PR backlog falls after 1,300+ applications reviewed
(CNS): There are just 263 applications for permanent residency waiting to be considered, officials said Monday, with 1,340 applications having been reviewed since the process was restarted after being stalled for several years over legal issues. Figures released by the immigration department covering the applications up to 5 February show that 591 applications, or 44% of those that have been decided, were approved, while 374 (28%) were refused and another 294 (22%) have been deferred and will be reexamined when the department receives further information.
Meanwhile, 53 applicants withdrew their submissions and another 28 could not be considered as they fell outside of the law.
Out of the 263 pending applications, only 28 have not yet been looked at and 41 have been scheduled for review. Most of the outstanding applications are missing information or have been deferred for some other reason.
The backlog has been cleared as a result of immigration administrators joining forces with the Caymanian Status and Residency Board to work on processing applications. This meant that the department could keep up with new submissions while clearing the more than 1,000 applications that had built up during the suspension of PR considerations by the board owing to the challenges identified by the courts over the point system.
Category: Local News
Big shout out to the Cayman Centre team and the Acting Director of Boards & Work Permits!
Fine – but who screwed it all up for so long. Who is responsible for the mess?
Agreed and please do not forget our wonderful Premier and the rest of the Unity team who are working so hard to get things done. 4 more years!
Oh, so it was the Civil Servant’s fault the law was so screwed up no-one felt they could do anything for 4 years? That’s not what I understood. I am glad that it was not the responsibility of anyone in charge.
Madness nothing but madness…. how many more can we accommodate???? This needs to stop. Just Wondering ……. how many Caymanians are lining up in other countries demanding Status/residency /green cards etc… This is sickening.
and there doesn’t appear to be anything for the next 3 years that can be done to stop it…perhaps Alden will do something to stop if after everyone Dart has employed gets status.
You do realize these are the rules that Alden put in place in the first place? And as an alternative to people automatically getting status because they had been here so long? It’s got jack to do with Dart. It’s the consequence of CIG over different premiers and governments kicking the can down the road on immigration instead of having a clear and consistent policy.
accommodate? These people are already here.
There has to be a legitimate, Caymanian-engineered path to citizenship, and this was the agreed construct.
What’s sickening are the widespread pro-endenturement advocates that seek to stifle the legitimate path to rights for honest people; keeping them down under Caymanian thumbs – while supposing to protect Caymanian jobs (where Immigration determined that no qualified Caymanian applied over 8yrs).
You don’t have to do that in the UK if you have the passport…so thank your lucky stars. Cayman needs fresh blood, and soon…and the only way that happens is by allowing immigration. Now if the EU gets its own way, the financial centres that are Cayman and Bermuda soon will not be, and you can have all those empty houses to yourself, and no income to live on, except for tourism.
Without the government income from financial services CIG and the economy would collapse. There won’t be any tourism after that.
9.22am How many Caymanians have recd British passports with full rights of citizenship, not just status/residency?.
Have you forgotten that one of your own issued Caymanian status to far more than are now getting P/R and he did it without a single enquiry as to their suitability.
No Caymanian has ever received a British Passport. Only British Citizens can get those. Of course, you can be British and be Caymanian, but if you are not British you cannot get the passport.
