PR backlog mounts due to sham marriage focus
(CNS): The backlog of permanent residency applications based on length of stay continues to grow as officials focus their attention on the problem of sham marriages. The majority of PR applications are by work permit holders or residents who have been here for eight years and apply via the points system, but the government’s priority is investigating the relatively few applications based on marriage to a Caymanian. The government believes marriages of convenience are on the rise and resources are being diverted to investigate these applications and other issues.
The Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board is still not deliberating on the points-based applications, according to a local law firm that specialises in immigration applications and is representing hundreds of foreign nationals who have applied for permanent residency based on the time lived here in the Cayman Islands.
In a regular email sent to the firm’s long list of clients awaiting a decision on their applications, Nick Joseph from HSM said the board was “actively dealing with the widespread issue of sham marriages”, the ongoing review of the points system, and processing applications for status as well as residency and employment rights certificates for the spouses of Caymanians.
Labour Minister Chris Saunders has raised concern about sham marriages on a number of occasions. Speaking in December, he said Caymanians were selling out their birthright and making a mockery of marriage, the traditional foundation of family life in Cayman. According to WORC, in 2022 its enforcement unit investigated 175 sham marriage reports and 114 cases resulted in “adverse findings”.
As the board focuses on this illegal practice, Joseph said that the time it takes to process all other PR applications is increasing. He said that PR applications under the points system are being handled by the director of WORC and his team of about five fully trained administrators who have processed over 100 applications since their appointment. But he warned that the current processing time for points-based PR applications is still about 16 months.
“As of this week, the authorities are writing to applicants who applied a year ago… and inviting them to update their applications,” he said in the most recent email.
With a growing backlog, some applicants awaiting a decision reach a ten-year residency mark, which gives them the legal ammunition to stay regardless of the points they have gained.
However, Joseph has alerted his clients to a new legal difficulty, namely the changing demographics that could make or break an application. There are now 135 different nationalities among the more than 34,000 work permit holders currently residing in the Cayman Islands.
Jamaicans account for almost 43% of permit holders and Filipinos account for 15.5%, but there is a growing number of people from India, who now make up more than 5.8%. This is likely to impact those applicants as it reduces the potential points given to nationalities that make up less than 5% of work permit holders.
Joseph said that Indian nationals face losing five points because they are now the fourth largest group, just behind UK nationals. The Permanent Residence Points System rewards rarer nationalities with more points while penalising those that appear over-represented.
Joseph said that WORC has never been clear about the timing at which the points for nationality are applied and who is counted in the overall total for each country at that moment, whether it is just those on an annual permit or includes government workers and other categories of expatriates.
“Of the many details we have sought for most of a decade is the question of whether it is the population on date of application, the date of the 8th anniversary of applicant’s arrival as a resident, or the date of consideration of their application,” he wrote. “We have never received clear guidance. Nor is there any indication of what happens when an application is delayed in its consideration by so long, through no fault of an applicant, that the statistics materially change in a manner adverse to an applicant.”
He said that denying an Indian national residency because of a delay in the process would appear unlawful and unlikely to survive a legal challenge.
Joseph said there was a “great multitude of other issues” that remain unclear, including how certain policies are interpreted by WORC and the boards, which results in uncertainties and potential arbitrariness of the application process.
The top 12 nationalities on work permits at the end of 2022 according to WORC were:
| COUNTRY OF ORIGIN | NUMBER OF WORKERS | PROPORTION OF WP HOLDERS |
| Jamaica | 14,586 | 42.8% |
| Philippines | 5,284 | 15.5% |
| UK | 1,983 | 5.8% |
| India | 1,899 | 5.5% |
| Honduras | 1,234 | 3.6% |
| Canada | 1,218 | 3.6% |
| USA | 930 | 2.7% |
| Nicaragua | 706 | 2.1% |
| Nepal | 627 | 1.8% |
| South Africa | 626 | 1.8% |
| Ireland | 402 | 1.2% |
| Guyana | 310 | 0.9% |
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Category: Local News
In an effort to curb illegal migration, reduce crime and provide better employment opportunities, the Biden administration’s new policy is for migrants from to pass National Security and Background Check, buy a plane ticket, obtain financial sponsorship and meet other requirements, they would be allowed to legally enter the United States under the “parole program” and they would be authorized to live and work in the US for two years.
