An immigration specialist lawyer said the delay in accepting new British Overseas Territories Citizenship applications while a government web portal is temporarily offline is having a detrimental knock-on effect on other immigration-related applications.
Nick Joseph of Reside Cayman immigration advisory company said the delay has “impacts well beyond the citizenship process”.
He said every week of delay in accepting an application for a British Overseas Territories citizen will, for some, add a week of delay for an application downstream for the Right to be Caymanian – for individuals qualifying to become Caymanian on the grounds of naturalisation. This can then result in people incurring immigration fees, which could cost as much as $32,400 for senior positions, “simply because of a delay in the processing of their naturalisation application,” he added.
The portal through which people can apply for registration or naturalisation as a BOTC citizen has been offline since 1 Jan. due to technical issues. While it is offline, no applications are being accepted via email or in person, a government spokesperson has confirmed.
In an email to the Compass, Joseph said, “Delays in applications for the Right to be Caymanian (also now requiring of the order of a year) simply compound matters. Some of the greatest impact is felt by children who will turn 18 while their parent’s application is pending – and accordingly miss out on the ability to become Caymanian by entitlement.”
He noted as well as affecting permanent residents seeking to apply for BOT citizenship since the beginning of the month, the delay also potentially impacts Caymanians who are not British Overseas Territories Citizens, and therefore do not hold a BOTC (Cayman) passport, but may have wanted to apply at this stage.
“Large numbers of persons are becoming Caymanian without passing through the naturalisation filter,” he said. He noted that these include individuals who become Caymanian by entitlement, by continuation, by Cabinet grant, by descent, and on grounds of marriage, including on the basis of being a surviving spouse.
He added, “We are also encountering increasing numbers of born Caymanians who are not being born BOTCs, often having been born overseas to Caymanian parents who are not themselves BOTCs or who are BOTCs ‘by descent’ and so cannot pass on citizenship automatically to offspring born outside of Cayman.”
As of the time of publication, the portal, housed within the Office of the Deputy Governor’s website, was still offline. A government spokesperson had previously told the Compass that the eGov team was working to get the portal back online.
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