PR review rate grows, end date in sight
(CNS): The pace of reviewing the backlog of permanent residency applications by both the immigration staff working on the submissions as well as the Cayman Status and Permanent Residency Board members has picked up to 50 in one week. If those involved can maintain that pace, the more than 1,000 applications could be cleared in less than six months. Between 28 August and 1 September another 24 people were granted residency, while 16 were refused.
Eight were deferred to allow those applicants to submit more information, as some of the applications the board and staff are reviewing are more than three years old. None of the latest batch of applications had been withdrawn and only two were said to have been out of time for consideration.
The rate of approvals is steadily climbing as the pace of reviewing grows. So far, since the process restarted following the legal issues that stalled the board’s ability to consider the applications, 43% of applicants have been approved, 29% have been refused and another 22% have been deferred, some of which are likely to be granted under a second review.
Although it took some time for government to address what became an untenable situation for many applicants, the situation is evidently improving but the legal challenges are not going away and government is facing a number of claims over the period of time some applicants have waited.
In at least eight of the cases where people have waited over a year for their applications to be reviewed the courts have forced the hand of the immigration department to grant residency, regardless of the number of points the applicants may have accrued. In addition, government is facing claims for damages over some of the long waits.
How government grants PR and to how many people remains an extremely contentious issue, as almost all of those granted residency rights will eventually acquire the right to become Caymanian. The government has acknowledged that the system, which begins with the grant of a work permit, is far from perfect. Premier Alden McLaughlin has, however, taken up the immigration and labour portfolios in this coalition administration and has promised to fix the work permit system to make it more transparent and ensure that Caymanians are not missing out on jobs and career progression because of ex-pat workers.
Graphical break-down of PR decisions, 1 Sept 2017
Progress stacking statistics
| 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 |
TOTALS
| Approved | Refused | Deferred | Withdrawn | No Power |
| 120 | 81 | 63 | 11 | 7 |
| Apps. Reviewed | Decisions | Backlog | ||
| 282 | 201 | 1,000 |
Category: Local News
We need to bring back all the Caymans living in other countries back to their country. We need to take out all the US furiners with their connections to wealth out of this territory and repatriate back all that lost tax income and investment so the US can reinvest in the middle class workers.The stats say that people who come from the Caribbean earn on average more than American born workers. Its win win. Cayman can get back to weaving silver thatch and stop complaining about furiners taking over their island, and the US can shake off some parasites and reinvest back into their own born and bred population.
Oh dear 8.13, full moon effect I would say.
Oh my, kiss-butt much? Your a leader!
The only reason they got PR is because Immigration department hand was forced. It is not because it was deserving individuals, nor could it be proved as such. Cayman has sold its soul to foreigners. They should be rolled over. No one gets the right to stay unless they married to a Caymanian. In a few short years, Caymanians will be left in poverty while foreigners will take over and run their country. The rug will be pulled from under them. It is not fair and it is not right. Oh and I am an expat btw, quite happy to stay 5 years and leave and return later if I wanted to. I feel no entitlement to a country that I was not born in as so many expats feel!
Untrue. Try reading HSM’s analysis. All the cases were to get government to pick up the application and review it. None were to force CIG to award PR, just review it, as per the immigration law. It should be obvious that the handful of people who chose to take legal action to have their application reviewed knew they had more than enough points for PR so once reviewed they all got PR.
Completely agree. The flip side of OPs comment is that CIG, by not reviewing applications within 10 years of the applicants residence on the island, is running the very real risk that irrespective of whether they meet the 110 point threshold they will be able to claim permanent residence on human rights basis. In fact if you are an applicant who isn’t confident that you will pass, best thing you can do is keep your head down and pray they don’t deal with your application within 10 years.
As for the “nor could it be proved” I am afraid that the facts are that the applications were reviewed under pressure from the court, but assessed on the evidence of the application. You don’t like the test or the points allocation, take it up with the elected representatives that set them. Sorry if that runs against your the expats are undeserving and evil theory – its really down to the incompetence of the elected officials, all of whom are of course multi generational Caymanians – to actually deal with the threshold tests they themselves had established within 4 years.
So you don’t feel entitled to expect the laws of the land be followed by the government that introduced them?
That’s an interesting mindset you have.
