“Technical issues” disrupted the government’s new online portal for travellers entering the territory and forced a return to the traditional paper-based system last week, officials announced.
It is unclear what has happened since then.
A brief statement issued March 20 noted that the Immigration and Customs departments were “working diligently” on the problem and would update the public after the issues were resolved.
However, no updates had been issued since then, and the Immigration and Customs departments did not respond this week to requests for more information.
The March 20 statement directed “additional queries” to the “ED Team” at edprocessing@gov.vg. The Beacon, however, received no response to a Monday email to this address.
Bumpy rollout
The “Online Embarkation/Disembarkation Card System” — which is designed to replace paper entry cards and reduce wait times at ports of entry — was initially scheduled to go live on Oct. 1 and become mandatory for all travellers by Jan. 1.
But that timeline was delayed.
Instead, the system officially launched on Jan. 1, and many travellers continued to use the paper forms for several weeks amid a bumpy rollout that was plagued by various glitches and miscommunications.
By early February, however, the Immigration Department said the problems had been ironed out and all travellers were required to use the new online system when entering the VI.
In the March 20 statement, however, government said that passengers would be permitted to use paper forms once again.
British Caribbean News