Federal figures from the 2022 fiscal year show that US border agents stopped migrants more than 2m times along the southern border, setting an all-time record.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/08/biden-us-mexico-border-title-42-migrants
Here at home in the Cayman Islands, Sham Marriages of convience are becomming not just an Immigration problem, but it is also begining to create criminal offences where foriegn nationals on work permits are offering frustrated unemployed lonely Caymanians sums of money, offering a non-intimate or non-sexual relationship to take care of them in exchange to get married and remain on the Island which was described by one local Minister of Parliment of making a mockery of the marriage union
https://caymannewsservice.com/2023/02/pr-backlog-mounts-due-to-sham-marriage-focus/
A Government Workshop for Marriage Officials published in the Loop Cayman News recently highlighted some of the reasons marriage of convience are on the raise, they are as follows:
Common scenarios include, but not limited to:
• individuals reaching their term limit for remaining in the Islands
• having a work permit refused
• having a final extension to remain issued by Customs & Border Control (CBC)
• loss of immigration-related appeals
• denial of permanent residency or Caymanian status, among other reasons
https://cayman.loopnews.com/content/govt-workers-do-workshop-how-spot-marriages-convenience
What bothers me most about this whole situation, is why the Cayman Border Control and Immigration Departnent is not conducting or requiring Background Checks for a Work Permits to be approved
Allowing person’s who have Rights to Work by way of Married to a Caymanian to apply for Naturalization after just one of year is also a great contribution to the increase in “sham marriages” Once they become Naturalized they apply for a Passport and that’s all they want. Person who hold a Cayman passport can Travel to US without Visa and that is what some Nationalities in particular want.
You need a Visa to go to the US.
Cayman passport holder can travel to the US on a Visa Waiver
with a cayman passport you are then eligible under the waiver program to enter the us
Cubans # 1
Third world is as third world does. Pretend all you want as it does not change things.
I did a few weddings way back but one in particular i did the guy refused to smile with his bride while they posed, him and his goon friend giggled at each other saying “ hello” mi nah smile” jus tek the pic nuh. That was the last one i ever did i refused to be part of these obvious scam weddings. Sickening , its fool young caymanian marrying these goons and selling out Cayman, truth told
report them?
junior i agree with u a million % cause all he has to mention to them is money and house and there goes another marriage for convenience which often times disinfranchise a real caymanian of the soil from getting a good job in his/her country knowing that once they gets tjere foot inside the door that job becomes a goner possibly for good
The same is true for a Caymanian marrying ANY foreigner regardless of reason, no?
Of course WORCs failure to deal with applications within a reasonable time frame doesn’t stop them from charging annual fees in the meantime.
If you don’t like it you can leave. Nobody said you are guaranteed anything!
You are guaranteed due process under the law of this country.
The idea that they are actively dealing with status applications in the alternative to PR is laughable. WORC has told me they are being dealt with in order of submission. My application is currently scheduled to be heard 19 months after it was submitted. Except it’s scheduled to be heard on a public holiday, so there is really no intention to hear it then at all. Status applications are straightforward under the law – you have either done the time or you haven’t. Yet it’s taking over a year to deal with them? A clear policy decoy not to grant PR, not to grant status, irrespective of what the law says, until such h time as they are forced to by the courts and can then blame the influx on someone else. Pathetic.
It shouldn’t take a civil servant more than a morning to check the veracity of a status application. There’s nothing in it CIG don’t have already save for the 3 reference letters from Caymanians.
Clear cut status applications should be nothing more than a rubber stamp exercise.
If you’ve been granted PR and BOTC and you’ve submitted a clean police clearance, there is absolutely no excuse for it to take long.
It is absolute daylight robbery that those who have reached 15 years have to continue paying WP fees whilst waiting on their rubber stamp.
There is no excuse for the delays, other than incompetence and ineptitude.
If only it were incompetence and ineptitude. Its policy direction. Government has told the civil service and the board not to do their work and process the applications, but keep charging the fees. And the DG and the Governor, who have responsibility for the orderly execution of government in a BOTC, look the other way.
Ha! The DG has been a big part of the problem! You all forget his many years in Immigration. He is also responsible for naturalizations. Anyone did an audit on those applications and examined how the rules are applied and for whom? No I guess not.