We all know it is bigger than that. Yes lets cry about the Government not being competent, timely or efficient. The fact of the matter is this is not our country and we don’t have the rights to stay here just because we worked here. At the end of the day those born here is who it truly belongs to. And lets admit they are suffering within their own country so have some compassion and less greed taking what is not yours i.e. jobs, houses, opportunities. The bar is high across the board professionally, they are struggling to compete and do you blame them for giving up before even trying, knowing their effort is futile. Yes these PR residents will employ their buddies overseas and they will see it as if they could do it so they will too and we have an influx of foreigners taking it all. I have my own country to go back to. I may not like the problems in my country, but the fact is that is where I was born and we can’t choose that. Caymanians didn’t choose to be born here, but they sure as well worthy and entitled to all Cayman has to offer them.
What a load of sentimental garbage at odds with how a civilised society should be. The laws are in place they should be followed.
When most (if not all) of the current PR applicants arrived it was under the key employee/rollover scheme and they happily intended to abide by those laws. The Cayman Islands government changed the laws thereby encouraging people to invest significant amounts of time and money to attain PR and then refused to abide by the laws. I suspect the government is going to get lucky and the number of lawsuits will be quite small and the number where they end up paying out more than legal costs incurred will be counted on the fingers of one hand.
The moral arguments you raise certainly have merit, but that is an issue for the Caymanian electorate and the government and not the expats.
One final point i will make is it is interesting in the original post you (assuming you are the OP) said you’d be “quite happy to stay 5 years and leave and return later if I wanted to” what is that if it is not an entitlement?
Yes. That is why rollover should be brought back.Secondly the work permit laws pertaining to training should be policed.
As stated that is in an issue for the electorate and the government, I am not naive enough to think it doesn’t go hand in hand with local business influence, but for the most part people in the PR queue are just asking to be treated in accordance with the law. Thankfully that seems to be happening and no doubt the lawsuits will stop.
People shouldn’t be dissuaded from legally challenging the government (or anyone) when laws are not being followed.
Still no comment from the OP expecting to be able to return to Cayman when it suits them?
” At the end of the day those born here is who it truly belongs to.” What, including expat babies? Or do you mean born here to parents who were born here? And what about those Caymanians born in Jamaica or the US? Being a tad simplistic.
There are many hard working Caymanians in jobs that are below their skill level but they cannot move because the persons occupying the positions for which they are qualified are protected by the system that was designed to protect Caymanians. What a travesty. The Caymanians can do nothing about it. If they apply for the ex pat’s job at work permit renewal time, they are threatened by their employers. So, their only option is to remain in the subordinate position or leave (but the same trend exists everywhere so that is not a real option either).The non-nationals get their work permits renewed this way until such time as they can apply for PR. Voila! Then the Caymanian is blocked for life.
Which country does this to its own people? Welcome to Cayman.
Self-pitying nonsense.
baseless biased bullshit.
Isn’t there something in the constitution that a vote can be taken on things when the government makes stupid decisions?
Your are a Idiot. There must be a reason why any employer would pass up a “qualified” Caymanian. Do you think they want to pay the work permit fees and go through all of the red tape that entails employing a non-national?? There must be a reason that employers choose ex-pats. Get off your self entitled high horse, obtain the necessary training required, show up for work on time, do the job better than anyone else, and compete. The world is your oyster.
The problem of PR with all the attendant problems – long wait lines, law suits as a result, loss of opportunity for and identity of Caymanians – would not be an issue if the work permit system was followed according to the letter of the law. Way too many of those who are complaining in line for their application to be dealt with should never have gotten a work permit in the first place. They now have this “entitlement mentality” because they managed to slip through the gaping cracks of a broken system and now they want us to bow to them. Isn’t it their good fortune to have Alden as premier who does?
Caymanians are the only ones with justification for suing their government for years of neglect, loss of job opportunities and now sadly, loss of their culture and their identity. There’s a big price tag on that lawsuit.
Ok, you now have your PR – why are you suing an already broke country to which you claim you want to belong?! You’ve had a good run – you didn’t lose your job, you were able to stay AND continue working, you had job security and at the end of it you got PR. And now you’re even closer to getting status than you were last year. Clearly it’s not for love of country but is, instead, for love of money.
Amen. Continuing to suit the Government in this way should be tantamount to treason. It is in my books anyway.
Running a government in such a way to expose us to these risks whilst destroying the future for your children is arguably a much more treasonous act.
Given they are not Caymanian’s it cant be treason, even if you could argue that Cayman is a sovereign state. Ungrateful, unreasonable, possibly – treason no.
One cannot commit treason to a non-sovereign entity. By way how do you choose when to use apostrophes and when to leave them out? Is it a random thing?
I can see both sides of this issue; for Caymanians who have lived here their entire lives the concern that foreigners could possibly come here and end up with a larger slice of the pie then they have is a fear and a threat.
