The push for the full removal of the visa requirement is not over!

That’s the word of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, even as she welcomes the waiver of th visa application fees for Jamaicans whose cases reach the UK Privy Council.

Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council announced the waiver in a statement on its website on Thursday.

The waiver applies across independent Commonwealth nations that still hold the Privy Council as their final appellate court.

It applies only to appellant and respondent parties and their legal teams, not wider family members.

Once a hearing date is confirmed, an appellant or counsel planning to appear in person notifies the Privy Council Registry, through its case-management portal, that a visa is required.

The Court then issues an invitation letter in support of the application, and that letter is automatically flagged to the UK Supreme Court and the Home Office.

Applicants remain subject to the usual checks and may still be asked for additional information.

Minister Johnson-Smith says the cost has been a live consideration for the local legal profession and their clients for more than two decades, with attorneys largely absorbing the fee as a routine part of representing clients before the Privy Council.