The backlog for residency and belonger status continues to be an issue in the Virgin Islands with the accumulated number in excess of 2200 as of June 1, 2023.
Governor His Excellency John Rankin provided the latest statistics during a press conference held last Friday to update residents on the Commission of Inquiry Quarterly Review.
Prior to the press conference, the governor made the COI Quarterly Review document public, which detailed the extent of the backlog.
According to the document, the governor received a report on May 24, 2023 from the Immigration Board which covered the period from January 1, 2023, to March 31, 2023.
During that period, he said the Immigration Board reported that it met twice and conducted three interview sessions. This resulted in the Board referring to Cabinet, 23 applications for belonger status by marriage, 80 applications for status by tenure, 74 applications for status due to the applicant being a great-grandchild of a belonger and 32 applications for residency.
The governor further disclosed that during the aforementioned period a total of 122 applications were approved for residency and belonger status.
This included Cabinet’s approval of 75 applications for residency status which were submitted between December 2021 to October 2022. As it pertains to belonger status, the governor said that 50 were considered by Cabinet which were submitted between December 2021 to March 2022 with only 3 from that sum failing the criteria to be approved.
During Friday’s press conference Governor Rankin revealed that the total backlog stood at 2,226 applications as of June 1, 2023.
To further address this long-standing issue, the governor revealed that Premier Dr. the Hon. Natalio Wheatley committed to an action plan that is aimed at clearing the backlog.
Governor Rankin also spoke on some of the recommendations that have been presented to assist with the backlog.