Jamaicans with unpaid scholar loans who migrate to the US (US) will face important challenges after they search to replace or renew their immigration standing.
Supervisor of the Mortgage Servicing Division on the College students’ Mortgage Bureau (SLB) Cheryl Surjue mentioned the Authorities of Jamaica and their US counterparts have solid a partnership to establish Jamaican immigrants with excellent scholar mortgage money owed.
She cited instances of a number of classes of pros who she mentioned have migrated to the US, amongst different international locations, leaving unpaid scholar loans, declaring that, “after they depart we aren’t capable of totally observe their whereabouts, [and] these loans are inclined to go dangerous”.
“Individuals who could have migrated on the J1 visa and need to renew their standing within the US, earlier than they will really do this, there’s an association the place the US Authorities wants to search out out from us [Jamaica] if this particular person is indebted to the Authorities,” Surjue mentioned.
This, she mentioned, is to find out whether or not a person has an impressive mortgage stability earlier than their immigration standing is modified.
Surjue emphasised that clearing the mortgage wouldn’t solely contain bringing the account updated, but in addition totally settling the debt.
“It’s at this level that you simply’ll discover most of those beneficiaries will really begin servicing their loans as a result of we didn’t know they usually didn’t talk with us that they migrated,” she defined.
Surjue mentioned the association with the US Authorities has assisted the company in accumulating excellent loans.
She, nevertheless, cautioned that it’s best if individuals notify the bureau previous to migrating and prepare to service their debt.
“Earlier than you get to that time, we wish individuals to be accountable debtors. For this reason we’ve really launched our monetary literacy programme, to know the way we are able to help and the way the beneficiaries could go about repaying their mortgage — and never wait till it will get to that time of the mortgage being dangerous or we’ve got to solicit debt collectors to try to find you,” Surjue mentioned.