Immigration keeps closer eye on job categories
The cost of obtaining work permits for certain higher-paying jobs in the Cayman Islands will go up following approval of changes to immigration regulations by Cabinet.
Other job categories may see permit fees go down depending on how their positions are classified. The cost of the majority of work permits will stay the same, particularly those in lower income categories.
The Immigration (Amendment) Regulations, 2008 were released this week after the passage in October of amendments to the Cayman Islands Immigration Law by the Legislative Assembly.
The regulations set out a much more specific list of job categories than has previously been defined. Jobs are sectioned into separate industries such as education, legal activities, labour recruitment, real estate, landscaping and gardening, radio and broadcasting jobs, and many others. There are more than 30 subcategories of occupations detailed.
Permit fees for Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are all set out in the regulations, with fees charged in the Sister Islands generally being less than those for Grand Cayman companies.
Chief Immigration Officer Franz Manderson said the idea is to provide businesses with a much more exact list of permit fees so they can budget precisely what they will have to pay each year.
“The (job) classifications under the old regs were so broad, employers were having difficultly calculating which fee was correct,” Mr. Manderson said.
The previous immigration regulations only listed specific job categories in the tourism, service and construction industry. The list was about three pages long. The new job category list set out in the regulations goes on for 27 pages.
Mr. Manderson said this was not an attempt by government to implement a back-door fee increase on work permits, and said the vast majority of employers wouldn’t notice their permit fees increasing.
However, in certain jobs he said immigration officials had attempted to correct “a disparity” that existed between mid-range work permit fees and upper range fees.
For example, under the old system a company employing a partner at a law firm who was brought in on a one-year work permit would have had to pay CI $17,500 for that permit. But other positions such as chief operating officers, financial controllers and the like at that same law firm were either paying the same $17,500 permit fee, or a much lower $7,500 fee.
“There were some people paying $17,000 who shouldn’t have paid that and some people were paying $7,500 who should have paid more,” Mr. Manderson said. “While fees for some permits may be higher (under the new regulations), there’s no increase in fees across the board.”
For some upper-echelon jobs, a fee of $12,500 has now been put into place in the regulations.
“There shouldn’t be any surprises for employers,” Mr. Manderson said, adding that there had been a broad consultation with stakeholders, including HR professionals and recruiters.
Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts said Thursday that the new regulations, which took effect this week, would be ‘revenue neutral.’ In other words, government wouldn’t make or lose any money following their implementation.
Work permits are required in the Cayman Islands for any foreign national seeking employment in all private sector jobs, and some public sector jobs. Migrant workers in the civil service are generally given two year government contracts, which are handled separately from work permits.
Numbers vary from month-to-month, but it’s estimated between 20,000 and 27,000 people have been living in Cayman on work permits at any given time within the past few years.
Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce CEO Wil Pineau said Wednesday that he was unaware of the specific regulations regarding the work permit fee categories, but said he would be discussing them with Chamber council members at the group’s annual general meeting.
Members of the Cayman Islands Society of Human Resources Professionals said they were generally aware of changes to the Immigration Law made by the Legislative Assembly this year, but said they hadn’t had a chance to go through the work permit fee schedule.
Permanent Residence
The regulations have also changed fees, which are paid upon the granting of permanent residence, the right to live in the Cayman Islands for the rest of one’s life.
Previously, those fees were charged for three separate general categories of workers: unskilled, skilled and professional.
Mr. Tibbetts said Thursday that those charges had created an unfair situation when certain ‘professionals’ who made significantly less money than others had to pay the same fees for permanent residence. Mr. Tibbetts said those fees would now be determined based on a sliding scale relative to the person’s salary.
‘A teacher, a nurse and a managing director would be required to pay the same (permanent residence) fee,’ he said. ‘Now, the fee payable is relative to the person’s income. We consider that this is a much fairer basis upon which to determine permanent residence fees.’
Other changes
A number of legislative changes to the islands’ immigration system already approved by lawmakers will be implemented within the next two months.
The government is scheduled to begin accepting applications for a new eight-month work permit for employees in the hospitality industry as of 1 December. Application forms for the permit are expected to be available today.
Immigration staffers are expected to begin processing ‘routine’ work permit applications, those jobs for which no Caymanian has applied, in early December. Previously, work permit applications all had to be handled by the Work Permit Board.
Mr. Manderson has said this should significantly speed up processing time for work permit applications and free up immigration boards to spend more time on sensitive applications.
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