Cayman Government To Review Immigration Law

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

20 September 2005

The government of the Cayman Islands has appointed an Immigration Review team to examine flaws in and recommend changes to the country's Immigration Law, following ongoing problems in the area of employer compliance with work permit regulations.

“We will be taking a look at a number of provisions in the Immigration Law that have anomalies, omissions or other problems that may need to be amended in the Legislature,” David Ritch, Chairman of the Work Permit Board, stated, according to Cayman Net News.

However, Mr Ritch emphasised that this was not going to be a "wholesale review" of the law or government policy in the area of immigration. "It is a review of the provisions in the law relating to it," he noted.

One issue of particular concern to the Cayman authorities is that of the rollover policy for individual work permits. Currently, Immigration Law states that a person can only be on a work permit for a maximum of seven years, effective from January 1, 2004, but a separate policy exists for those who had been on a work permit for more than five years before the current law went into effect. According to Mr Ritch, some of these policies do not dovetail correctly with the current law and can lead to a situation where a person is entitled to a number of years for a work permit, but still come short of the time period to apply for permanent residency.

“We want to tidy this provision up to make sure that people have the additional time needed to apply for residency and achieve the expected function of the law,” he explained.

Another issue of concern for the government is that of Business Staffing Plans, which are compulsory for firms which employ more the 15 people. Although this law went into effect on January, 2004, Mr Ritch noted that "dozens" of firms, some employing as many as 50 to 60 people, have not yet submitted their staffing plans.

"These employers are still submitting their work permits to the Work Permit Board when they should be going to the Business Staffing Plan Board," stated Mr Ritch.

To allow employers sufficient time in which to become compliant with the law, the Work Permit Board is allowing firms extra time to submit their permits.

"And after the new deadline has expired, they are not going to be able to submit their work permits to the Work Permit Board, because they are supposed to be submitting their permits to the Business Staffing Plan,” explained Mr Ritch.

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