PR approvals jump to 41%
(CNS): Immigration staff and members of the Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board are continuing their work on the backlog of outstanding permanent residency applications and have now reviewed 232 of the more than 1,000 awaiting a decision, according to the latest statistics from government. The approval rate has now grown to 41%, and another 24% of the applications that have been deferred for more information could be approved later. So far, over a quarter of applicants have been denied PR and 7% have either been withdrawn or the board has no power to approve.
The latest figures come following the Strategic Policy Statement from the new Government of National Unity, presented this week to the Legislative Assembly. Talking about how government might address the controversies surrounding the path to Caymanian status for overseas workers, Premier Alden McLaughlin said it was important to strike the right balance for an efficient and more transparent system that was fair to those seeking employment, including Caymanians and those wanting to become permanent residents.
“We will improve the Immigration Law and points system to try to get this balance right,” he said.
The backlog of PR applications has been building for almost four years after the previous PPM government changed the immigration law in October 2013. That caused some challenges for the board, which were then compounded by a legal decision over the point system. The government finally resolved the immediate stumbling block by removing what was considered an arbitrary system for deciding how many points any specific job was worth for PR.
Though there are still believed to be a number of problems relating to the law as it stands, the board was able to began reviewing applications again in May. Last month newly trained senior immigration staff also began focusing on the applications for at least three days a week. As a result, the amount of applications being examined each week is now increasing, with 44 applications being reviewed since Monday, according to the latest details from Government Information Services.
See the latest statistics on the PR backlog from immigration below:
| Meeting Date | Approved | Refused | Deferred | Withdrawn | No Power |
| 11-May-17 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 22-Jun-17 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 29-Jun-17 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 6-Jul-17 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| 13-Jul-17 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 20-Jul-17 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 25-Jul-17 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 26-Jul-17 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 31-Jul-17 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 1-Aug-17 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2-Aug-17 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 3-Aug-17 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| 7-Aug-17 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8-Aug-17 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 9-Aug-17 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 10-Aug-17 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 14-Aug-17 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 15-Aug-17 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 16-Aug-17 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 17-Aug-17 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 21-Aug-17 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 22-Aug-17 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 23-Aug-17 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 24-Aug-17 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
TOTALS
| Approved | Refused | Deferred | Withdrawn | No Power | |
| 96 | 65 | 55 | 11 | 5 | |
| Apps. Reviewed | Decisions | Backlog | |||
| 232 | 161 | 1,000 |
Category: Immigration
Dont care what you say Bermuda still has a better Immigration System than Cayman(anonymous 28/8/17 6:13pm) I challenge you go back to Bermuda now apply for a work permit and then apply for Bermuda Status tell me the results. Why are you still not there? Those immigration laws in the 80’s has now become defunct.
Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.
Cant you adopt the Bermuda system? Five years work permit take it or leave and the only you way you will be privelege to obtain a work permit no Bermudan wants the job. You will not have the opportunity to apply for PR, Bermuda /Status or take judicial action to obtain any of them. When your time is up go back to your country. CIG give it a try. Try to find new revenue, dont let it become a survival issue, you can do it CIG!
Nope. Alden signed us up to Human Rights principles Bermuda does not have to follow.
No true. ECHR extends to the same substantive extent in both.
Ah, but read our Bill of Rights, and compare it to theirs, and anyway, do they have a right of direct petition to Strasbourg or not? We do!
You people spouting off general and often deceptive laws/rights are so annoying..more evidence you expats and ambulance chasing lawyers must thing we are stupid.
Because Bermudans are smart people not gullible.
Bro, have you seen their outfits?
Now sit back and watch Work Permit numbers grow when the new Caymanians bring in more of their own as happened after the 2003 Status giveaway when Mac handed Cayman to 80% Riff Raff. Grant 5 year permits scrap P/R & bring back the C/S 12 a year quota. Everyone else roll over at end of permit.
Wouldn’t most of those earning PR now have been classified key workers under the old system and exempt from rollover? Without Caymanian family it’s hard to get enough points to get PR… http://www.immigration.gov.ky/portal/page/portal/immhome/livinghere/permanentresidence/points
I qualified, did not attempt nor even want to bring someone else In. What is your problem?
This pass rate should tell us is that many of the applicants were justified in filing their applications when they did, and those applications that were unlawfully detained since that filing date represent potential future lawsuits/public purse liability which Alden created all by himself. That’s the only part of this that makes me mad.
This Caymanian would like to formally welcome the successful new Permanent Residents, apologize on behalf of our inept CIG leadership for the delay, and wish them luck in their next application for Naturalisation as a British Overseas Territories Person. You’ve clearly earned it.
Or that our government is afraid of getting sued by ungrateful non-belongers
Why would they be afraid unless they knew they had broken the law and that the voting public was going to discover that not only was the Cayman Islands Government being exposed to liability but also that investor confidence was being shaken by their incompetence?
