PHILIPSBURG--Brooks Tower Accord (BTA) permit-holders have an additional two weeks to file for extensions under the temporary-legalisation programme, chief coordinator Tiara Haselhoef said on Thursday.
Only about half of the 4,000-plus Brooks Tower recipients have applied for extensions since the project started on August 2.
The Central Government decided recently to give these persons until the end of September, past the initial September 18 deadline. The BTA extension allows most applicants to remain legal residents for three years as long as they "keep complying" with the mandates of valid insurance and passports.
Only 201 persons have collected their permits thus far and some 623 persons still need to collect theirs. The Central Government has posted the numbers of all persons whose permits had been approved at the Salvation Army Building in Cole Bay and the Immigration and Naturalisation Building on A.Th. Illidge Road.
Haselhoef urged persons to apply early and collect their extension permits before November when all the original BTA permits will expire. "They shouldn't wait until the last minute. They should come early." Haselhoef said. "The new one they are getting starts November 3."
Already 1,528 persons who fall under Category I-a – persons who arrived in the Netherlands Antilles before 2002 and are employed – have applied for extensions. Only 42 applied under Cat. I-b – self-employed persons who arrived before 2002. "Many people went from Category I-b to I-a," Haselhoef said, explaining that the change would be allowed if the permit-holder persuaded his or her employer to sign as his/her guarantor.
The change prevents Cat I-b candidates from having to pay application fees for a sole-proprietorship licence, one of the conditions for a self-employed person to stay under the BTA.
A total of 185 permit-holders who arrived between 2002 and 2005 have applied for extensions, while 429 persons have applied for family.
It has been nearly a year since Antillean Minister of Justice Magali Jacoba announced the start of the Brooks Tower Accord and the major information campaign to inform English-, Spanish- and Creole-speaking undocumented immigrants about legalising their status.
More than 4,000 persons had applied for themselves or family when the BTA ended its six-week term from November 3 to December 15, 2009. Most persons received permits, but many fell into the hands of a special review committee that evaluated applicants who did not exactly meet the Central Government-stipulated criteria.
