How does the CARICOM skills certificate work in Trinidad and Tobago?

Who qualifies

The scheme is in the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act (Chapter 18:03), as amended by Act 9 of 2022, which came into force, except for some provisions, on 28 February 2023. It applies to a “national” of a qualifying Caribbean Community state listed in Schedule I to the Act (s 2).

A certificate is applied for to the Minister (s 6), who must grant it to an applicant who meets the qualification requirements, but may refuse a person convicted of making false statements to obtain one (s 7). For categories other than university graduate, the applicant must first register with, and be certified by, a body approved by the Minister (s 8(2)(a)).

The Act recognises certain certified qualifications (s 8), and treats an applicant as qualified if the Minister is satisfied that they have a skill listed in Schedule III (s 9A). The Schedule III categories are:

• artiste;
• musician;
• sports person;
• media worker;
• professional nurse;
• teacher;
• artisan with a Caribbean Vocational Qualification or equivalent;
• university graduate;
• holder of an associate degree or equivalent;
• domestic worker with Caribbean Vocational Qualifications;
• agricultural worker; and
• security guard.

What the certificate allows

Certificate issued by Trinidad and Tobago. An immigration officer must allow the holder to enter for an indefinite period (s 4(1)). The holder is free of any restriction, that would not apply to a citizen, on movement (including leaving and re-entering), on acquiring property for a home or business, or on working “in accordance with the certificate” (s 4(3)).

Certificate issued by another CARICOM state. The holder must be allowed to enter for 6 months (s 3(1)) and must apply to the Minister within 6 months of arrival to have the certificate verified (s 3(4)). The Minister is to inform the applicant of the outcome within 14 days (s 3(5)). If the certificate is verified as valid, the holder must, within 14 days of being notified, come before the Chief Immigration Officer to be granted permission to remain for a period the Chief Immigration Officer decides (s 3(6)).

A national exercising rights under the Act is exempt from the work permit requirement (Immigration Regulations, reg 10(15)). Before changing to a job in another approved category, the holder must apply for a replacement certificate; before changing to a job outside the approved categories, the holder must apply for a work permit (s 4C).

Spouses and dependants

Subject to the same exceptions for deportation orders, infectious disease and national security, the spouse and dependants of a skilled national must be allowed to enter: for 6 months if the skilled national entered on a foreign certificate, and for an indefinite period if on a Trinidad and Tobago certificate (s 10A). Dependants include unmarried children under 18, or under 25 in full-time education, and wholly dependent parents (s 2). Subject to the Minister’s power of revocation, a spouse who has lived with the skilled national in Trinidad and Tobago for a continuous period of 5 years or more, and the spouse’s dependants at the time of the divorce, keep the rights after a divorce (s 17).

Can the spouse work?

Act 9 of 2022 would give the spouse of a skilled national admitted on a certificate issued by another CARICOM state “the right to work in Trinidad and Tobago without the need to obtain a work permit” (new s 10(2A)), but that provision was not brought into force by the 2023 proclamation and is not in force as at 19 October 2026. Nothing else in the Act gives a spouse a right to work. A spouse who is not a national of a CARICOM member state needs a work permit unless another exemption applies (Immigration Regulations, reg 10(1)). Whether a spouse who is a CARICOM national is exempt under regulation 10(15), as a national exercising rights under the Act, is not settled: no court decision on it has been found.

Refusal, invalidity and revocation

Entry may be refused to a person who is the subject of a deportation order or has an infectious or dangerous infectious disease (ss 3(1), 4(1)), or whose presence the Minister considers prejudicial to national security (s 4A). A certificate is treated as invalid if it was obtained by gross or wilful misrepresentation or falsified documents, if the holder had a conviction in the issuing state or is later convicted of a criminal offence, or if the issuing authority cancelled or suspended it (s 4B(1)).

Permission is irrevocable except as the Act allows (s 5(1)). The Minister may revoke it for an extradition or deportation order, a threat to national security, a serious public health threat or an invalid certificate (s 5(2)). It may also be revoked, and a deportation order made, if the holder commits an offence which, if committed in Trinidad and Tobago, would be punishable with imprisonment for 1 year or more (s 5(3)). Before revoking on that ground, the Minister must give written notice allowing at least 14 days to show cause (s 5(4)–(6)). When permission is revoked, any certificate is treated as cancelled, and the Minister may declare that the person has ceased to be a permitted entrant (s 5(7)). The Act gives no appeal against revocation. The protection it gives is the show-cause notice. It does not say under which provision of the Immigration Act a deportation order following revocation is made, or whether that order can be appealed. Knowingly or recklessly making a materially false statement to obtain a certificate or permission is an offence (s 15(1)), and a person convicted of it must not be allowed to enter or remain (s 15(5)).