Then it should not be a rubber stamp. The requirements should become extremely difficult, onerous, inconvenient and expensive. Why should it be easier?
My husband’s status application was scheduled to be heard on a public holiday three separate times. Either it’s done purposefully to kick the can down the road or whoever schedules these things needs a list of public holidays.
Its done on purpose – WORC even told me that! They claim that they have too many applications to list them all, so they list the ones they intend to hear for actual Board dates, and the rest get listed for a public holiday. I was list for 3 successive public holidays over the course of 13 months. Then got an e mail saying because my application was over a year old they needed me to submit more information, following which it was briefly listed for a real Board date. After supplying that info, none of which is actually required by the regulations, it was listed for a Sunday. Now its back to being listed for a public holiday. How does anyone in CIG think this kind of policy would withstand 5 seconds of scrutiny by a judicial review? I guess one interpretation is that they are so stupid they don’t appreciate that. But realistically no one is that dumb. They just dont care. Its like the old status crisis, or the furor over PR a few years ago. They know granting PR and making new Caymanians is politically unpopular but economically necessary, so they just want someone else – the judiciary – to blame.
CIG is embarrassing. Third world services
All you complaining are here because this must not be such a third world place.
CNS wrote : CNS: …Cultures evolve and immigration is just one of many factors and has many positive economic and cultural benefits.”
And how did immigration work out for the Australian Aborigines or the Canadian Indigenous people? Did they benefit from the cultural exchange?
Just wondering.
CNS: This appears to be continuing this thread, for those who are confused.
So, if we’re talking about the conquest, subjugation and terrorisation of people, we’re going back to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough before that this was catastrophic for the Anglo-Saxons living there at the time, as it has been for all people throughout history who are conquered, subjugated and terrorised, including the Australian Aborigines and the indigenous peoples of North America.
I hope you don’t think that’s what happening in the UK now or that this should be part of a discussion about immigration here or in the UK. I just don’t understand what point you are trying to make.
You may wish to rethink. But whatever makes you sleep better at night. Bugs and other critters on the menu next?
Thank you, CNS.
5 minutes French kiss test is the only means to conclude if it’s a sham marriage or not. Shabba
It’s hard to munch on some one else’s tongue for that long unless it’s true love or they’re dam hot. I think in most of these sham marriages it’s neither and couple will gag after 20 seconds like Newman trying to eat brócoli on that Seinfeld episode “Vile weed!”
ahh what a tangled web we weave when we’re trying to lead the country to independence from the much hated motherland… be careful who you vote for, folks.
Do you really think that is the agenda?
Without oversight from London and the Privy Council, financial services would flee Cayman, destroying the economy and sending it back to the days of fishing and turtle farming.
Surely no one is that stupid?
Stupid? Have you listened to our elected leaders? They don’t have one brain between the lot of them.
Those who agitate for independence don’t care about financial services because neither they nor their supporters are qualified to play any part in it. They see $950m of government revenue and want a piece of it without FCO oversight.
Without recognizing how that $950 million is generated.
Just remember how we got to the mass status grants. CIG decided that despite the Law they would no longer grant status to anyone, not even feign reviewing applications. It took one man with resources and tenacity to challenge this blatant breach of the Law. Privy Council agreed and here we are today with an immigration system that has literally changed the rules every few years and made a mess of due process. All people want is their applications to be heard so they can move on with their lives.
Instead of mass grants. The law should immediately become more strict. Retroactively include everyone and have mass refusals. Problem solved. Start again and apply if you want to stay. If you don’t then find another offshore jurisdiction to apply to live. Cayman is transient anyway. There won’t be a crash. There’s always someone else right behind.
the hypocrites who lobby politicians to make immigration laws are to blame….why should a caymanian kid born out of wedlock be treated different than one that is? remember jesus said. “suffer the little children to come onto me for such is the kingdom of god!” not just legiditimate ones…
It shouldn’t be hard to come up with a set of criteria to determine if any marriage is sham on real.
Next we take that set of criteria and apply it against known and verifiable actions by politicians over the last 50 years while supposedly out on hustings, and tell me how many of them have real marriages.