The other side are people who come here wanting to contribute and become a member of the community to live in a positive place and care for their families with security. Follow the laws and try to do the right thing.
Both sides have a point.
Without the expats Cayman would have no pie. The money they generate for government does not grow on trees. They also have human rights, despite what certain Caymanians think, they are enshrined in so called civilized countries constitutions. Try to take them away and you become a pariah state. You want to end up like Venezuela, Russia or North Korea? That works so well for their people. Not.
CNS , did you mean for the headline to say , PR review grows , ” NO” end date in sight ?
Maybe we should put back in rollover before we are forced to give away more of the future. How about putting it to a vote Alden instead of relying on your questionable judgment?
Putting it to a vote? Where have you been? We just had a General Election.
Alden ended up premier by default and he cannot believe his good fortune. Most people voted against Alden’s government so most people are not in favour of this give-away which is really no different than Mac’s give-away in 2003. The objective is the same,it is not as if we cannot see through that. More “Caymanians” to vote for him next time, duh.
Uhh actually the ppm had more votes. There by making them the preferred party. That other party was given a clear message as they only got 9 seats. And the independents were owned by Dr T. So what was your point again?
Give away what? They generate money for Cayman that would not come here without them. Without them we wouldn’t have that. You have nothing to give away, it wasn’t your in the first place…
Granting PR to these applicants is insane in that the PR holders will sit in their jobs as there are only a finite number of these senior positions. There is also a ridiculous demand stimulant to the prices in the local real estate market. As to get PR the applicant has to buy property, thereby forcing locals to pay more for a roof over their own head. There is nothing in this PR for Caymanians and only a worsening of their situation.
Rollover was the best policy and would ease a lot of this anger and resentment on both sides. The Expat would get a defined 5 years, they know rules and they can plan their lives . After 5 years they should be rolled over and handed their pension. 7 years is too long and allows people to establish roots that they otherwise would not do. After a year the expat could return (possibly there could be a WP for returning expats). The beauty of this system was that once an expat was rolled over their position came up and an opportunity would present itself for expats and Caymanians with an emphasis on Caymanian. By giving everyone the right to apply for PR those opportunities have now disappeared and in the future you will find a class division between the expats who will network among one another and the locals. This will breed further resentment.
There should have been no key employee either. The HR departments in far away countries don’t care about some mid level guy running the cayman office being rolled over. In fact PR makes their job easier. They would then really have to ANALYSE the training of the locals to identify real talent if it is here or they would have to bring in a new manager and advertise. These companies make millions from their business models and the whole “island will collapse without us” argument is nonsense. The head offices won’t care about mid-level people being rolled over and if they are that good they will do the job by remote.
The onus is on the government to police these laws and ensure that caymanians are not being looked over in positions, that companies are training locals and promoting when warranted. Not allowing these organization’s management to take the lazy option of bringing in expats for positions that a local can do so they don’t have to train or promote. There needs to be more inspections and also possibly a plan/questionnaire compiled by HR departments and possibly employee feedback on the situation within these organizations.
You obviously never studied economics. Your entire post is actually wrong. I feel dumber for reading it. May God of mercy on your soul.
Anything else? Tell me how I am wrong, its boring when I read lazy responses like yours. It is YOU who doesn’t understand labour markets and ones that have guest workers schemes like Cayman. The only thing you wrote that makes some sense is when you hoped God would have mercy on me. What I wrote is already happening. The people who are getting PR are the managerial class on these islands. Time and again I have seen expats with little experience come to these islands, they just happen to have come from head office or wherever.
Its nonsense when people buy into the lazy Caymanian. In most of these instances the employers are negligent in meeting the needs of the locals in terms of salaries and opportunities. When this is the case the employees feel unmotivated. This negligence on the part of employers is when you have a guest worker scheme like Cayman. They can get a new hire easily and so don’t feel the need to raise salaries or train. As a result of the work permits wages are lowered and the cost of living rises this can add fuel to the resentment. IT IS THE EMPLOYERS WHO ARE LAZY. Think about that.
Most job advertisements are fake. The company long has had the person they want for the position usually a friend of management or someone from head office. They then comply with the legislation in advertising the position and making up excuses as to why the local applicant cannot be hired such as no specific experience for the job presented or in a lot of cases they don’t offer anything and hope you will go away.
For instance a manager with less experience who happened to be born in Canada will have been employed by head office in Waterloo or Halifax and after 2-3 years come down to Cayman and be the boss but the locals will have had 10 years on this guy. Many times I have seen this. The job advertisements for this role are then bended to this person’s resume.
