Positive Feedback from PICA’s Access Jamaica Initiative

The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) has received positive feedback from the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) Access Jamaica initiative in the United Kingdom (UK).

The initiative, which offered services provided locally to persons in the Jamaican diaspora, was carried out in Birmingham and London from October 3 to 8.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the RGD, Charlton McFarlane, told JIS News that “while we projected and did some estimations as to what the demand would be, what we saw manifested was greater than our projections”.

He pointed out that the RGD would have attended to more than 500 customers over the five days.

For this initiative, the RGD and PICA worked closely together as “there are a lot of persons in the UK who are interested in getting citizenship by descent” Mr. McFarlane said.

“You have persons who were born in the UK and have parents or grandparents who were born in Jamaica, and so these persons wanted a Jamaica passport,” he added.

Mr. McFarlane explained that in order to get that passport, they must show their Jamaican connection by presenting the birth certificate of their relative born in Jamaica.

This resulted in approximately two thirds of the total demand being for persons applying for the birth certificates of their relatives.

Mr. McFarlane shared that there was also a high demand for general birth certificates as there were several elderly persons who only had certificates of registry or a receipt of registration given at one’s birth.

“This is not a birth certificate. It is really a receipt that you use to say you have been registered at birth. There were persons who came up to us and told us that they wanted to renew their certificate, not knowing that it was just the receipt,” he said.

Mr. McFarlane told JIS News that the agency’s three-member team was efficient in assisting these persons with signing up for the actual certificate.

Upon completion of the birth registration process, the certificates will be sent to the RGD’s third-party courier, who will deliver the official documents at the address provided by each applicant.

Mr. McFarlane pointed out that there is a lot more demand for the RGD services in the UK.

He is, therefore, encouraging persons who were unable to take advantage of the initiative to utilise the agency’s online services by visiting its website at https://www.rgd.gov.jm/2.