Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has announced that the Guyana Government will soon be rolling out an initiative to issue residency cards to non-Guyanese who are living and working in Guyana.

At a Freedom House press conference, Mr. Jagdeo told reporters that the new residency card will not only target Venezuelans, but Chinese, Indians, Africans and other foreign nationals in Guyana.

He said the move is to address safety concerns that have been raised about the number of foreigners here and concerns that many of them are undocumented and unaccounted.

“This would allow us to track presence and also to know how many people who are in our country who are non- Guyanese, we would be able to monitor their presence here.  Now there are lots of Venezuelans who are of Guyanese heritage and who according to our constitution are Guyanese and they can have an ID card, or a passport immediately” Mr. Jagdeo stated.

The Vice President said the Government is currently engaging companies from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Germany to facilitate the manufacture and roll out of the cards.

Additionally, he said the companies are also being engaged to develop a highly secured National ID Card that will be issued to every Guyanese. That ID Card, he said, will be used to pass through local ports of entry, as well as for official government and private sector business.

“But every foreigner or everyone else who is non-Guyanese will have to have a residency card with the same security features and they biometerrics too. If you don’t have that and you are living in our country, you will jave a hard time opening a bank account, in fact, there will be a prohibition for opening a bank account without that card. Our employers here would have to ensure that people have that card,” Mr. Jagdeo said.

The Vice President is hoping that the initiative will come on stream within a year, noting the high number of persons who continue to come to Guyana to seek employment. 

He is confident that the new ID card and the Residency Cards for non-Guyanese will give the Government a greater tool to manage the presence and movement of foreigners in a clear way.

He explained that the Government is mindful of threats not only from Venezuelan nationals, but from every person present in the country.

The Vice President said persons who do not sign up for the Residency Card will not be able to conduct business here and will face legal consequences if they remain in the country without the card.

Related posts:

Non resident Guyanese will be eligible for $100,000 cash grant; Registration must take place in Guyana -says VP Jagdeo Government’s interventions to ease rise in cost-of-living should be appreciated -says VP Jagdeo Legislation being developed for additional national ID Card to be introduced -VP Jagdeo Government has no control over rising prices; -VP Jagdeo warns of more cost-of-living woes