RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Plans to be­gin mi­grant reg­is­tra­tion at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um have re­port­ed­ly been post­poned, adding to un­cer­tain­ty among mi­grants seek­ing to reg­u­larise their sta­tus un­der the Gov­ern­ment’s ex­pand­ed reg­is­tra­tion frame­work.

Co­or­di­na­tor of the La Ro­maine Mi­grant Sup­port Group, Ang­ie Ram­nar­ine, told Guardian Me­dia she re­ceived a mes­sage ad­vis­ing that the reg­is­tra­tion ex­er­cise has been de­layed. She said the mes­sage stat­ed that reg­is­tra­tion has been post­poned to a date to be de­ter­mined and that fur­ther in­for­ma­tion would be pro­vid­ed when avail­able.

A se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer al­so told Guardian Me­dia there was no of­fi­cial con­fir­ma­tion that reg­is­tra­tion would pro­ceed as pre­vi­ous­ly an­nounced from Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 19 to Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 6, be­tween 4 pm and 8 pm. A no­tice from the Sports Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go in­di­cat­ed that changes were be­ing made to sta­di­um perime­ter ac­cess hours, but did not con­firm whether reg­is­tra­tion would pro­ceed.

At Ram­nar­ine’s San Fer­nan­do home yes­ter­day, five mi­grants from Venezuela and Cu­ba sought in­for­ma­tion on the process, say­ing they were un­sure how to pro­ceed amid the lack of of­fi­cial guid­ance. Ram­nar­ine again called on Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der and Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs Sean Sobers to clar­i­fy when reg­is­tra­tion will be­gin and what doc­u­ments mi­grants are re­quired to present.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Min­is­ter Sobers, Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for com­ment, but there were no re­spons­es.

The reg­is­tra­tion ex­er­cise is linked to Le­gal No­tice No 470, the Im­mi­gra­tion (Ex­emp­tion from Work Per­mit) (Im­mi­grants) Or­der, 2025, which out­lines how un­doc­u­ment­ed im­mi­grants can live and work legal­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go for a lim­it­ed pe­ri­od.

Un­der the or­der, an un­doc­u­ment­ed im­mi­grant who suc­cess­ful­ly reg­is­ters and is is­sued a per­mit un­der Sec­tion 10 of the Im­mi­gra­tion Act is ex­empt from the re­quire­ment to ob­tain a work per­mit. This al­lows reg­is­tered mi­grants to work legal­ly for any em­ploy­er in Trinidad and To­ba­go with­out a sep­a­rate work per­mit dur­ing the pe­ri­od the or­der is in ef­fect.

Once ap­proved, mi­grants are to be is­sued a reg­is­trant card by the min­is­ter. The card must in­clude the mi­grant’s name, date of birth, pho­to­graph and the ex­pi­ra­tion date of the per­mit. The reg­is­trant card serves as of­fi­cial proof of le­gal sta­tus and must be pre­sent­ed when re­quest­ed by em­ploy­ers or au­thor­i­ties.

If a reg­is­trant card is lost, stolen or dam­aged, the hold­er may ap­ply for a re­place­ment up­on pay­ment of a $500 fee and sub­mis­sion of a signed de­c­la­ra­tion out­lin­ing the cir­cum­stances of the loss.

The ex­emp­tion un­der Le­gal No­tice No 470 takes ef­fect from Jan­u­ary 1, 2026, to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2026. Reg­is­tered un­doc­u­ment­ed im­mi­grants are au­tho­rised to live and work legal­ly in T&T dur­ing that pe­ri­od.

The frame­work al­so in­cludes pro­vi­sions for chil­dren through com­ple­men­tary reg­u­la­tions un­der Le­gal No­tice No 469.

Chil­dren of im­mi­grants who re­ceive per­mits un­der Sec­tion 10 of the Im­mi­gra­tion Act are recog­nised un­der the amend­ed Im­mi­gra­tion Reg­u­la­tions, with their im­mi­gra­tion sta­tus tied to that of their par­ents.

To qual­i­fy, an in­di­vid­ual must be an un­doc­u­ment­ed im­mi­grant cur­rent­ly re­sid­ing in the coun­try, com­plete the reg­is­tra­tion process, and be is­sued a per­mit un­der Sec­tion 10 of the Im­mi­gra­tion Act. This in­cludes mi­grants who en­tered legal­ly and over­stayed, as well as those who en­tered with­out a valid im­mi­gra­tion clear­ance.

Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials have stat­ed that mi­grants in­volved in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty or con­sid­ered a threat to pub­lic safe­ty will not qual­i­fy for reg­is­tra­tion. Mi­grants must al­so com­ply with all reg­is­tra­tion re­quire­ments set by the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, in­clud­ing pro­vid­ing per­son­al in­for­ma­tion, pho­tographs and sup­port­ing doc­u­ments.