The Jamaican Consulate General in Miami continues its efforts to provide timely and accurate information to its nationals following on questions arising from the implementation of the CARICOM passport regime by the Government of Jamaica.
During a recent radio interview on South Florida radio station WEXY 1620-AM, Vice Consul with responsibility for Immigration services, Mrs. Stacy Johnson at the Miami location, responded to general questions regarding the issuance of the CARICOM passports introduced early last month.
This is the first in a series of monthly radio interviews produced by broadcast journalist, Roy Miller in collaboration with the Consulate to address concerns of Jamaican nationals in the Broward and Palm Beach.
She explained that all new passports bear the logo of CARICOM and the words “Caribbean Community” on the cover.
In the case of the individual member nation, for example, Jamaica, the respective Coat of Arms and the country’s name as the issuing State is written at the bottom of the cover.
The logo is also imprinted on the inside pages of the document with perforations across the top of the page.
The passports are presented in three colours – dark blue for all nationals, green for officials on government business and burgundy red for diplomatic officials.
More importantly, Mrs. Johnson emphasized that passports are valid for ten years and will be replaced as they expire.
The new CARICOM passports are intended to strengthen the unifying commitment, and has been adopted as one of the measures to facilitate smoother processing of CARICOM nationals across the region.
CARICOM Heads of government took the decision that all member states should issue these passports in keeping with the principles of the realization of the CARICOM Single market, and the facilitation of freedom of movement across regional borders.
Mrs. Johnson also reminded nationals that Jamaica’s overseas Missions, including the Jamaican Consulate General in Miami, remain the only official channel for passport applications submitted for processing.
Consequently, there are no agents authorized to work on behalf of the overseas Missions, and submissions through third parties are considered contrary to accepted practices. She reiterated that the applications are the sole responsibility of the applicants.
Mrs. Johnson also stressed that it is illegal to transmit passports across international borders by third parties, indicating that documents for processing must be submitted to overseas Missions with responsibility for the jurisdiction in which the respective applicant resides.
Regarding Community Outreach Day, Mrs. Johnson said that the Consulate will host another such exercise to be staged early next month at which it is projected that several Jamaican agencies will offer a range of direct client services.
The event will target Jamaican nationals in Palm Beach and Broward counties and surrounding communities. Services will cover the processing of Jamaican passport and citizenship applications and consular services.
Other matters will include processing of vital records by the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) such as applications for birth, death and marriage certificates, and genealogical services, as well as services by the National Land Agency (NLA).
Consul General Sandra Grant-Griffiths has initiated a series of outreach activities, the first of which was held last October, in Lauderdale Lakes, Fort Lauderdale. These are at aimed at providing Jamaican nationals with pertinent and personal information, and making the overseas Missions more “user friendly” as its services are taken on the road.
Nearly 200 Jamaican national attended the October event, which the Consul General described as a success. Mrs. Grant-Griffiths explained that persons were receptive to the range of well-needed services brought into their neighborhoods and is encouraging nationals to continue to fully take advantage of the events scheduled in their locations.
