Certified informal caregiver: how to register in PR

Why one document changes your situation at work

If you care for an older or disabled family member while working, there is a document almost nobody files that turns an awkward conversation with your supervisor into a right with a deadline: the **written informal caregiver certification** issued by the **Department of the Family**.

It is created by **Act 82-2023**, the "Act on Public Policy for Informal Care". The statute defines informal care as that given to relatives, friends, neighbors and other significant relationships in daily activities **without receiving financial compensation**, feeding, basic hygiene, transportation, financial matters, medication management, among others.

It is not a niche phenomenon. The statute's own statement of motives cites that **roughly 14%, some 440,000 people** of Puerto Rico's population has been identified as an informal caregiver, and that those who do it invest **an average of 20 hours a week**. These are findings the Legislature put in the text, and they count as what they are: the picture it legislated from.

The current version also carries **2025 amendments already incorporated**, Acts 147-2025 and 151-2025 touched the Bill of Rights and the Registry's regulation. If you looked this up a couple of years ago, it is worth looking again.

How to get into the Registry

**Article 6** creates the **Registry of Informal Caregivers**, **attached to the Department of the Family**. The Department is responsible for processing, analyzing and disseminating information on the prevalence of informal caregivers in Puerto Rico, and maintains the database.

The filing itself is short, and it has two pieces. The Department registers each informal caregiver after they **voluntarily submit an application to join the Registry**, accompanied by **the proper medical certification attesting to the care recipient's need for assistance**. That is all the statute requires by text: a voluntary application and a medical certification for the person receiving care.

There is a second route that saves steps: **collaborating entities may collect and submit the information** to register a caregiver, following the Department of the Family's protocols and regulation and **with the caregiver's due consent**. The statute names among those entities universities, nonprofits, health providers, insurers and caregiver support groups. If you are already connected to one, ask there before starting from scratch.

And here is the step that turns registration into the useful document: **after registering the caregiver, the Department of the Family is in charge of notifying and certifying in writing** the people identified as informal caregivers. That written certification is the paper you will later present at work.

On privacy, which is many people's reasonable concern: Article 6(c) provides that **the reports and statistics produced under this act shall be confidential**. They may be used in epidemiological, statistical and scientific research and for educational purposes **provided the identity** of the caregiver and the care recipient **is not disclosed**, and everyone with access (employees, collaborators, researchers) **must sign confidentiality agreements** that **remain in force even after** their relationship with the Registry ends.

What the certification unlocks at your job

**Article 5** is the **Informal Caregiver's Bill of Rights**, and its subsection (e) carries the most weight if you work: the informal caregiver has the right **to request reconciling the practice of informal care with their professional life**.

Concretely, that is two things. First: **the right to request changes to their work schedule** as provided by **Act 379 of 1948**, the Work Day Act. And here is the change this statute brought: its **Article 10 amended Article 8 of Act 379** precisely **to allow certified informal caregivers to request that schedule change without regularly working thirty (30) hours a week for the employer and without having completed one (1) year on the job**, which is what the statute required of everyone else.

That is the hard value of the certification: **it takes you out of the two entry requirements** of Article 8. A part-time employee, or someone three months into the job, normally cannot use that route. With the certification, they can.

The second thing in subsection (e), often overlooked: informal caregivers **shall be protected in the use of sick leave for the care of the care recipients in their charge**, subject to the provisions and applicability of **Act 180-1998**, the Vacation and Sick Leave Act. It is not a new leave: it is protection in using the one you already have, when you use it to provide care.

The employment door: being hired as an incidental caregiver

Subsection (g) of Article 5 opens something few people know exists, and it is directly an entry route. The informal caregiver has the right **to be considered as an alternative to be hired as the incidental caregiver of the older adult in their charge**, when **a government entity or an entity receiving public funds decides to hire staff** for that older adult's care.

In plain terms: if the State is going to pay someone to care for your relative, the statute says **you must be considered** for that contract. But with set requirements, worth reading before getting your hopes up:

• **Sworn statement before a notary** that you were **dismissed or had to resign** from your most recent job **as a direct consequence** of the older adult's care obligations, accompanied by the **dismissal or resignation letter**.
• **Evidence that you worked at least forty (40) hours a week** before assuming care and at the time of the dismissal or resignation, as a company employee or through professional services, or the equivalent. The statute says it expressly: **it does not apply to those who worked part-time** or who **have another source of income related to work performance**.
• The **Department of the Family may establish a regulation** with additional rules it deems necessary to qualify those wishing to be considered.
• Once qualified as an Incidental Caregiver candidate, and **before being able to start receiving pay**, you must **take the Department of the Family's training**, limited to the basic and essential for responsible care of older adults.
• **That training does not make you a formal caregiver.** The statute clarifies it itself: it shall not be understood as professional training or for practicing in the future as a formal caregiver.

What else the Bill of Rights carries

The Bill of Rights opens by saying the informal caregiver **shall enjoy all rights enshrined in the Constitution** of Puerto Rico, and adds a list. These are the ones most connected to staying employed while you provide care.

**Training and continuing education** (subsection b), and not only to care better for someone else: the statute expressly includes training so the caregiver **can care for themselves** against situations posing risk to their physical, mental and emotional health or quality of life. It names five competencies: legislation and rights, physical and emotional care skills, **self-care strategies including respite**, handling financial, legal, social matters and future planning, and other topics of visibility and social integration.

**Access to health information** (subsection c): the caregiver shall receive access to all health information and **be included as an essential member and collaborator in the medical care team** of the person they support, with the care recipient's or legal guardian's consent, and in compliance with HIPAA. If a medical office has told you they cannot discuss the case with you, that subsection and that consent are the conversation to have.

**Respite services** (subsection h): that the State make respite services available to guarantee healthy, meaningful rest, including temporary rest to tend to your own well-being and mental health. And **priority in state, municipal and nongovernmental emergency plans** (subsection i), to preserve the safety of both the caregiver and the person receiving support.

The practical upshot: the Registry filing is short and voluntary, and the paper it produces works at your job, at the medical office and in an emergency plan's queue. If you care for someone and never filed it, that is the next step.