Board and staff still face 800+ PR applications
(CNS): The Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board and the Department of Immigration administrative staff assigned to reviewing the backlog of residency applications still face a pile of more than 800 applications, officials confirmed Tuesday. Although they have made considerable progress over the last two months, having now completed over 300 applications, there is still some way to go before the mountain of applications, some of which have been waiting for more than three years, are dealt with. Over the last week another 48 applications were reviewed and only one of those was deferred.
Since the boards and staff began working on the stalled backlog in May, 44% of applications that have been reviewed were granted permanent residency while 29% were refused. Another 21%, or 86 applications, have been deferred to allow the people involved to update what are in some cases very old applications. In total, the board has reviewed 419 applications from over a 1,000 that were waiting to be considered.
While progress is clearly now being made, the government is still facing a number of legal challenges regarding the delays, but so far no legal claims have been made by applicants who have been refused residency but who have lived continuously in Cayman for more than ten years. Many legal experts believe that a legal challenge from an applicant in such a position could set an important legal precedent.
| Meeting Date | Approved | Refused | Deferred | Withdrawn | No Power |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 |
| 28-Aug-17 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 29-Aug-17 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 30-Aug-17 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 31-Aug-17 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 1-Sep-17 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 4-Sep-17 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 5-Sep-17 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6-Sep-17 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 8-Sep-17 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 11-Sep-17 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 12-Sep-17 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 13-Sep-17 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 14-Sep-17 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 15-Sep-17 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 18-Sep-17 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 19-Sep-17 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 20-Sep-17 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 21-Sep-17 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 22-Sep-17 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Totals
| Approved | Refused | Deferred | Withdrawn | No Power |
| 185 | 123 | 86 | 16 | 9 |
| Apps. Reviewed | Decisions | Backlog | ||
| 419 | 308 | 802 |
Category: Local News
The most adamant to receive their PR are also the first in line for the plane after the big storm pass through.
Some folks simply can’t face daily equality or close proximity with the natives.
Ugly truth.
And? Just because they have somewhere civilised to go to does not make them bad people.
How should native Caymanians regard the PR Caymanians who share your mindset?
Thank you for illustrating the main reason behind the modern phenom of societal frictions in the country.
Lastly, why didn’t those particular PR’s remain in their wonderfully civilised home country in the first place?
Clearly Cayman is a better option – and I could never envision myself scrambling to become a citizen of ANY OTHER country.
Must suck to be them…and you.
Can we really drop this story now!
185 approvals are still a drop in the ocean compared with the 3,000 or so status grants that Mr Bush issued on a whim, without any checks.
Remember all the successful P/R applicants have been thoroughly vetted and should be a great asset to the Cayman community, having invested here and contributed to the Cayman economy.
You are forgetting that for every grant there may be a spouse and a number of children who are getting PR automatically. The children will themselves marry, often expats, who will then stay themselves. Compound interest in human form.
8.42am Are you suggesting all the spouses and children of the 3000 status grants had to leave the island?, think again!.
I think you should be just as worried about the 140 turned down and withdrawn. That could mean 140 individuals leaving, or 500 if they are families. That’s a fair amount of empty apartments and lost business….
I don’t see it in the morning traffic or in places in the schools.
I would imagine they’ve been given sometime to wrap up their affairs and leave. These expats being turned down have been earning and spending for a while, probably traded up from a shared apartment, to renting a house, going out and spending more in restaurants, made friends, entertaining etc. Usually means they have more, and will spend more, than a new incomer that replaces them. It would be interesting if someone did an analysis on how much an expat pumps into the economy in year 1 vs year 7.
They will appeal and win if they want to stay. No one is going anywhere if they do not want to.
Yep … Check all the construction. We soon double the population.
It will not have any effect on the population. All of these people are already here and have been so for the last decade. They are the faces you recognize in the street. Actually if there is any impact on population it is to reduce it by virtue of the fact that those who are unsuccessful will have to leave.
May i ask where all these people work and then where will their children work…. more caymanians with out jobs….. there is not enough work and future work to support all these approvals… worried about the future
They and their children will dominate the economy. Caymanians may be further marginalized until the society collapses. Then the wealthy will leave and we will be like every other Caribbean Island.
Good to have foresight…#visionary
8:28, if Caymanians are as brilliant as Ezzard and Steve McField and Orrett Connor like to suggest, why would these people “dominate the economy”?
Because they network and they practice in group preference. They also on average earn more money therefore their babies will go to better schools and they can pay ridiculous college fees. Their kids will get better jobs and inequality will arise in a high cost of living place like Cayman. So if you are a young caymanian who is completing an accounting designation you will find that opportunities for you to advance and be an example to others are limited. Whoever got rid of rollover should be hung for treason they probably listened to KPMG who wanted to keep bringing in work permits to keep their wages down and addicted to growth and government consulting fees worldwide.
A fairer system for all: 5 years for all work permits and your pension given to you. if you marry a Caymanian, congratulations you are in the club. if you are the father or mother of a caymanian child out of wedlock you get PR (this should dry up if more caymanians can achieve a middle class life through the implementation of rollover so not that bad an idea in the long run). If not come back after a year and you will find that there will be more opportunities due to rollover. If you are so brilliant and/or your human resources department are too lazy, then your employer will likely grant you the chance to do your job by remote and then you come back.
These are people that are already here and have been for many years.
Some of them even sued the government to hurry up their decisions so their precious careers were not harmed.
the audacity!
These people have contributed to the islands and invested here, am I naive and think they are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts? No, but I am smart enough to see the benefits of having them here contributing to society and adding to the islands.
Would you not be upset if you followed all the rules and procedures that the government laid out for you for years just to have them leave your application in a room collecting dust, if the government had done their jobs for the last three years there wouldn’t be a backlog and there wouldn’t have needed to be costly legal action. You realize if these lawsuits hadn’t started rolling in those applications would STILL be in the room collecting dust and growing in numbers (this is coming from a caymanian so you don’t have to bother with the generic angry we are better than you and you will know your place comments)
Yes. Caymanians should sue the government for failing to enforce the rules regarding work permits on employers.
One of the reasons why we need 20,000+ expats to come work here in the first place is because their is a demand for a certain sized workforce and a limited population that couldn’t meet the demand. Unless there are 20,000 educated and unemployed caymanians just hiding in the Pirate caves down in BT that we don’t know about. According to the ESO only 20.3% of the Caymanian population 15 years or older have a bachelor’s or higher degree (for reference the US population aged 25 and older is at nearly 40 percent and the UK is between 30 and 40% ) , and we wonder why employers would pass over caymanian applicants for expats, yes some of the applicants have the same qualifications as expats, but that number suggests that most probably don’t. Don’t get me wrong a degree is a piece of paper saying you spent *insert time here* at *insert educational institution here* and experience is still valid for those older persons who don’t have degrees and have already established themselves in the working world but if you don’t think that that number is going to be a problem for new generations of caymanians then you are sadly mistaken, of course not every vocation requires a degree but, if persons are going to complain about all the high paying jobs and “high ranking positions” being taken by expats we need to educate caymanian leaders in their respective fields to enter the working world and open the door to those behind them. A good future isn’t going to be handed to us by anyone we have to fight for it and take what is ours so that we can pass it on to those who come after us.
Alden needs to grow some and admit taking away roll over was a mistake…every day more people are applying
If Ezzard wasn’t still alive he’d be turning in his grave.
Funny!