Find out how you can work from home while living in Barbados

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley wants you to come and level up your remote digital work environment with a 12-month Barbados Welcome Stamp on your passport. The invite was introduced last week in the Caribbean country, as a move to push tourism by allowing visitors to stay up to a full year while enjoying the country and working remotely.

Although short term travel plans for the year 2020 still seems bleak for many vagabonds, the enticing 12-month visitor visa could just be the perfect working vacation for travel bugs. According to the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, the tourism and hospitality industry covers 12% of the island's gross domestic product and accounts for about 40% of its economic activity indirectly. It provides the largest source of local employment in the private sector. The government has high hopes the Welcome Stamp program may just bring in some much needed dollars to bring the tourism sector back on its feet.

In her latest address on the Barbados Government Information Website, Prime Minister Mottley explains :

"You don't need to work in Europe, or the US or Latin America if you can come here and work for a couple months at a time; go back and come back. But in order for those things to truly resonate, what does it mean? It means that what we offer has to be world-class and what we continue to offer is world-class"

She continued: "The Government is committed to working with you on the promotion of new concepts like the 12-month Barbados Welcome Stamp, being able to open our borders to persons travelling and making it as hospitable as ever for all of us, and making it available for Barbadians from every walk of life to believe that for special occasions, or just for so, that they can come out and be a part of this wonderful exercise."

Lawmakers are working on finalising details on this project as the country buckles up to reopen its borders to tourists on July 12, as some countries are slowly resuming international travel.
The Prime Minister strongly reassures,"We will continue to take a risk-based approach to the protection of our country, our people and our visitors."

Recent guidelines have also been released by the Barbados Tourism Marketing, which strongly encouraged visitors from high-risk countries to undergo a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their departure. Those coming from low-risk locations can get tested up to a week prior to departure. Visitors who have not taken a test before arriving in Barbados will be required to take one as soon as they land and submit themselves into quarantine at their own expense until results are released. Test results can be received in about two days. Persons who test positive shall be placed in isolation while they receive the necessary care and medical attention provided by the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

As of this date, the island has only 98 confirmed COVID-19 cases and seven deaths.