BEGINNING from November 9, 2022, holders of a Guyanese passport will no longer need a visitor’s visa to travel to the United Kingdom (UK), following a move between Guyana and the UK to strengthen government- to-government and people-to-people relations.

Guyanese will be able to visit the UK for up to 180 days or six months; however, this move does not remove the need for other classes of visas such as those needed to study, live or work in the UK.
The big announcement was made by British High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Miller during a press conference held alongside President, Dr. Irfaan Ali on Tuesday, at the British High Commissioner’s Bel Air residence.
Calling it a historic day in UK/Guyana relations, Miller noted that the visa waiver comes as a result of much lobbying from the private sector, civil society and government and represents the UK trust in its relationship with Guyana.

“This visa lift is a real sign of the confidence that the UK has in the growth of our relationship and together with the direct flight that will be happening at the end of March; we believe this change is going to be transformative for our really strong relationship,” Miller remarked.

British Airways, the official flag carrier of the United Kingdom, is scheduled to commence scheduled flights to Guyana in March 2023. This was announced in August.
President Ali, in his remarks, noted that the visa-free travel for Guyanese came through a lot of hard work on both sides.

“The High Commissioner herself has been pushing this agenda. It was one of our priority areas in our meeting with [former UK] Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. We raised it on several other occasions; we also raised it in the meeting with King Charles. The team, both in the UK and in Guyana, pursued the objective. And today I am very pleased that Guyanese can travel with greater ease to the UK,” the President said.

The President called on Guyanese to be responsible in how they utilise this new privilege and not to abuse it. According to the President, Guyana will be working very closely with the UK, in strengthening necessary systems to ensure proper monitoring and guard against abuse of the system.

This is so particularly given that the country will be using the UK’s case to lobby for visa-free travel to other countries, with the issue of the Schengen visa being brought up as an example. Schengen visas are required for travel to European Union (EU) countries that are part of the Schengen area.

DEMONSTRATED CONFIDENCE
“What the UK Government has done for us today is demonstrated confidence in us as a people and as a country. So if you mess this up, you mess up everything else that comes after that. We don’t have any intention of anybody messing up anything,” the President affirmed.

“Guyanese must exercise responsibility because it takes a long time to get to these decisions and we have raised it to the highest level. We have moved expeditiously on this. And all of us must take responsibility to ensure that the system is never abused. And what we will be doing here in Guyana is to continue the strengthening of our system so that we can have real-time information- sharing and monitoring.”

President, Dr. Ali noted how Guyana and the UK have been putting much effort into strengthening their relations.
“The idea of this visa waiver for visitors is not only about strengthening the relationship but I’m building out expansion of our economic opportunities between Guyana and the UK but it is important also too for people-to-people contact as we try to build our tourism market and expand or tourism market, especially in the UK.”
The President sees an opportunity for a link between UK’s tourists and Guyana’s ecotourism industry.

GREATER CONNECTIVITY
“Guyana has a very strong ecotourism. So this visa waiver allows greater connectivity, greater contact and greater people-to-people contact. It would not only do well for the expansion of trade and opening up a new opportunity but will do extremely well in bringing our people together, creating greater relationship, networking amongst our people. And I think these are critical elements in building a stronger relationship,” the President said.

Guyana has its eyes on more than just the UK tourists. The President sees opportunities for financing and technical support opportunities.
“One of the things that we are hoping to achieve also with the UK is to see how we can have more UK financing for our infrastructure projects or the transformative projects; just like the EXIM Bank of the US, the UK also have a facility in which they build finance and transfer. There are also export credits available and we are pursuing these elements.”

These latest developments of relations between Guyana and the UK build on a continuous stream of engagements advancing relations between the two sides.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Guyana has become the UK’s largest trading partner in the Caribbean, after trade between the two nations in 2021 amounted to 516 million pounds, and accounted for 21.6 per cent of all the UK’s trade with the Caribbean.

In February, a nine-member delegation of British business representatives visited Guyana canvassing potential investment opportunities with aims to set up shop in Guyana.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Miller announced that yet another delegation of British businesses are expected next month, while reciprocal missions from Guyana to the UK are also being encouraged.

“In mid-November we’re going to have a trade mission here. British businesses will be coming here to experience all the opportunities of this wonderful country. With this Visa lift we look forward to welcome in many Guyanese businesses to the UK to explore further opportunities,” Miller said.