Investor confidence..way to drop a buzz phrase that has nothing to do with this situation….Out government is weak…that why they are scared.
It has everything to do with this situation!
9:14 am, well said. that is correct ungrateful non -belongers. They that are grateful to get a chance to live and work here and don’t run down Cayman and its people, we say welcome and thank you.
I strongly recommend that you invite Ministers responsible for Immigration/Border Control from Bermuda, Bahamas and Turks&Caicos to the Cayman Islands for them to explain how they maintain effective Immigration Policies in their respective countries. I dare you ex-pats go to anyone of these mentioned countries and apply for PR if you are lucky to obtain a work permit. Only in the Cayman Islands this crap could happen! At lesst none of these countries depend on revenue from Immigration. Much less to take judicial action. So stop whining Cayman still not bad after all.
Those islands are hell hole due to their lack of civilized people.
I lived (& worked) in Bermuda & left even though I could have applied for & obtained status there in the 80’s. Why would cayman want to be like there?
Racist with strong unions casing social dissent. Economy in a slump & cost of living sky high (property two to three times the cost here). Drugs rampant & education a disgrace.
Why don’t you move there (if only for the allowed 5 years) & then say we should be more like them,
Same happenings in Cayman. At least Bermudans first. How many cases of PR /Status have gone before their courts tell me? How many expats like yourself have gotten jobs over their Bermudans?
Your are sick at least they are not hypocrites like you they are patriots dont take bullshit . No guts live in denial bigots uneducated and the list goes on
3:38 pm, you must be un-civilized to be here, after all only birds of one kind of feathers flock together. If these Islands are hell holes, why don’t you leave, we don’t want or need you kind here, leave on the next flight out of here, thank you.
Why would I go there and apply when I have it here?
Nope …staying put bro
Good, good, let the hate flow through you.
Obi Wan says that is bad.
In a galaxy far, far away a politician seeks power by encouraging a fearful soul to hate those that are different to him. To be fair, trying to gain political support by blaming immigrants is a well worn path for second rate politicians and third rate human beings the world over. The sad thing is it usually works. Briefly.
We Caymanians don’t hate all expats, only the one that thinks they are better than us and run down these Islands, the others we love you all and
welcome you all here, God bless you good people.
For the avoidance of any doubt… that’s a quote from Star Wars, not a call to hate anyone; quite the opposite. When someone tells you how terrible your life is, that it’s all the fault of a disparate group of people and that the only solution is to give them power; then we’re heading down a well worn path that never ends well for anyone.
Alden is the Angela Merkel of Cayman. He should be called Angular McLetemin. He has open the borders and given the country away. Was it is his to give away? Isn’t it just being held in trust for future generations? Some of these PR applicants have such a massive sense of entitlement they went with the ambulance chasers and sued the Caymanian People ( the government is of the people remember) to gain entrance. Sued the Caymanian people!
It doesn’t matter if the government took too long to make a decision that’s the way it is. The applicant could always return home. Whoever designed these PR rules was either an idiot and/or corrupt. Yet these PR supporters squeal ‘those are the rules!’ “The rules of your government!’. Rules that probably corrupt lawyers or KPMG created so they didn’t have to attract through high salaries and train people. They like to consult and charge big money for useless recommendations. I can’t remember the story of it all but I digress.
Rollover was the best policy and should never have been abandoned. They should have shortened it to 5 years from 7. The expat wouldn’t have put down roots if it was only for 5 years and should have received his pension at the end. They would have made a tidy sum and received their pensions and gained some good experience. They could come back after 1 year and there even could have been a work permit category for returning expats.
Now jobs and opportunities will dry up. There are only a finite number of senior positions and now the PR expats will just sit in them for the next 20 years. If they had been rolled over their positions would have become available and would give an opportunity for other expats and Caymanians with the emphasis on Caymanian. That’s gone forever. Its good for employers as with no positions available there won’t be much movement in the labour market. They won’t have to offer higher salaries to retain staff. They won’t have to invest in training (hmm I remember this being a government requirement of employers, maybe Caymanians can sue the government for not enforcing those rules). No opportunities or wage rises means unmotivated employees. So much for the lazy Caymanian thesis. There should be a negligent lazy employer meme running in these islands. Negligent in that they won’t promote locals. Lazy in that they don’t want to train. If a mid level manager was being rolled over then the HR won’t be LAZY and will have to train and identify talent to replace them. One expat is rolled over a space is opened up in the labour market. That space might trickle down to a school leaver. Ain’t going to happen now.
