­out com­plet­ing the reg­is­tra­tion process as they had not down­loaded and print­ed the re­quired reg­is­tra­tion form, he told Guardian Me­dia.

He di­rect­ed them to copy cen­tres in Scar­bor­ough.

An­oth­er Venezue­lan, Aubrey Hen­der­son left the cen­tre smil­ing. He has been in To­ba­go for the past 18 months.

“I was suc­cess­ful in reg­is­ter­ing and they gave me a re­ceipt and told me they would call me in two weeks. The process was fast,” Hen­der­son said in Eng­lish.

He is hop­ing the reg­is­tra­tion process will al­low him to get a food badge, to legal­ly ply his trade as a sno-cone ven­dor.

Hen­der­son lives with his moth­er and fa­ther and hopes he can save enough funds to pay for the Venezue­lan pass­ports for his wife and chil­dren so that they can join him in To­ba­go.

Mean­while, Edi­son Bish­op left the cen­tre vis­i­bly up­set. Bish­op said he was born in Venezuela to a Trinida­di­an moth­er and Venezue­lan fa­ther.

He said he re­turned to Trinidad over 13 years ago and has been go­ing to the im­mi­gra­tion de­part­ment sev­er­al times seek­ing to reg­u­larise his cit­i­zen­ship.

“One man in the cen­tre just told me I am a nat­u­ralised cit­i­zen and should go to the im­mi­gra­tion de­part­ment. The same im­mi­gra­tion de­part­ment that has re­fused me my birthright for 13 years,” he said.

He plans to pur­sue the mat­ter fur­ther and is seek­ing his moth­er’s death cer­tifi­cate in Eng­land.

He in­tends to pur­sue the mat­ter un­til he be­comes a cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go, he said.