The number of individuals facing possible loss of residency due to being in marriages of convenience has climbed to 76 as at the end of July.
Mervin Manderson, acting deputy director for compliance at Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman, confirmed the number as he issued a warning to Caymanians and residents looking to break the law by entering into marriages of convenience.
“The WORC department and the compliance team remains committed to detecting and investigating such persons and bringing them to justice,” Manderson said, in a recent interview with the Cayman Compass.
In March, 69 Residency and Employment Rights Certificate holders were facing ‘mindful to revoke’ notices; since then that figure has increased to 76 as the WORC compliance unit stepped up investigations into reports of sham marriages.
“There’s probably been about 175 different reports of such concerns and about 80% of those have been investigated. There are about 76 reports [that have been] sent out to the [Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency] board for review in which those persons could end up losing their residency,” Manderson said.
Those reports, dating from the start of this year, represent an active approach to dealing with some of the abuses of the existing immigration system, he explained.
The department has already launched a risk-assessment register by which it can keep track of those breaching work-permit and labour laws.
When it comes to married couples, though, Manderson said, information indicating that there’s a possible marriage of convenience goes to the department for investigation.
However, he said at least 95% of cases investigated confirm that while the relationship has broken down or that the parties are perhaps separated, there had been an existing relationship.
Based on those investigations, Manderson said, there was no evidence that the couples entered into the marriage for the sole purpose of trying to contravene the Immigration Act, which is what is required to prove that offence. However, he said, the law speaks to persons who are in unstable marriages; to be given residency and employment rights based on marriage, the union has to be stable and intact.
“So they still can lose their residency if we do our investigation and find out that obviously the marriage appears have broken down,” he explained.
More staff needed
Manderson added that though the compliance unit is small it has been doing “amazing” work in its efforts to find and deal with lawbreakers, and there are plans to grow.
“We’ve submitted certain business cases to try to get more resources on board to be able to be more proactive, because we find that we’re very reactive. At this stage, we have so much information coming in that we don’t have the time to actually also be proactive and tackle the other issues that are happening out there,” he said.
The unit also deals with those who have not paid their residency fees, which was a concern flagged by former Deputy Premier Chris Saunders, who was also Minister for Border Control and Labour.
Manderson said that over the last year the unit identified significant amounts of outstanding permanent residency fees which become overdue for various reasons.
However, he said, through collaborations with WORC staff and the Caymanian Status and Residency team reports on the fees were provided “to effectively tackle that issue”.
“Through that exercise, we managed to cut the outstanding amount significantly and/or have facilities revoked if they were no longer valid or needed,” he said.
Data from WORC shows that annual PR fees collected from January to July of this year stood at $5,373,485.63.
And outstanding fees as at July 2023 were pegged at $1,811,234.50.
“The fees outstanding are missed anniversary payments… but WORC will continue to try and collect on these,” a department statement to the Compass added.
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