I think any of us can probably look at a marriage and determine if it’s obviously legit or obviously a sham. I suspect there’s a substantial grey area of people living chaotic lives bouncing between part time jobs, legal issues, multiple children by multiple partners, temporary rented addresses etc… where any fixed rules on what we might think constitutes a legitimate marriage falls apart.
Interesting enough the Filipinos and Indian’s are only here to send money home. So they bunk up together in camps and form there own subculture and trade only amongst themselves when they have the option.
Jamaicans are running from their own cultural failures and are here to plant roots at all costs. This means they will sooner rather than later flip Cayman into a little Jam Rock. Full of crime and theft.
Caymanians capability of understanding what’s on the horizon. Just look to the UK and Ireland immigration issues. And the fact that their ancient cultures are being diluted to nonexistent.
CNS: The last wave of immigrants that arrived in Britain and obliterated the local culture was in the 11th century. They were French of Scandinavian descent. Luckily, British culture has evolved since then because the Normans and their descendents (the British aristocracy) were brutal and callous. There is no “ancient culture” in the UK. Cultures evolve and immigration is just one of many factors and has many positive economic and cultural benefits.
Here in Cayman, the biggest problem and destabilising issue is the speed with which the population is expanding and the inability of succesive govenments to understand the negative impact on the people and intrastructure of uncontrolled and rapid immigration. Hence the crime and traffic issues, the declining environment and unaffordable real estate, etc.
I really don’t understand the racist contempt levied towards those poorest unfortunates duped into moving here to be indentured for $6.50/hr. I doubt anyone in that category is sending much home that Cayman will miss. Why don’t these xenophobes look in the mirror and get angry with their millionaire and billionaire permit holders (including inter-generational Caymanian families) that quietly fail to give back in any proportion to their ongoing luxuriation and enrichment.
the last wave of immigrants to arrive in the UK and obliterate the culture are the illegal boat people now arriving…. to which the UK government do nothing to stop.
CNS: 1) Rishi Sunak says people arriving in UK illegally will be deported ‘within days’. Whatever you think of the Tory proposals, it is just nonsense to say that the government is doing nothing. For one, most of them are deported.
2) There are 67 million people in the UK. Illegal immigration is a problem. It is not obliterating the culture, except in the minds of neonazis and “Outraged” from Middle England.
3) You destabalize the Middle East with wars or prop up autocratic regimes, you get illegal immigration. Happy people don’t embark on dangerous journeys, desperate people do.
With respect, whilst I understand the points which CNS purports to make, there are compelling counter arguments, which I (and many others) consider outweigh them:
1. Sunak’s attempt to introduce a deportation route to Rwanda is at the very earliest stages, and has very many hurdles yet to overcome. On a point of fact, it is simply incorrect to say that the majority are deported: in fact, well over 95% secure de facto residency by simply disappearing into the UK population. (Happy to cites sources if requested, but not ex tempore – let me know, and I’ll come back at the weekend with more time).
2. It is unfair to castigate those concerned about cultural issues as “neonazis”. For example, to grasp the scale of the various UK grooming gang scandals it is be helpful to keep a track of where they have occurred: Telford, Newcastle, Rochdale, Rotherham, Oxford, Halifax, Keighley, Derby, Peterborough, London huddersfield, Manchester, Oldham, etc. please see a tragically longer list here, in which I do cite sources to the BBC, Guardian, etc. as I respect that this is an incendiary point, and one which ought not to be adduced without authoritative evidence: https://controlc.com/d1a95aa4. I have professional experience in sexual assault cases. This is a deeply unpleasant area: that is however all the more reason why we should talk about it.
3. It is unfair to both (a) advance a blanket criticism of interventions in the Middle East; and (2) link it to immigration. As we have seen since the withdrawal of coalition troops from Afghanistan, the country is a brutally grim place for women. As well as the closing of schools and universities to girls, torture, rape and murder (primarily of those accused of having cooperated with the coalition) has also been credibly documented by NGOs. This is not to defend either of the two major interventions in our lifetime, Iraq, or Afghanistan, merely highlight that arguing with hindsight is too easy. Further, and more on point, the overwhelming amount of migration into Europe is from young men of fighting age who are moving for economic reasons. This is in notable contrast to flows from Ukraine who are, as one would expect of genuine refugees, primarily women and children. Additionally, neither Iraq, nor Afghanistan, war begins of prosperity and success prior to the impugned interventions. Asserting a causal connection from the interventions to adverse immigration is a cheap jury point, which lacks merit.
