A New Canadian bio-metric requirement is expected to impact Farm workers from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the rest of the Organization Of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
According to a release from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programme, has an added the requirement from the Government of Canada.
This primarily entails the taking of bio-metric data as part of the requirements for a Canadian visa.
In the new system, information is uploaded at the Labour Office in St. Vincent Grenadines for each farm worker. This is then sent to the Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago for processing.
The actual bio-metric process involves both finger printing and photographing for the Canadian Immigration system.
Farm Workers are now required to go either to Trinidad and Tobago or Barbados to provide their bio-metrics information after an appointment has been made by the Department of Labour on their behalf.
In order to make the process less expensive and tedious for Vincentian farm workers, personnel from the Canadian Government are expected to be in be St. Vincent and the Grenadines on March 25th, to gather bio-metric data from farm workers.
However, those who are scheduled to travel to Canada before March 8th, 2019, will have their information uploaded on the system at the Department of Labour and an appointment will be scheduled for a bio-metric interview in Trinidad and Tobago or Barbados.
The new bio-metric process applies to all OECS countries participating in the programme.
