Cayman Government Revises Immigration Laws

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

21 September 2006

Following a review of the jurisdiction's immigration rules, the government of the Cayman Islands has published a draft immigration bill which seeks to address a number of technical flaws in the Immigration Law 2003.

The draft bill identifies wide-ranging changes aimed at enabling immigration officers and the boards to carry out their duties and roles more effectively and efficiently. It clarifies and corrects matters that were known to have created difficulties for employees, employers, or the boards administering the law. The revisions also address public interest policy issues that were inadvertently or inappropriately impacted by the law.

Review Committee Chairman, Mr David Ritch commented: "The purpose of the review was to address a number of anomalies and technical deficiencies that came to light since the law came into effect in January 2004. We also used the opportunity to introduce new measures in relation to combating immigration crime."

The government expects that these adjustments will bring a number of positive changes for the Islands generally. These include attracting increased investment; reducing volume of work permit applications and improving efficiency in processing times through strategies such as removing spouses of Caymanians from the work permit system, clarifying and streamlining the work permit system and removing anomalies that had adversely affected the dependants of Caymanians.

A public consultation on the amendments closes on October 13, 2006.

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