Finally, as this comment is already too long, I strongly recommend two books. They are both nuanced and well argued. Having previously voted Labour and unquestioningly supported actual open borders, later (professional) experience in the criminal justice system caused me to reconsider. These two books provide compelling reasons why others ought to do likewise.
• Exodus, Paul Collier, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exodus-How-Migration-Changing-World/dp/0190231483 – “Sir Paul Collier, CBE, FBA is a British development economist who serves as the Professor of Economics and Public Policy in the Blavatnik School of Government and the director of the International Growth Centre”
• The Strange Death of Europe, Douglas Murray, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strange-Death-Europe-Immigration-Identity-ebook/dp/B06XDV5R78 – “This is the most disturbing political book I’ve read this year. Based on travels through key European centres, Murray weaves a tale of uncontrolled immigration, failed multiculturalism, systemic self-doubt, cultural suicide and disingenuous political leadership. Accurate, insightful and devastating, with applicable lessons for countries on both sides of the Atlantic. ― Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks”
Quote from the former:
“Imagine that poor settlers were to arrive in a rich society, intent on maintaining and spreading their culture. The social models they would bring with them would not be beneficial: poor countries are poor because their social models are dysfunctional. Prosperous societies would therefore have reason to be wary of such settlers. …left to itself, migration will keep accelerating, so that it is liable to become excessive. This is why migration controls, far from being an embarrassing vestige of nationalism and racism, are going to be increasingly important tools of social policy in all high-income societies.”
I have pasted a selection of quotes from both books and this link, to save, imposing further on readers’ screen space (and CNS’s bandwidth!): https://controlc.com/75e7a6c6. Even if people do not have the information or time to read the books, I commend to them the quotes at the link. Sometimes, people on the other side of the argument might actually have a point.
CNS: In my responses, I was trying to be as short as possible so I didn’t end up writing an essay that few will bother to read. Thus they were pithy and lacked depth or nuance. That being said, you’re colouring way outside the lines here.
The initial discussion started with a commenter saying that the UK culture was being overwhelmed by immigrants and used this as a warning to the Cayman Islands. I argued that 1) the two situations are not the same and that 2) British culture is changed by immigration but is not being overwhelmed. Focus on these two points
The next commenter attempted to challenge this by conflating immigration and conquest. See here.
My first point that you are arguing against was to counter the statement that the UK government is doing nothing and I deliberately made the point that I was not going into WHAT they were doing or how effective it was. If the UK is doing anything at all, it counters the “nothing”. So, I’ll admit I should have said “many” and not “most”, but you are otherwise arguing against something I did not say and points and I did not make.
I did not “castigate those concerned about cultural issues as ‘neonazis’”. Words matter. “Concerned about cultural issues” is not the same as claiming that the culture is being obliterated. You also ignore the second group – “neonazis AND ‘Outraged’ from Middle England – the latter being a certain type of Daily Mail reader, definitely not neonazis but with just enough of a xenophobic bent that they can be suckered by them on some issues, immigration, for example. Again, for emphasis, we are talking about people who believe that British culture is being obliterated.
You then go on to cite the grooming scandals, which were horrific. Again, crime is always an issue. Sexual crime is every superlative I can think of. Crimes by immigrant gangs are terrible and should be investigated and punished with the same vigour that local gangs are. All of which has nothing to do with the claim that British culture is being obliterated by immigration.
On to wars. Life under the Taliban is terrible. Not relevant. Yes, my point was short and lacked nuance and I regret adding it because of the risk that someone would turn this into a much larger and irrelevant discussion.
“Arguing with hindsight”. No. Leaving Afghanistan aside for a minute because it’s more complicated and I don’t have time, the invasion of Iraq was based on a lie, which was known at the time. It destabilised the region fuelled war and ….. 3,000 words of explanation ….. exacerbated illegal immigration. No, it’s not the only factor. You also ignore “or prop up autocratic regimes”. But skipping on…
Young men moving for economic reasons. Yes. The economy is decimated, people try to leave. Still not relevant to the topic at hand. Remember the focus.
The authors you have chosen are not nuanced. I believe you are a thoughtful person but I think you are choosing the wrong reading material.