You do realize Caymanian is not an actual nationality right, technically and legally speaking we are “British Overseas Territory Citizens” (Check your “Caymanian passport” if you don’t believe me, you won’t find the word Caymanian in there once)
Caymanian is a denonym we gave ourselves not an actual legal status or nationality, no other nationstate will recognize us as “Caymanians” other than the CIG to the rest of the world we are BOTCs
We the rights we have are given to us by the CIG, and they acknowledge we are specifically from here or descended from persons from here but that is one of the big challenges with Immigration, no one can actually easily define who is and isn’t “Caymanian”(probably something brought up in the Ritch Report) Everyone from here even the “born and bred” Caymanian Nationalists who like seperating everyone into “plane or pain” or “paper or born” if you go back far enough is descended from someone who immigrated here from somewhere else, there is no distinct ethnic people or group who have been here for thousands of years like Britons or Native Americans or Tribal Africans etc etc We are a mix of our surroundings there is no magical purity test
As British Overseas Territory Citizens we are entiteld to British Passports and have much the same rights as any other British Citizen
I don’t get how people don’t know this and get upset when it is mentioned, yes we are from Cayman, and descended from persons who lived here and so on and so forth, but for all intents and purposes we are just like any other BOT
My family has been here for generations but because of the way I present myself and speak, people refuse to believe I am “born and bred” even though I have countless relatives buried in cemetaries across the islands
This whole who is Caymanian debate and who isn’t is just one big shitshow of nationalistic idiocy and sore feelings, I judge people by the “content of their character” not by the color of their passports a lesson you think we’d understand of all people
The fact that we decry persons who come here for a better life as all the men in our history went off to sea and in other countries for work seems to have lost its meaning on some
We bring shame on our people and on our past
Just my thoughts
Diogenes
Well said, Sir.
You are wrong on this one Diogenes. You are only entitled to a British Passport if you were a BOTC in early 2002. Anyone who became a BOTC (unless they were already British) since then has to apply for Registration as a British Citizen if they want a British Citizen. Don’t believe me? Read the 2002 British Overseas Territories Act.
And being Caymanian is today nothing to do with being British or a BOTC. It should be, but is not.
What are you talking about? I personally know dozens of Caymanians who have received UK passports.
Because they are British citizens (not because they are Caymanian) – read the comment.
2.58pm What world do you live in?.All Caymanians have had the right to a full British passport for a number of years and several thousand Caymanians now have them. Try commenting on something you must know about i.e the actions of McKeeva Bush in granting Caymanian status to 1300 foreigners at random.
Simply untrue. Hundreds of Caymanians are not entitled to Cayman Passports, and thousands are not entitled to British Passports.
You do realist thats complete BS right? Do us all a favour and just Google it.
Jotnar – read it again. It is perfectly true. Any Caymanian ever granted a British Passport got one because they are a full British Citizen, not because they are Caymanian. Not all Caymanians are full British Citizens. In fact, thousands are not.
Really becasue I have one right now
and I am was born here to a Caymanian mother, with a Caymanian father both going back at least 4-5 generations (of living working and dying in Cayman)
The closest british relative I have is through marriage to a grandparent’s sibling yet I can assure you I have my British passport
Diogenes, you have a British Passport because you are a British Citizen, as is everyone who had a BOTC passport or was a BOTC Citizen in early 2002.
It seems a number of Caymanian passport holders (but by no means all) live in ignorance. Just call the Governor’s office and they will confirm if you are able to fill a form in and sign it, you can get a full British passport with all the rights of any British citizen.
Go on then. What they will tell you is that if you are not already a full British Citizen you have to apply for Registration as a British Citizen, and if that application is successful (it is discretionary) you will only then be eligible to apply for a British Passport.
2.55pm . I did, and so long as your Caymanian passport was issued prior to 2002 when the law was changed you automatically had BOTC and have the right to apply for a full British passport. If you acquired a Caymanian passport after 2002 then you do need to apply for naturalisation as a BOTC , but this is unlikely to be refused.
However to make it clear to 10.48am a BOTC is by definition a citizen of the Overseas British Territories and NOT a British citizen.
Stupid comment. Of course they have.
I would hardly call it ‘accommodating’. Sheesh, what a bunch of selfish, grumpy people. Only good natured when somebody kissing your fat butt, or laughing at your infantile humor.
Consider petitioning your local MLA rather than complaining to CNS.
Good luck contacting them
Don’t worry you don’t need to accommodate us but thanks for the offer. We’re already here and for the most part already live in our own houses. If you had any clue what PR entailed you’d know that.
Make room for them by getting rid of the economic dependants who are draining the NAU resources.
And how many kids do we have graduating from high school this year?
Who cares as long as I can get ma Jamaican church going buddy a job teaching edumacation, den da kids will fend for da themselves. Dats how it works where I grew up and now I am decidinh who will be da next prez at UCCI.
