The visa pressure on Caribbean nationals from the United States now operates in three layers, and the cumulative effect is reshaping diaspora calculus across every CARICOM state. The first layer is the January 21 immigrant visa pause that named nearly every CARICOM member — Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines among 75 countries — and that remains in effect.
The second layer is the US$250 visa integrity fee that took effect October 1, lifting standard B1/B2 tourist visa costs from US$185 to US$435 per applicant and adding additional fees for asylum, work permits, and renewals. The third layer, now being applied selectively, is the visa bond regime — under which Grenadian citizens have been notified that visitor-visa applications may require bond collateral. Each layer alone is absorbable. Stacked, they restructure the basic economics of cross-border family life.
The CARICOM response has been visibly uneven. Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne campaigned on US visa restrictions and won a landslide, framing his government as the entity that could negotiate with Washington from a position of internal mandate. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is launching a CBI programme into the worst external environment any Caribbean CBI has faced. The Jamaica Gleaner’s editorial board on Wednesday proposed Andrew Holness as broker for the frayed Persad-Bissessar CARICOM dialogue. Each move is rational on its own. None is coordinated. The diaspora is watching to see whether the region can produce a unified diplomatic response before the third visa layer becomes the fourth.
Sources: US Department of State; Jamaica Gleaner; Caribbean National Weekly; Reuters; IMI Daily, May 12–13, 2026.