Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.
Family passport and citizenship inventory
Before renewing or applying for anything, list every person in the household with each nationality they hold or may be entitled to, each passport, its number and its expiry date. Most families with two nationalities discover a lapsed passport, or a child who never got a home country passport, only when a flight is already booked. One table settles what you have, what you lack and what to do first.
First tasks
- Gather every passport in the house, current and expired, onto one table
- List each person's citizenships and possible entitlements by birth or descent
- Record passport numbers, issue dates and expiry dates for each passport
- Mark the three most urgent gaps to act on first
Dual citizenship rules check for both countries
Most Caribbean countries, among them Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Guyana, let their citizens hold another citizenship, but not every country does, and the rules of the country you live in matter just as much. Checking both governments' own pages, and noting the date you checked, protects you from losing a citizenship through an application made in good faith.
First tasks
- List every country whose citizenship anyone in the household holds or could claim
- Find each government's official statement on dual citizenship
- Note any condition, declaration or automatic loss rule
- Book a consultation with an immigration lawyer if any answer is unclear
Certified birth records from the registry back home
Nearly every citizenship or passport application rests on birth certificates, often for you, a parent and sometimes a grandparent, and many passport offices in the region now ask for the newer computerised certificate rather than an old handwritten copy. Ordering certified copies from the registrar general's office back home can take weeks from abroad, so starting now keeps it off the critical path.
First tasks
- List the birth, marriage and death records each planned application needs
- Find out how the registry back home takes orders from abroad
- Order two certified copies of each record
- Check every certificate letter by letter against your other documents
