South African hails ‘life-changing’ Welcome Stamp stay

A South African has given Government’s Welcome Stamp the thumbs up after his family’s five months’ residency on the remote work visa.

Conrad Brits, who is here with his wife and three sons, described the programme as a life-changing experience.

Having arrived here last December, Barbados had proved to be everything he expected and more, he told Barbados TODAY.

Government launched the Welcome Stamp last July during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing visitors to work here remotely for up to one year.

During the time, visa holders are exempt from paying income tax.

Brits applied after seeing the Welcome Stamp initiative advertised on Instagram.

He told Barbados TODAY: “We had never thought of it. We’ve travelled to many countries with the family but we’ve never been to Barbados so it was a big move. We thought we would come for at least a month, try it out and if it doesn’t work out then we would consider our options and now we’ve been here five months and we’re just like we’re dreading the day we have to leave because we don’t want to leave. It’s been brilliant.

“It’s been brilliant. I can’t praise the country enough for being so innovative in their approach to changing from short-term tourism to long-term tourism. It’s given us the ability to instead of coming here for one or two weeks, come out for a couple months, really settle in, really get to know the local spots. We’ve been doing so much from snorkelling to surfing to diving, all kinds of activities that typically you could compress it in a week but having a couple months out here is just brilliant.

“For us, it’s been a life-changing experience, for the kids, it’s been an experience as well and one that they will never forget. It’s great of Barbados to have given us this opportunity so we’re very grateful for that and it definitely means we will come back. It’s been our first time ever to Barbados and we’ll come back, there’s no doubt. We’ll come visit many, many more times.”

Brits, who works as the chief technical officer for an American company, said the COVID-19 restrictions had not dampened their stay on the island.

He said: “The restrictions are the restrictions. We’ve spent most days on the beach exercising, going for a swim, 6 to 9 every day and in the afternoons go for a swim, so it hasn’t been that bad. I work during the day, the kids have got school during the day so it is what it is. Things are looking on the up, so hopefully soon those restrictions will be gone. It’s more weekends because on weekends you are stuck inside but during the week it doesn’t have much of an impact.

“We’ve got a team in South Africa, we’ve got a team in the US so the time zone is perfect…so in terms of location anybody that works on Canadian or US time zones, this is a brilliant spot. Not many of my colleagues get to watch turtles swim by while they’re on a meeting so it’s very, very special.” (randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)