Cayman Islands Introduces Revised Immigration Law

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

02 January 2007

Amendments revising the Cayman Islands Immigration Law (2006 Revision) have now come into force, the Cayman government has announced.

Following the passage of the Immigration (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2006, in the House last month, the bill received the Governor's assent and was gazetted on 21 December 2006.

The 59-page law contains a number of changes to the existing Immigration Law, 2003. The areas of the law that attracted the changes included work-permit term limits, permanent residency, a new category of 'key employees' and the ability of the Chief Immigration Officer to grant Caymanian Status to certain categories of applicants.

A number of amendments to the draft bill tabled on 13 September in the House resulted from public input to the discussion draft, the Leader of Government Business, Kurt Tibbetts, said. Amendments also resulted from glitches identified over the past three months as well as improvements considered necessary by the Cabinet Committee on Immigration Review, he added.

Explaining the need for speed in passing the bill into law before the end of 2006, Tibbetts noted that a number of important amendments that would benefit employers and employees are closely linked to the fixed term work permit provisions and the fact that a large number of persons are rapidly reaching the end of their term limit. With the revised law coming into effect quickly, there would be the opportunity of applying for key employee status, he noted.

"One of the fundamental intentions behind the amendments to the law is to provide certainty for employers and employees," Tibbetts explained.

A delayed implementation of the revised law would run contrary to this intention, he said.

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