There needs to be an immediate increase in the number of years required to apply for status from 15 to 25 years. Otherwise we will find ourselves in the same scenario on the status side.
Why don’t you just come out of the closet and say what Caymanians like you want to say, namely, there should be NO Cayman Status or PR awards given? None, ever. Then you will be left with a country of low socioeconomic people mating with Jamaicans and Filipinos and having kids for them and the government saying they can stay here just because human rights says parents and children can’t be separated. And that’s why the mating went on. But the hated rich limeys, Canadians and Americans will have moved on because there is no hope for them here.
1. Senior positions are not finite. There is no evidence for this. These jobs grow and contract to the market forces.
2. Increased property values creates wealth for Caymanian landowners who buy, sell, or hold onto land investment. Increased values increases fees to government for revenues.
3. There is no longer a key employee designation. Has not been for a few years now.
The rest of the article is speculative at best. Offering only pie in sky ideas. It really is the musings of a poorly misinformed individual.
1. Senior jobs are not infinite in cayman. The labour market here is not subject to market forces. The market is government controlled. The wages are stagnant unless you are at the top.
2. Increased prices from demand by PR applicants I’d not good for caymanian workers they have to pay more for a house. Where is the value in my house going up if I have to pay more to buy somewhere else when I sell. What government gains in stamp duty is offset by less spending due to saving for deposits or mortgages.
3. If rollover was brought back then key employee should be finished. Refer to point 1.
I think you are a growth at any cost globalist type and do not think through the social implications of your high mass immigration support. Your property prices will fall when youth crime rises drastically.
“High mass immigration”? 200 families a year? Our government is half a billion dollars in debt, how do you imagine we pay for that without growth?
Whose economics? Those that provide for the sustenance quality of life of Caymanians in their own country, or those of overseas businesses and foreign investors that will ultimately export most of their profits away from Cayman anyway?
@2:35 PM – Shouldn’t the word “Cayman” at the end of your last sentence simply be re-written as “…away from Caymanians anyway?” Isn’t that really what you’re saying?
No, Caymanians AND Cayman.
And this is a general statement with no support for its conclusion. Are you sure you weren’t dumb before reading this poster’s comment?
If the great USA only gives 5 yrs for a work Visa, then why do we need to even give that. Four years is plenty until we get full employment. Plenty of people around the world want to come here
Canada only gives 4 years.
Canada smanada!
Clearly you have no idea how work visas in US work.
Basic function of the bell curve given the needs of the local economy.
Cayman is governed by the same economic laws. The arguments to the contrary are discredited, as Cayman was built on:
1. Money moves to the most accommodative place.
Does not mean it needs to stay here. I guess the alternative would be sell the island to the Chinese like Jamaica is doing. With all the problems they are having with them I prefer the devil I know.
I take it this was not a response to the bell curve point, because it really makes no sense if it was.
CNS – the statement that the court forced the grant of PR without regard to the number of points is inaccurate. All of the applicants granted PR appear to have been dealt with in full accordance with the regulations, and were awarded PR because they qualified to receive at least 110 points.
End date in sight? I hope that Alden will change the law so Caymanians can get jobs in their country of birth.
For many thousands of Caymanians their country of birth is somewhere else, usually Jamaica.
And that only matters if you are a nativist bigot.
There are a lot of nativist bigots. The attitude is commonly found among the mediocre who want to blame others for their own inadequacies. Think fly-over state Trump voters and provincial English Brexit voters.
This is only the case for older generations – people 65+ when there was no other choice but to be born in Jamaica and return home (usually by ship) after 2-6 weeks. Caymanians (the ones that don’t have to question or ask government to confirm what their status is or if they are actually a Caymanian) need jobs! We need the opportunity for growth in our own island without the oppressive nature of foreign man. When a hurricane or other disaster comes those same foreigners will run home to their real home(!) while Caymanians have no where else to go because this is our home. What happens in this country affects us (those that don’t give any other answer to where their from then “I’m from Cayman”) more than any other nationality.
what – you are ignoring the thousands given status by Mac?
Good point, I couldn’t agree more. Children who are born here should be given Caymanian status.
I believe a law already exist to ensure that if there is a qualified Caymanian they are given the job ahead of a work permit being granted. I think this is where Caymanians need to focus their attention. Not at the PR grant stage which is 9 years down the line. We need to ensure that Immigration punishes companies that apply for work permits where qualified Caymanians have applied but not given the job.
True, but we are too corrupt and incompetent to do anything. Our laws are words on paper. They mean nothing.