Douglas Murray – the quote you have chosen is sickening and inclines me not to read anything else by him. Anyone who is thinking about it should read this first: Taking White Supremacist Talking Points Mainstream
and The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray review – a rightwing diatribe
Paul Collier – Read This 1-minute debate perfectly captures the shameful racism of anti-immigration arguments
Thank you for replying, and apologies for the length of the points I made. I am grateful for your time, will try to avoid such length again.
I agree that the Douglas Murray quotes are unpleasant, but he makes makes coherent arguments based – unfortunately – on the reality on the ground. You and I both know better than to pretend that the Guardian will ever have anything other than a very specific view on key issues, amongst which is immigration – that’s not the fairest review to cite. His book is serious and concerning because the underlying facts are serious and concerning. I wish it were not so. It is worth reading his book, even if – particularly if – you still disagree. At least you’ll have a better insight. I saw glimpses through the criminal justice system, but Murray corralled an array of sources, and made a compelling argument. (On the other hand, it’s not very cheerful, and we can’t change anything, so perhaps you’re correct in eschewing him – there’s argument for that, too.)
Paul Collier’s treatment in Vox is also unfair. He is very much a centrist – if not quite left-wing. E.g. he’s heavily in favour of higher taxation, particularly on anyone in London, as he asserts (in a more recent book) that they only get their high salaries through geographic happenstance (I paraphrase). In such arguments, his nearest parallel is Ken Livingstone in the old GLC days – far from a right-winger! Vox is as far to the Left as the Guardian, and so playing to their choir. His book Exodus, so castigated by Vox, again makes nuanced arguments which are carefully considered. Collier’s points, whether one agrees with then or not, are ones that echoe those made by David Goodhart in the left-wing Prospect magazine back in 2004 – https://web.archive.org/web/20140803015309/http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/too-diverse-david-goodhart-multiculturalism-britain-immigration-globalisation. Goodhart argued that diversity and cohesion are incompatible and that multiculturalism and redistribution are incompatible. He asserted that the old coalition between progressive elites and the proletariat was broken, as the former were too liberal on immigration and too in love with multiculturalism, whereas the latter loathe[d] both. Goodhart’s most unpalatable argument was that a redistributive welfare state is viable only in an ethnically homogeneous society: we may tolerate family members coming into our homes and helping themselves to a cup of tea, but all hell would break out if a stranger did the same thing. It is no different on a macro level. This caused him to be vilified in polite society, but he has been vindicated by events (Brexit, Trump, Le Pen, et al). One can critique the merits of the progressive elites/proletariat positions on immigration, but denying that there are strongly-held views – or condemning those which hold such views, as Gordon Brown did of Gillian Duffy in 2010 as a “bigoted woman” – only stokes greater issues.
Anyway, I’m perilously close to breaking my promise to be concise. I’ll conclude by recommending Murray and Collier – even if people disagree with their proposed solutions, they articulate well-researched and well-evidenced arguments.
thumbs up for the CNS response, not the OP
Obviously the poster at 8:02 am is misinformed, in addition to,being racist. Indians are one of the highly educated people, many of them work in high level jobs and live in style, and even those who are in mid level jobs, live a decent and comfortable life and contribute well to the Cayman economy.
As for Filipinos, pay them what you would pay a Caymanian, and they would live like a Caymanian.
‘Caymanians were selling out their birthright and making a mockery of marriage, the traditional foundation of family life in Cayman’
Shurely shome mishtake Mish Monepenny? They’ve been doing it for years. What’s more important, their heritage or a Ford F150?
Then point fingers at other people from the window of said F150
traditional foundation of family life in caymna???…laughable.
cayman has one of the highest divorce rates in the world…
Is this also why the damn dump is yet to be fixed?
16 months ? That’s just incompetence. Surely the solution is for the govt to tighten the application process, so that no one can apply for PR unless they provide quickly-verifiable information, through an approved lawyer. If the process takes 16 months, then I’d say our WORC staff have too many checks to carry out.
And we are mistaken if long term WP holders are supposedly a threat to our voting system. Most foreigners only want right of abode, and don’t give a damn about being able to vote.
The applicants are now accruing patent Art 8 rights, and these excuses are very transparently an attempt to stall to pander to a basic populist electoral agenda.
