A little local difficulty

17th February

They came in force to take Andy away and I was blissfully unaware. I was on the bus to St Johns with our UK visitors Susie and Lee when I got a text from him, “Miss Murfield, Miss Tomas and Officer Angel are taking me to labour office in town. It appears someone doesn’t like me. Does not look good. Only text me.”

Andy has been calling the labour office every week since we arrived in November - each time told his new work permit was on its way. We have discussed this state of affairs with many ex-pats and all here have periods once a year when they are waiting for work permit renewal. These are people with businesses, people who have lived here for years with no other place to go. They continue to work as they feel protected by the renewal application. Andy also felt protected by the application process and had not made any effort to hide he wanted to work. However after 3 months of waiting our tourist visas were about to expire and we were bracing ourselves for the renewal process.

We arrived at the bustling and confusing bus station, positioned between the meat, fish and vegetable markets - no titivation for the tourists in this part of town - and I abandoned a bemused Susie and Lee to the arms of a noisy bustling crowd to return home on the next bus. Andy needed passports still at home and me back in St John’s to attend the labour office.

Two hours and two bus journeys later Andy was white faced, contrite. Officer Angel explained the situation. My husband had contravened his visa by touting for work and his work visa had now been turned down. Someone had alerted them. Therefore my husband had to leave the country and would not be able to return for 6 months. He apologised and suggested that a work permit would be granted for next season but they “had to act on their intelligence.” After photocopying Andys passport and scribbling our cell phone numbers and my name on the copy he let us go, requesting Andy return the next morning with confirmation of a flight out. When he did, they were surprised to see his flight was to St Maarten and not the UK.

I still had to get my visa extension, I intended to stay on. All I could think of was the pending visit by my parents to celebrate my mothers 80th birthday. There was already a queue at the immigration office at 7am the next morning. There were also people sitting on the railings. Over-dressed black young women with their almond shaped eyes and plated hair pulled hard back into a pony tail; men and women with long, long dreadlocks; a well dressed, bespectacled man with well spoken English; a girl with her tight tee-shirt, headphones singing at the top of her voice; an elderly lady with her husband. I was the only white person. It was not obvious where the queue really was. When the doors eventually opened we organised ourselves according to instructions issued into four queues, spoken to by the Customer Care Officer as if we were stupid not to know where to stand “single file.. I said single file and not in front of this line.” Somehow I ended up at the front of a new queue but was not invited into the building. Instead every other queue filed in and slowly people dispersed. In my impatience I entered the building where I was told off like a school child “I am not ready for you yet.” At 10am I was summoned in, given a form and told to return Monday “early” with it filled in. No amount of persuasion would make her change her mind so Monday I was back again.

In the meantime Andy has found a local solicitor - she came highly recommended - who guaranteed she was able to get a work visa. To our relief she got the 6 month ban on entering the country lifted before Andy left for St Maarten so he booked a return for the same day. While Andy flew off island I returned to the immigration office and its queues. After a 5 hour wait was told to return on Tuesday with my husband. “Didn’t you ask all the things you needed?” I left in tears of frustration.

Tuesday I once again returned to the immigration office - this time with Andy, who had successfully returned home proudly displaying his new three month visa. We decided on a new tactic - arrive late and jump the queue. It worked well. We were summoned together into the Immigration officers office. He was constantly interrupted as it appeared that EVERY decision went through him personally. We witnessed big decisions being made that affected peoples lives while he spoke on the phone, talked to us, made decisions about uniforms … he was so over worked and the decisions seemed to depend on how he felt rather than any system or procedure. He was unable to make a decision about us so called in his boss - the commissioner in charge of immigration.

He commissioner, a well dressed man with an expensive watch told us he was “upset” that we had got a solicitor - when the lawyers step in the barriers go up he told us. He himself had already decided to lift the 6 month ban on Andys return - we had not needed a solicitor for that. “It is written in the law” so we should know what the procedures are for getting work permits…. And so he carried on for 15 minutes - not making much sense - before getting up and leaving everyone baffled about what was to happen next, including his officer. I got my visa anyway but it appears Andy has no choice but to only work off island. Thus no taxes for Antigua and no training for an Antiguan.

We are trying to settle back down to normal life but everything is changed now. I have got back to my fund raising and looking forward to Mum and Dad coming but Andy has to go to St. Maarten and St Lucia to work. The Captains of the yachts have been a fantastic support and they are prepared to move so he can work - they want his services enough. I am very proud of Andy - the support he has shows what a good job he is doing.