US Virgin Islands are a group of Caribbean islands that belongs to the United States territories. This group of islands consists of 3 main islands St Thomas, St John, and St Croix, and other 50 small islands.
The US Virgin Islands’ entry requirements are the same as the entry and visa requirements of the United States of America. But here is the good news. The US Virgin Islands are much closer to waiving the Caribbean, nonimmigrants nationals from the visa according to the US Virgin Islands visa waiver Act.
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US Virgin Islands Visa Waiver Act:
This act was presented to the US Congress House Judiciary Committee for the first time in September 2021 for amendment. It was presented by the native US Virgin Islands’ Congresswoman “Stacey E. Plaskett”.
The limited visa waiver act allows the neighboring Caribbean islands’ nationals to enter the US Virgin Islands for up to 45 days. But this Act amendment doesn’t allow the Caribbean nationals for entry to the other parts of the United States.
We should mention that the scope of the amendment will be limited to the Caribbean islands’ nationals and some countries permitted by the Department of Homeland Security.
The Impact of the USVI Visa Waiver Act:
According to CNW Network, Congresswoman Plaskett, who serves on the US Congress Ways and Means Committee, stated in a news release, “This legislation would extend this same program to the U.S. Virgin Islands. This limited visa waiver program would better enable the Virgin Islands to compete economically with other islands and nations in the Caribbean community.”
After the Covid 19 pandemic, the international economy generally was negatively affected. It is the same for the Caribbean economy which depends on tourism and the majority of the locals work in the tourism sector or any related sectors.
A lot of small businesses struggled during the pandemic and still suffer from these negative effects. This Visa Waiver Act gives the locals and tourism authorities in the US Virgin Islands a new hope for more opportunities and economic growth in the tourism sector.
Many expectations also see that can open the islands to more opportunities to host international events and attract more visitors, especially for Regattas and Yacht shows. These regattas for years were experiencing low participation and attendance compared with other yacht competitions and regattas that were held on other Caribbean Islands. This fewer participation and attendance was a direct result of the extensive visa requirements that are already in place.
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This good news is very promising to the US Virgin Islands’ citizens and for the economy. Hoping this USVI waiver act will achieve the desired impacts and expectations from all the locals, experts, and authorities.
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