Our big developer lobbied, bought and paid for Cabinet are waiting for the 100K population threshold to happen. Then they think they’ll have the tax base to fund another unplanned, ad-hoc infrastructure spending spree.
Of course the funds will be long “spent” before they’re accrued. And we the people will be the ones bent over left holding the stick bearing the brunt of increased CIG fees.
Until the electorate are educated enough to actually cast a meaningful vote and there is strong legislation to hold politicians financially and politically accountable for their failings Cayman will implode. As soon as our land runs out and environment is trashed there will be nothing left to fight for or fight over.
There’s money in them there work permits but has our cabinet ever contemplated provisioning the solid institutional training of a technical service workforce including FinTech to replace our burgeoning dependency on overseas workers? Well I never…
Back in the 80s, Governor Peter Lloyd warned Cayman, as it focused on development, to beware of being caught up in the “Fiji problem”, the loss of control over its future by an indigenous population to a massive influx of “incomers”. Nowadays, we even have a particular lawyer and a particular law firm specializing in bringing in the “incomers”.
just look at the names of the board members and that will explain the backlog.
this is the same board that has decided to personally interview married couples to determine if the marriage is genuine. they will never find a case.
imagine 12 board members interviewing couples about the intimacy of their marriage.
PACT we can do better than this.
Thanks for informing those ignorant and short on memory of this historical nugget. How soon people forget and or discount warnings from notable people with real vision and concern for Cayman’s proper evolution and growth. I only wish our politicians over the last 30 plus years had such a vested interest in developing these island’s in a sustainable manner. They were only, as is evident vested in sustaining the lining of their own pockets.
“Proper evolution”?!? Multi-generational Caymanian hegemony is why we have a corrupt government – it’s entirely closed to dedicated intelligent and conflict-free Status holders, and filled with the same recycled school-failing morons with criminal convictions.
Our Government is doing everything to encourage population growth. Why?
Mr.Lloyd brought a lot of valuable experience and offered good advice. No one listened.
Peter Lloyd was right. Key civil servants seem to have taken pride in ignoring his warning. The lawyer is doing his job. If government officials did theirs, he would not have to.
Indigenous Caymanians do not exist. Peridot.
Don’t blame the Lawyer for representing his client’s rights under the law.
If you don’t like it, change the Law.
We create hundreds of foreign “Caymanians” every month and then talk about protecting Caymanians, like securing certain jobs for Caymanians. Are they thinking at all! We’ll be worse off than Fiji.
Background checks needs to be done on each applicant also so this takes a substantial amount of time.
But not a year! Should take 2 months maximum from a PR application being submitted to being granted or refused. Mine took 6 months in 2021 which was a disgrace.
a) What “back ground checks” do you imagine a WORC employee does? Call the applicants HR department/boss and confirm the details? Check the police clearance is real? Check the CBC flight data is real? They have the vast majority of the application documents on file already as a result of the applicants multiple previous work permits.
b) How long do you imagine that would take a conscientious employee to conduct those checks? (I’ll give you a clue. Some jobs in the private sector like banking or aerospace are extremely sensitive requiring extensive background checks before employees are given access to billions of dollars or sensitive IP including multiple interviews and sometimes even national, cross border security checks. These take no more than a few weeks.)
In excess of a year to process a simple application like PR or even simpler status is quite obviously maladministration.
Or policy direction.
It has long been stated and perhaps time to bring the issue up again–form a separate board to review applications under marriage. Many Caymanians are in very abusive (of all types) of marriages (and why this category needs extra scrutiny). That board could be a backup of overflow for the regular board, as is the evidenced need by the large number of backlog, and for so long.
The poor Caymanians forced to get married? Wise up.
What difference does selling out make as the politicians sold us all out a long time ago to line their own pockets.
Sounds like a scam excuse
Expected nothing more from a sham Catron led government.
Too many jam people, screen them better and restrict people with a criminal background.
Soon-born Caymanians be a minority.
I’ll say it because no one else wants too, but we all know it.
Other nationalities can build, buildings also it’s not just Jamaicans.
PR designate or not, most of the 34,000 permit holders won’t satisfy the minimum number of points to legally stick around beyond 8th year. They won’t even qualify to get Naturalised as BOTC. $6.50/hr is only $13,500/year before employer deductions.
