Admin team picks up pace on PR backlog
(CNS): With around 1,000 outstanding permanent residency applications still waiting to be considered, the new team of immigration administrators now assisting the Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board have helped to pick up the pace, doubling the rate of reviews in their first week. The team processed 20 applications after working for just two days. Officials said that they will increase the time spent on PR applications to three days next week to accelerate the process.
Following three years of well-documented controversy over the stalled process, the new admin team began assisting the board on Tuesday, 25 July, and met for two days, getting through 20 applications. The team granted residency to only one applicant while 12 were refused, five deferred and two withdrawn.
To date, 73 applications have now been reviewed since the process re-started in May. In total, 14 were approved, 28 refused, 22 deferred, six were withdrawn and three did not qualify because the application was received after the nine-year cut-off point.
Chief Officer for the Ministry of Immigration Wesley Howell thanked the new team of administrators who he said had successfully taken on the challenge to help alleviate the PR backlog burden. “With the administrators working three days a week, along with the work done by the CSPR Board, the total number of applications being processed weekly will obviously be increasing,” he said.
The issue has been a political dilemma for the government. On the one hand, it is causing considerable concern among employers who have become increasingly agitated with the uncertainty about the status of workers and the constant need to renew temporary rights to work. But local people as well have been extremely concerned that the legal implications would ultimately lead to another mass status grant. Premier Alden McLaughlin has however, made public commitments that this will not be the case.
Walking something of a political tightrope on this issue, McLaughlin, who has responsibility for immigration, said he applauded the efforts to double the applications being reviewed and the commitment to further increase productivity. “I look forward to the team’s collaborative efforts, as the government and ministry will continue to pursue this matter as a top priority,” he added.
Category: Immigration, Local News
approved or rejected…just sue the hell out of cig
To M Wilson, Grand Cayman is a small island, therefore, we just can’t hold anymore people. We have grown enough!!
The mantra of the mediocre the world over.
Bermuda is smaller and it “holds” more people
And look at the state they’re now in!
Up to snail’s pace now….who knows, we could get up to full speed by Christmas 2030!
I presume there is some method of appealing a refusal, one approval out of 20 will make Caymanians very happy, but will be very disheartening to the applicants having spent a lot of money and waited for so long.Unless the process is transparent, it is wide open to abuse.
Just wait for the appeals of denials to start!
Why do we need the board and why are they so slow compared to these “administrators”? I think it is time government gets rid of all these boards, they are a waste of time and money.
I’m bored, I’m the chairman of the board! I’m a lengthy monologue, I’m livin’ like a dog…
Where’s Iggy, put him on the board.
Can anyone explain why the board was unable to review most of an application back when it was received leaving only the trivial task of adding the contentious occupation points now?
7:45 no. No you are not getting their names. Sorry no cozing up to civil servants.
Why does the public need to know the names of the new appointed administrators or board members ??? The persons have been documented, therefore if of any reason to inquiry the legitimacy of an approval , take the inquiry to the judicial system. I do believe in transparencies, however in this case it can be of knowing to intimidated, influence or cause direst, on a member to forced approval. If you know of an applicant, that is not worthy of residency to Cayman community, do your civic duty an submit your complaint to the correct judicial board.
Why can they not work 5 days a week rather than 2 days?
From my understanding, they are all current employees of Immigration who still have their normal duties to fulfill.
And are they fulfilling them?
Garfield, you are talking about civil servants man…come on, get with the groove..
1:44, Hope I never get into that groove.
Get rid of the boards, they are the cause of the backlog. Let the Immigration staff do the job.
Why are you suggesting the Boards are causing any backlog? They may have been doing all they can. The backlog may have been caused elsewhere, and perhaps not even in immigration.
Yes and Boards generally are an important means of granting patronage and furthering corrupt practices. They are culturally significant.
Give me a LOL button quick…
Sure like the board members are not corrupt! They discuss people business to others and use their position to threaten people and to gain power, they need to stop gossiping and do their Job.
10:06, You are not doing all you can when you only work 2 days a week.
Actually the Board only meets once a week.
The cause of the delay is well known and documented. Applicants were to be awarded points for their profession according to a list provided by CIG but they never provided that list. Recently they decided just to just give everyone the same. As the board could not complete their assessments, for some reason they *apparently* chose not to even start them, so now instead of having a pile of applications 99% complete they are starting fresh on applications made 3 years ago.
Many will withdraw because of the new pension law – Cayman you are shooting yourself in the foot big time. You cannot continue to develop and grow and throw good people away. Shaking my head in disbelief at this circus.
M Wilson you are correct. Thousands of people are in the process of leaving or will be leaving by the end of the year because they want to get their pension money back in the next 2 years. This has been confirmed to me by 2 different real estate agents.
Not good for real estate values on island.
Many of those real estate prices are grossly inflated anyway.
Who are the administrators, exactly? Is the public entitled to a list of names as we are with the Board?
If that should be disclosed, then why not extend the disclosure to a list of names of all applicants?
No, but we are probably entitled to know their training, qualifications and experience.