Wrong question. How many kids will graduate being prepared for University or the workplace?
8 years of Immigration-vetted permits were issued prior to application for PR…that means no qualified Caymanians were hired by those Cayman-owned businesses to displace that permit position. If there are qualified Caymanians, they need to stop using “mental telepathy” and apply for, and interview well for the jobs that are regularly advertised! Sad to say, the lions’ share of the “good jobs” are not destined for D-grade high school diploma recipients.
Spot on…and whilst I have no doubt that there is some truth in some of the stories about Caymanians not getting jobs they are qualified for, it is not just about the qualifications. Employers look at everything, how you are dressed, how you present yourself, your past record, your attitude. I am genuinely sorry to say that there need to be classes showing some people what is required and expected in the work place, as opposed to the “I am Caymanian, I can do what I want” attitude. If one of us expats tried that, we are on our way home and quite a few have found that out the hard way.
Exactly! The qualified, educated, informed, and motivated Caymanians helping to drive our economy into the next century are obviously not the loud mouths on the radio complaining that the system screws locals. Unsurprisingly our model Caymanians are those who leveraged every opportunity provided and created opportunities where none existed.
Now the battle for Cayman status begins! All those applicants and their dependants will be in-line for Cayman status within a few years if not already.
Finally! Get status and then vote for gay marriage and booze sold around the clock. Omg! And dancing on Sunday! And the right to exsist without the xenophobia.
Oh, I’m sure you’ll get your
xenophobia game on.
Only when it concerns you, my love.
You don’t know how it works. We need to dispel this rubber stamp thinking. Application for Naturalisation as British Overseas Territories Citizen on Grounds of Residence can be made for CI$825 (plus application expenses) for head of household, and then each dependent beginning after 10 years. Application for Caymanian Status can be made by those with BOTC, for $250 (plus application expenses) for head of household, and then each dependent beginning after 15 years. There are medical, police and financial tests at each step – designed by Caymanians, for Caymanians.
Yup. After the way Alden treated them you can be pretty sure those that can will get their status as quickly as possible and vote!
That system has been in place for a while, put there by people Caymanians voted for…the PR holders are following your laws, and that’s wrong?
Sure, but we did not follow our laws and screwed hundreds of applicants for PR. Now that they have PR they are likely to remember those that screwed them when they get to vote. They are unlikely to have a soft spot in their hearts for Alden.
He doesn’t have much to worry about on that front given that the alternative openly hate us.
We need a caymanian ninja cross-training course. If you don’t finish the course in 5minutes,then you can never get caymanian status.
At least they won’t be maids and yard boys given status so they could wote.
Does anyone think the process was stalled for legal reasons? Legal reasons were the catalyst for getting them restarted!
Ironically it was the applicants own legal challenges that got the process restarted before 10 years were up and all those subsequently denied got a right to it automatically!
Ummm, the 10 year issue does not exist. It only applies to expat children born here.
Just hasn’t been tested at trial yet and is now unlikely to be. AIUI Those few PR cases that dragged over 10 years were all easy passes plus a few that subsequently had children with Caymanians so were able to amend their application and also pass…
Stalled over legal issues? What legal issue was preventing the board from denying or approving those who failed or passed by more than the contentious points? What legal issue prevented the board from assessing 90% of each application leaving themselves the simple task of just adding the contentious points on once decided. None. At least it’s better than your previous implication that it was the applicants own legal challenges which held the process up.
Please, no more gardner level education. We need people with degrees, not mobile car wash dreams.
The irony of this comment being posted by someone who uses the word “gardner” is delicious. I would hyphenate “gardener-level” as a matter of personal style, but I suppose the discussion to be had on that issue is beyond someone who does not get past the word “gardener”.
Thanks Who.
I will look beyond their spelling, and agree with the comment.
C’mon, people are typing on cellphones. Attacking the spelling or grammar is weak..
Ironic yes, that cell phones are causing a lack of communication?
You cannot spell
El Jefe…Gardenero….