They will absolutely almost all qualify for PR under the current system. 110 points are all that is required.
Take a Jamaican tradesman for example, earning $13,500/year (in your example).
Occupation: 15 Points (guaranteed for everyone with a job).
Experience: 10 Points (guaranteed for everyone working for at least 10 years by the time they apply).
Certificate for 1 week course in tiling: 7 Points
Paying $700 month mortgage for last 7 years: 30 Points
$13,500 Earnings: 0 Points
$750 in savings: 15 Points
Attending church for 8 years: 12 Points
History Test (they literally sell you the answers): 15 Points
Caymanian relatives: 0 Points
Being Jamaican: 0 Points
Being 32 years old: 10 Points
Total score: 114
PR guaranteed!
That is without the 40 extra points available automatically if he gets a Caymanian girl pregnant (seemingly no need to provide for her or the child), or the extra 13 points if he can pick up a license to drive a taxi on the side.
The idea that the PR system, as operated for the last 10 years is an effective barrier, is a scam, perpetrated on the Caymanian people.
By Caymanian people
Nope. You have to look deeper.
Attending church gets you PR here???
What in the theocracy hell am I reading?
Take out the loud and aggressive minority from the bunch and you have a docile worker group who hold the dream of “finishing” that house they started back home. I’ve been around construction over 20 years and this is the group of people contractors love to have because they can work them to the ground for minimal pay.
Yet, despite your intensely-focused xenophobia, home grown Caymanians are the worst societal ill in the Cause lists. They represent over 80% of the murderers, violent attackers, thieves, rapists, child-molesters, even forced-exorcism leaders. Thank God for hard working Jamaicans that keep the lights on, and for peanuts. Cayman would never have rebuilt as strong or as quickly after Ivan without these committed and loyal workers.
So process the applications where no one is married to a Caymanian? How hard can it be?
Why will someone applying via working here for 8 years take priority over someone who is married to a Caymanian?
Because if they functioned properly it would only take them a few weeks to get around to them over years. But lets be clear, this is not really about shame marriages. It’s about waiting to be forced a status grant on all of us including who they want: the jamaicans who won’t pass a point system but wote for the ones stalling us.
Because it’s probably a sham
This mentally-inflexible comment exemplifies why there need to be 34,000 imported permit holders to handle even the most basic problem solving.
Yeah, or married at all?! Sanctioned laziness.
Because it’s an excuse for not dealing with the legitimate PR applicants, because they basically don’t want to grant any. Look who chairs the board, for heavens sake.
The way this place is going let the sham marriages carry on, – more dependants, more lawyers, more para legals, more staff required at the grocery stores, more Honda fits, we’ll be at the hallowed 100,000 in no time 🥸
Ohh Christ… Not more Honda fits!
Honda Fit v Voxy
Looking forward to the legally required mass status grants of 2024.
Piss poor excuse. So those applications which have nothing to with marriage are being held up why exactly?
Because PACT at heart is anti expat, and they don’t want to add people to a track towards status. Simple, really.
sad very sad indeed
The biggest sham here is not operating the system as set down in law.
All of the Saunders influenced delay that Steve McField is overseeing is going to do is add hundreds of unqualified Permanent Residence and eventually voting Status Holders.
Given CIG has done this once before and lost in court, why would they be doing it again?
I always say despite appearances to the contrary Chris Saunders is not stupid. He knows what he is doing, and this has to be intentional…
@3:09pm You are absolutely right!! It is intentional and he knows exactly what he is doing and getting away with it. Wayne has got to be the weakest leader ever. Very sad for these islands.
All seemingly permitted by weak and inept governance. The maladministration is self evident. The powers that be take their pay rises, generous retirement packages, and pat each other on the back, as they oversee the destruction of our home.
Passing reasonable laws and applying them fairly and equally to everyone seems beyond their capabilities. Where is the disconnect? We are literally running out of time.
shambolic on every level by cig.
time for class action lawsuit against the incompetence of the civil service and cig.
Time for them all to go home and take the fools who married them with them this has gone on too long and the pillaging of Cayman needs to stop. The scam is on us look at who is the real problem in Cayman.
more like a sham excuse for cig/civil service incompetence/laziness