Bill,Originally Posted by Boston
I will call PICA (Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency) on Monday. As far as I know it is just a rumour that the government offices are closed. PICA is currently working with the police to locate the 5000 non-reporting people who entered Jamaica between March 18 and the 23rd.
We have helped a few people get flights after theirs were cancelled, and there was no issue at the airport for their "overstay". But that was for a cancelled flight, not simply wanting to change an existing flight to a later one.
These are not normal times, so as I have witnessed in the past with other emergencies (Hurricanes Gilbert and Ivan), if your flight is cancelled the government will not penalize you for overstaying. But if your flight is not cancelled, then I would assume that the overstay penalty would apply since you could have left but chose not to.
Since you are here, I would wait a few weeks, May 2nd is nearly a month away and anything can happen and your flight could be cancelled. If you are cancelled then you have an automatic waiver of the overstay penalty. But if things don't change for you, I would call PICA sometime mid/late month and ask them directly as they are the only ones who can decide that matter for you. All their numbers are free of cost on all cell phones now.
