The Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency board has not heard a single new application for permanent residence since the latest revised version of the Cayman Islands Immigration Law took effect in October 2013.
According to board chairman and local attorney Waide DaCosta, the remaining six members of the immigration-related body have kept busy deciding permanent residence applications that were filed prior to the new law coming into force.
“We’re effectively up to date,” Mr. DaCosta said. “We have not been asked to deal with any new applications.
“Every PR application that has been submitted since the [new] law came into effect has essentially been put on hold.”
The revised Immigration Law has allowed, for the first time, immigration officers to consider and approve or decline applications for permanent residence, in addition to appointed board members. Mr. DaCosta said he was unaware if any of the applications under the new law had been dealt with by immigration officers.
A government official confirmed Monday that Immigration Department officers have not heard any permanent residence applications under the new law either.
The delay, from the board’s perspective, has mainly to do with a lingering uncertainty as to how to score applications from permanent residence-seekers under the new legislation.
The first section of the points system established by the Immigration Law [2013 Revision] awards a potential total of up to 30 points based on the applicant’s job. A person can receive anywhere from zero to 15 points for their job, depending on how much demand there is for that position based on the current ratio of Caymanians to non-Caymanians in the labor market.
Up to an additional 15 points can be awarded for a “priority job,” meaning a position that is needed for advancement of national economic, cultural or social objectives on a long-term basis.
Mr. DaCosta said board members are not aware of any directions given under the Immigration Law’s regulations as to how they should score someone’s job under the “priority job” designation.
That delay was also preventing the Immigration Department staff from hearing any new PR applications for the time being, officials said Monday.
Upon the new law taking effect, the board still had several hundred applications for permanent residence to consider under the previous Immigration Law. The previous law made it easier to obtain permanent residence – the right to live in Cayman for the rest of one’s life – but it first required the non-Caymanian worker to obtain what was known as “key employee status” via application by the employer.
The new law eliminates the key employee status provision and allows anyone to apply for permanent residence under the new system, as long as they stay in Cayman for at least eight consecutive years. However, the points system used to award permanent resident status is much tougher.
No new board members
Mr. DaCosta said the Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board had been meeting with a bare minimum of members following the departure of five of its total 11 members appointed during the previous term of the United Democratic Party government.
The departures had come over a period of the last two years, he said, including two members who were asked to leave because of a lack of attendance, one member who became involved in a criminal investigation over the National Housing Development Trust, another member who fell ill and another member who left his post to seek election to the Legislative Assembly.
Typically, newly elected governments appoint entirely different members to various boards – including the immigration-related boards – in the months following their taking office.
However, in the case of the Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board, no new members have been appointed since the election of the Progressives-led coalition in May 2013. New members of the Work Permit Board and the Business Staffing Plan Board were appointed.
“I was asked to stay on, I guess they feel I’m doing a good enough job,” Mr. DaCosta said.
A government official said Monday that new board members would be announced soon.
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