📝 Over 1,000 people in limbo awaiting PR and status decisions in Cayman Islands

The new Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board is predicted to face five new applications for the Right to be Caymanian every weekday for the next decade, based on the current number of people qualifying after years of widespread exemptions from term limits and the lowering of barriers. Local lawyers have warned of a growing backlog of over 1,000 people waiting for decisions on their PR or status applications. Despite the government's claims of working on immigration reform, some applicants could be waiting as long as four years for a decision. 📅

Local attorney Nick Joseph has documented the current issues relating to the immigration process, from work permit issues to status applications. He warns of the impact the number of applicants and the mounting backlog will have on Cayman. Joseph estimates that individuals waiting on a decision have little hope of their applications being determined any time soon, and unless the government picks up the pace or begins to seriously address how the process works, the backlog will be really difficult to address. The stalling of PR applications means that employers, many of them Caymanian, are paying work permit fees well past the time staff should have become residents and assume their own PR fee expenses. Meanwhile, the backlog in Caymanian status applications means that thousands of people are being improperly prevented from registering to vote and participating in the electoral process. 🗳️

Joseph also warned that the delays in the processing and determining of status applications are likely unlawful. He stressed that the fault does not lie with WORC Director Jeremy Scott since neither he nor his department has the authority to determine applications to grant the Right to be Caymanian on the basis of marriage, naturalisation, descent or continuation. The PACT Government established a committee under the chairmanship of local attorney Steve McField back in August 2022, but more than 16 months later, the results of that work have still not been made public. Immigration remains a major conundrum for the government as it attempts to please voters, who tend to support much tighter immigration controls, and employers, who depend on imported labour and have always resisted any kind of restrictions on their ability to employ who they want from wherever they want. ⚖️