Dear Editor,
Something is not right with the current 'returning resident policy'. To qualify for this exalted status at the time of intended return home a Jamaican must have been living abroad for the past three consecutive years -- however many years before that (s)he might have been domiciled abroad. I just learned this — to my chagrin and utter surprise.
My problem as a Jamaican coming back home very soon to 'live, work and do business' in my homeland after being abroad for 10 years is that, for two of those 10 years (2011-2013) I returned to work a two-year contract in Jamaica. So, in effect, those two years spent in my homeland have blighted my chances of the meagre benefits offered to a bona fide returning resident.
It gets worse for me, personally, because, even if I qualified, I could not expect any duty concessions on my 10-year-old Toyota Corolla motor car, which is crucial in the rural pastorate that I am returning to serve in my homeland.
Was it too much of a stretch of the creative imagination of the visionaries who crafted the returning resident document to have seen a motor car as a 'tool of trade' for a rural pastor?
In this regard, we can learn very progressive lessons from our Caribbean neighbour Barbados.
I may be misreading between the lines of the returning resident document -- perhaps seeing through my thick glasses darkly -- but it seems that some of us in the Diaspora are being told in effect tan abraad! No com' bak a yaad!
Rev Clinton Chisholm
clintchis@yahoo.com
Tan abraad! No com' bak a yaad!
-->
Something is not right with the current 'returning resident policy'. To qualify for this exalted status at the time of intended return home a Jamaican must have been living abroad for the past three consecutive years -- however many years before that (s)he might have been domiciled abroad. I just learned this — to my chagrin and utter surprise.
My problem as a Jamaican coming back home very soon to 'live, work and do business' in my homeland after being abroad for 10 years is that, for two of those 10 years (2011-2013) I returned to work a two-year contract in Jamaica. So, in effect, those two years spent in my homeland have blighted my chances of the meagre benefits offered to a bona fide returning resident.
It gets worse for me, personally, because, even if I qualified, I could not expect any duty concessions on my 10-year-old Toyota Corolla motor car, which is crucial in the rural pastorate that I am returning to serve in my homeland.
Was it too much of a stretch of the creative imagination of the visionaries who crafted the returning resident document to have seen a motor car as a 'tool of trade' for a rural pastor?
In this regard, we can learn very progressive lessons from our Caribbean neighbour Barbados.
I may be misreading between the lines of the returning resident document -- perhaps seeing through my thick glasses darkly -- but it seems that some of us in the Diaspora are being told in effect tan abraad! No com' bak a yaad!
Rev Clinton Chisholm
clintchis@yahoo.com
Tan abraad! No com' bak a yaad!
-->