Free movement effective October 1st, in four CARICOM States

Published on September 29, 2025

Saint Lucia is not among them. CARICOM has announced Barbados, Belize, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are the first member states to implement Enhanced Cooperation in Free Movement from October 1st, 2025.

This means that these four states will grant CARICOM nationals the right to enter, leave and re-enter, move freely, reside, work and remain indefinitely without the need for a work or residency permit.

This is in keeping with a CARICOM Heads of Government decision taken in July 2025.

The Free Movement arrangement falls within the new Enhanced Cooperation Chapter of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

A LinkedIn comment notes that “This is more than a policy shift it’s a powerful act of integration, opportunity, and unity. It will strengthen our economies, ease talent mobility, and deepen the bonds that already define us as one Caribbean family.

Whilst I applaud this bold move by these CARICOM Heads of Government, my hope is that this sparks momentum for the rest of CARICOM Member States to follow suit swiftly. A truly borderless Caribbean is within our grasp one vision, one future”.