65 per cent key employee approval in 2011

Roughly 65 per cent of the key employee applications considered by Cayman’s various immigration-related boards were approved in 2011, according to comprehensive statistics released by the Immigration Department this week.  

The records reveal some 220 people had key employee applications approved between 1 January and 31 December, 2011. Another 118 people had their key employee designations refused by either the Work Permit Board or the Business Staffing Plan Board.  

Key employee applications are made on behalf of non-Caymanian workers by their employers. The designation allows an individual to stay in Cayman a further two years beyond the normal expiry of their seven-year limit on residence in the Cayman Islands. If a foreign worker is not a key employee, married to a Caymanian or on a government contract, they must leave the Islands for at least one year following seven years of continuous residence.  

Government workers are not subject to the seven-year term limit on residence, also known as the rollover policy. Foreigners who are married to Caymanians will generally receive what’s known as a residency and employment rights certificate – essentially the same as permanent residence in Cayman.  

Since 2005, immigration records showed there have been 529 key employee designations in total.  

The key employee figures released by the Immigration Department also break down, for the first time, what nationalities received key employee designations. Dating back to 2005, Jamaicans made up the greatest percentage of those grants, about 23 per cent or 124 key employee designations. They were followed by 112 key employee designations for United Kingdom residents (21 per cent), 95 key employee designations for Canadians (16 per cent), 58 key employee grants for Americans (11 per cent), and 22 grants for individuals from the Philippines.  

Irish nationals and those from Trinidad and Tobago made up about 3 per cent apiece of the key employee designations since 2005. The remainder of the key employee designations totalled about 17 per cent, but no other single nationality has received more than six such grants.  

The Immigration Department’s report also looked at key employee refusals since 2009. Those records showed some 141 people were refused key employee status in 2010, while just 77 were refused that status in 2009.  

Most of the key employee refusals during those three years were given to Jamaicans (58 per cent). Other nationalities that had key employee applications refused more often were those from the UK (8 per cent), the Philippines (8 per cent), Canada (6 per cent), and Honduras (4 per cent).  

The vast majority of key employee grants from a historical viewpoint have been granted either to professionals such as accountants, fund administrators, auditors, doctors, lawyers and teachers; or managers in the financial industry, sales, HR or project management. Those two job types alone have accounted for 257 key employee grants.  

Another 89 grants went to associates and technicians, including anyone from contractors with specific skills to personal assistants and secretaries.  

Unskilled or under skilled construction workers, along with domestic helpers and caregivers, received key employee grants least frequently. They were followed by craftsmen and trade workers and then service industry workers such as cooks, waitresses, security guards, janitors and the like.  

Temporarily exempt 

The key employee designation was added to Cayman Islands Immigration law in 2004, when government instituted the seven-year term limit or rollover policy.  

In the seven years accounted for in the immigration report, there were 529 total key employee designations in the seven years from January 2005 to December 2011; that works out to about 75 key employee applications per year.  

However, it appears government did have some legitimate concern that the number of those requests was about to increase massively. Immigration Department figures show that between October 2011 and December 2012, a projected 2,861 people will reach the end of the seven-year term limit.  

If even a quarter of those people apply for key employee status, it will be more applications than government has seen for that status in the seven years prior to 2012.  

To stem the potential tide of key employee applications, government instituted the Term Limit Exemption Permit, which allows companies to exempt term limited employees from the rollover for up to two years. Those additional two years do not count toward a workers’ time on Island in respect of permanent residence applications.