Over 1200 remigrant applications approved in 4 years

The Guyana Government has approved more than 1,000 applications from overseas-based Guyanese under the Re-migrant Scheme initiative.
This programme targets persons in the Guyanese Diaspora, providing certain incentives for them to return and contribute to the development of their homeland.
Since assuming office in August 2020, the Dr Irfaan Ali-led Government has placed emphasis on involving the diaspora community in national development. Consequently, Government resuscitated the Diaspora Unit and re-established stakeholder engagement to improve the services provided to the diaspora.
“This saw us having heightened engagements with our diaspora, and increased interest in remigrating as members of our diaspora look to avail themselves of the exciting economic opportunities in our country. [And] as a result, we’ve processed over 1,200 remigrant applications over the last four years,” Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh disclosed on Friday evening during his presentation of the $1.382 trillion 2025 Budget in the National Assembly.

With the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s efforts to improve the re-migrant scheme and regularly disseminating information to the Diaspora population, there were over 400 re-migrant applications approved in 2023. This represented a 9.8 per cent increase over 2022.
In fact, the number of people who applied for re-migrant status in 2023 was 68 per cent higher than the figure for 2019. Further, over 15,000 passports were renewed for the Diaspora with over 2,000 second-generation Guyanese registering for the first time for their Guyanese passport – a clear signal of a heightened level of interest and engagement.
Meanwhile, over the years, there have been several high-level engagements with the Guyanese diaspora across the world including the hosting of a virtual diaspora conference in 2021, webinars on remigration and investment in 2023 and job fairs in New York, Trinidad and Suriname last year to harness the skills of members of the diaspora.
During his address to the Virtual Diaspora Conference in May 2021, President Ali had charged the Diaspora to use their influence, finances and expertise to help develop the country and the lives of their fellow Guyanese.
“As we navigate into the future, we would like the hands of the Diaspora to be a key element in the new Guyana that will bring with it great opportunities, great prosperity. The unification and coming together of the Guyanese people is paramount to the prosperity we will achieve,” the Guyanese Leader had told the more than 500 overseas-based Guyanese who participated in the virtual conference.
Only back in September 2024, President Ali had a series of engagements with the Guyanese-American community in New York where he had outlined his Administration’s vision of Guyana’s development and also updated them on the progress of major infrastructural works. Then last December, he also engaged overseas-based Guyanese in Miami, Florida
He has also met with the Guyanese Diaspora in several countries across the Caribbean as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), India and even in the Middle East. The President had indicated his intention to tap into the massive talent pool and expertise that exists within the Guyanese Diaspora with the intention of filling the labour gaps in the country as well as attracting investments in new areas.
In fact, during a May 2023 visit to Qatar, the Head of State lobbied the small Guyanese Diaspora there to participate in their homeland’s transformation.
“We are at a very critical stage of the development of our country and every single Guyanese, whether you are in Qatar or any other part of the world, we want you to be an active participant in this transformation,” President Ali had stated at the Guyana Embassy in Doha.
With a majority of the Guyanese Diaspora based in the United States (US) and Canada, the Guyana Government has also embarked on extending certain local services to those communities. As a result, the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) conducted outreaches in New York and Toronto to address issues that overseas-based Guyanese have with their contributions thus tackling the massive backlog of cases at the institution. (G8)