The other myth is the “The island will collapse without us!” err Nope. if you are that important your employer will relocate you and have you doing your tasks by remote. How often does that happen. People will come to Cayman if the wages are right. People came before. Key employee should have been removed as well. As above they will relocate you if you’re that essential. Some Director in London doesn’t care if some mid level manager in Cayman is rolled over. The regional managers will have to ensure that the HR is on top of the training and succession planning. Right now they can sit around and do sweet nothing. They love this PR. They don’t even have to advertise the position anymore and bend it to their man’s resume!
For the Caymanian worker all this does is breed resentment and division. They live here and if opportunities and salaries are closed off well you will get a 2 tier society. The expats will network at the top and get each others kids jobs. That’s how humans work. The other thing PR does, is act as a demand stimulant for real estate. The PR applicant has to invest in real estate in Cayman; as such prices rise. How is this good for the Caymanian starting out trying to build a family home? Gee pay more for a house. Spend longer times on the roads as the population rises.
If a two tier society develops look to an increase in crime in the next few years.
Basically with you but remember, people only sued to enforce rights that had been given to them. No-one should be critisised for enforcing their rights. If anyone is wrongly giving rights, they are the people who should be criticized.
they took too long…boo hoo..sue sue
Through no fault of my own and purely due to unlawful conduct my child faced deportation that has known no other home since they were 8 years old, I could not move forward with my career costing me thousands of dollars a year, I could not get mortgage financing to buy a new home, my employer refused to hire a requested Caymanian (or any) assistant given the uncertainty as to my team’s future presence in Cayman, my spouse could not get a job as any employer was required to go through the full work permit rigmarole every few months, and none of my calls, letters and pleas for assistance were ever responded to, all in breach of Cayman law and basic fundamental rights and after exhausting every possible alternative, and very reluctantly, it became appropriate to ask the court to intervene.
I wonder what your breaking point would be?
Sounds like another LAZY and NEGLIGENT employer. They didn’t want to hire a Caymanian, or train one. Not only that if I had that going on with me, I would have returned to my original country. If there was rollover this would not have happened to you. However what was the cost to you really? You think you should be moving on with your career? You decided to sue to get a decision so you could move up the corporate ladder. How do you know that is what would happen? I thought you were here to train a Caymanian into your role? That is really the employer’s responsibility. If you were rolled over a Caymanian would be doing your role given your comment that a Caymanian was suppose to assist you. Your role might be offshored anyway. Now you will take the role that a Caymanian could have had and you will sit in that role for the next 20 years.
I have been training Caymanians and when and if I step up the ladder, I very much hope and expect a Caymanian will step in to take my place.
8:26 am, A Caymanian should step up the ladder and a Caymanian getting your job that you is in now, that s the way the system should work, This is the only County Caymanians have, you have another.
8:33 pm, if it was so bad why didn’t you just go back home, or was it worse in your home country ? at least you have a country to go back to, we Caymanians have no place to go to.
Well said. These grants will seal no future for our children or grandchildren. The system is so open for abuse. They come in to the private sector and then find their way into government. Once they get PR, they then adopt all their overseas relatives and place them on CINICO, further burdening our healthcare system. Why our leaders in government can’t see through the mess they have created.
What on earth are you talking about? Who do you imagine is getting PR?
5;25 pm, you are 100% right and the people that thumbs downs to your remarks are either expats (that don’t care about Cayman) or fools, big fools.
Thanks for the warning on crime.
It all comes back to the same issue. Hold you politicians to account and stop blaming the expats. If you didn’t want rollover to be rolled over, you should have done something about it with your vote.
Seems to me it’s the Caymanians that should be suing the government…there is no doubt that your premier has cared little about his people and more about foreign perception….very weak leader.
What’s the downside here. In the end you get 400-500 new Caymanians who already have good jobs, homes and families. They didn’t steal these things from Caymanians, they are new things that came from growth. The intake amounts to less than 100 a year. Would you be better off without them? Their empty homes will drive down real estate values, none of the 1500 unemployed will get their jobs, their spending and money will leave, business will be hurt. No one is going to benefit by running them off.
It’s the Trump method. Scare people
Trump method only works on xenophobic people.
CNS – the August numbers seem to indicate a two thirds approval rate in relation to applications which have been determined.
It seems granting of PR hasn’t got more recognition than getting Caymanians back to work and combatting of crime. I guess these two Govt will not gain revenue! Who is really fit to lead? Honestly do you really think Caymanians are at the forefront of these so called politiciians mind or placed at the backburners. I would suggest holding off, get things into proper prospectives, get our border control properly equipped and manned. Aren’t you not cognizant that Jamaican fugitives are now ilfiltrating the Cayman Islands as a haven to escape justice. Anyway when of the these fugitives commit a heinious crime in Cayman then there will be advisories and warnings as this is the norm something has to happen. England US Canada deported a lot of them now Cayman will be their refuge. Get our youths back to work or in a vocational environment instead of riding around on dirt bikes to rob and steal. Put your priority in order. Stop being in denial. Before increasing the population get the house in order!
