Since over 85% of children in Jamaica are born while their parents are in a common-law or “visiting” relationship, a significant proportion of permanent resident applications (including both economic and family class cases) require officers to do an in-detail investigation to resolve questions around accompanying and non-accompanying dependents. The Registrar General’s Department of Jamaica implemented measures that allow children who were not born to married parents to have their birth records, which indicate being born “in wedlock” to ease the processing of permanent residency.
