At the same time, Jamaicans now have to obtain transit visas when passing through the UK for less than 24 hours en route to another destination.

The British government had announced last July that it was considering the introduction of visa regimes for Trinidad and Tobago and 11 other countries, including, Venezuela, South Africa, Botswana, Brazil and Bolivia.

Passport issuance service

The countries were given a six-month period, ending in January 2009, to ensure the specific risks their nationals posed to the UK were significantly reduced.

Gopee-Scoon told reporters the authorities in Port-of-Spain worked closely with UK officials over the last six months to ensure that enough was done to prevent the imposition of a visa requirement for nationals of the twin-island republic.

The Immigration Division "worked remarkably well addressing the challenge of developing a more efficient and secure passport issuance service," she said.

"Over time, there has been a reduction in the waiting times for machine-readable passport applications and issuance."

Spokesperson at the British High Commission in Trinidad and Tobago, James Dolan, said many of the 11 countries made improvements to the immigration, border control and identity systems "which would not have happened without the test", with the visa requirement now dropped for six of them.

New visa regimes are to be imposed on five: Bolivia, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland and Venezuela.

- CMC