Do you know any Jamaican hiding out here. The problem with caymanians is that you are so lazy, you sit and blame government and expats for your laziness. You all should be glad for us because if it was not for us you would still be stupid as duck. Get up off your rass and get a job
I’m an expat, but I’ll say this. STOP your offensive generalizing! You feel better for it.
We don’t want our country to become like yours, full of illiteracy and aggression like the tone you have posted. You all have now come to a place that we built from nothing. We are all not lazy, but very smart for not wanting your problems. It is easy for expats to call us names when they have no idea of our heritage and what we sacrificed over many years to build what we now have.
If they couldn’t make it home then why are they here? Yes we are entitled to what we have built and rightfully so. If you don’t like our ways then do what your PM Michael said “there are five flights a day to Miami”, catch one nuh!
6:59 pm, we good Expats and Caymannian would like you to leave and go home, for we don’t need or want people like you here, leave us and go, so we can continue to work together and continue to make Cayman great, so just go and thank you for leaving.
PS, you must be a stupid duck, for it takes a stupid duck to want to be with
stupid ducks, so leave and then you may not be one.
Have you ever been outside Cayman?
1;38 am, you are right but you voted for the Politicians, so blame your self and the other fools.
So do you think maybe you should have waited a bit on your liberal work permit policy once you go rid of the rollover…in truth your incredible over-employment makes up for quite a few of the underemployed Caymanians out there….stop making decisions man..please.
Over employment? Wow. That’s a new one.
Well the majority of us re-elected the weakest leader ever as premier….maybe you didn’t give away your future…but you elected the guy who did…thanks Aldumb.
No massive PR grant……..ha, ha, ha, ha!!
Could immigration please also tell us, each time they grant PR, how many dependents are also getting it? It would make an interesting extra column and help make sense of the actual number of people involved.
No. If they did it would mean the number of grants would be three times as big, and the maths would start being too much for the premier to even try to explain away.
Selling out.
Expats win again! Get what they want no matter what even if they threaten to sue Givernment who gave the opportunity in the first place.
They gave the opportunity, enshrined it in law and then didn’t follow the law until they got sued.
Do you want the laws of the land followed or not?
Nothing to do with expats…people are just pursuing their rights under the law of the land .
Trump like view, regardless of facts
Simply put, that is a crock of shit.Well done, Rooster 109, and Radio Cayman, Your efforts at providing a xenophobic base for our future development are bearing fruit.
Rooster is a private radio station, and I respect their right to put forward whatever political agenda they chose,
I am less enamoured with Radio Cayman, the Government’s own radio station, having a daily talk show hosted by “moderators” and “guest hosts” which boil down to a panel of OC Conner, Steve McField, Gilbert McLain, and like-minded Independence-minded individuals, plus a handful repeat callers, given free reign to push their agenda day after day, on a station paid for by the general public.
The truth is that the vast majority of Caymanian voters reject the idea of independence from the UK. It is abhorrent that government money is spent to provide these minority dissenters with a tool to broadcast their personal political agendas without rebuttal.
Truthsayer
Thanks for the tip on where to listen to steve mc field. I’m craving his wise words ever since the sacred vessel defence.
You should have listened to the belly fat flush defence.
There were standards set by Caymanians. If they met them then so be it. The applicants did not set the rules. The Caymanian Cayman Islands Government representatives did. Move on and seek love in your heart to remove the anger and bitterness you seem to hold towards people for complying with set criteria.
Personally, I hole they are people who won’t have to be booking appointments at the NAU anytime soon unlike so many who get PR through marriage for example.
8:01 No, the rule of law won here. CIG can’t enact legislation and then try to ignore it, which is exactly what was happening with the PR applications.
It’s exactly what happens with most of the laws they make
It seems the PR system is now the only place the rule of law is prevailing! There is so much crap going on everywhere you turn.
The environmental law for example. Its now a stupid law because the government might actually have to follow it.
Sucks to be a narrow minded nationalist bigot then doesn’t it?
Why winners and losers? Both can win.
The Government was very foolish to put in place where an expat can sue the government and get money and P R at the same time, very stupid indeed.
I was looking at the photo showing storm surge damage to Texas coast after hurricane Ike and thinking who in their right mind would want to invest in real estate in the Cayman Islands, a flat rock surrounded by water?
Does it look a bit like the Grand Cayman coast? https://www.lavieenrose.com/en/nightie-neutral-brown-67671
What a stupid comment 7.39, you are clearly bitter about something and have an anti Cayman agenda.
Yeah boy, dem grapes wha real sour eh?
&:39 pm, if you are afraid of Hurricanes water invest in a piece of land on the Bluff Cayman BRAC.