Cayman Islands Immigration Update - July 2024

When applying for Permanent Residency and claiming points for investment in a Locally Licensed company, there has been some uncertainty whether the value is to be calculated by reference to capital invested or by reference to the current market value of the company shares. HSM has long advocated that the correct approach was which ever is the most beneficial to the applicant. Whilst there appears to be no official published policy, our immigration team at HSM remains at the forefront of this issue.

Work permits continue to increase with 337 new permits since 18 April 2024. There has been an uptick in Nepalese residents and they are now the 5th largest nationality group of work permit holders in the Cayman Islands. The Board is concluding more Right to be Caymanian applications than they are receiving and the wait time for the processing of these applications is declining.

Market Value Reports

In September 2023, HSM Chambers on behalf of a client appealed a decision of the Immigration Appeals Tribunal (“IAT”) to the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands. The central issue of that case was surrounding the issue of Market Value Reports and whether they can be relied upon by an applicant for Permanent Residence to show investment in a Locally Licensed company. These have been long standing issues but thankfully it now appears that they have in part been resolved.

Market Value Reports are used when the professional assessed share value exceeds the initial capital/investment made to establish the company. In those circumstances, it appears that Workforce Opportunities & Residency Cayman (“WORC”), in principle, will now accept the Market Value of the shares held and if the value of those shares is greater than $50,000, points will be awarded to the applicant for Factor 3 up to the maximum of 30 points depending on their salary.

This has been a long standing issue, at one point in time it appeared that the Department would, by way of an example, not give points to an individual like Mark Zuckerberg, if he was to apply for PR in the Cayman Islands, if he sought to rely upon the value of his shares in Facebook. The rationale for this was because he had only initially invested $1,000 and this was below the threshold of CI$50,000 and therefore not worthy of the award of points for Factor 3. It now appears that this position has changed.

The reason why we are confident that the matter has been resolved is not only has the Grand Court matter been by agreement remitted back to the IAT but also last week WORC requested from one of our clients’ “as proof of investment in a locally licensed company, please provide an official report showing the market value…”. We can think of no reason for a request of this nature to be made, if Market Value Reports are not now to be considered. This is the first time we have seen wording of this nature in an official request by WORC.

While the parameters of what needs to be provided in these reports has not been disclosed in the form of policies, which are desperately needed, it is hoped that those individuals who have helped Caymanian businesses grow and be successful will be recognised and granted the appropriate points.

Latest Statistics

We recognise the significance of immigration statistics and application timelines. On 17 July 2024, we received details from the relevant authorities for our Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for May 2024 and June 2024.

Currently there are 37,309 work permits held in the Cayman Islands. This is an increase of 337 from the number reported to us at 18 April 2024.

The top nationalities are: Jamaica (15,404), Philippines (6,460), India (2,092), United Kingdom (2,016), Nepal (1,245), Canada (1,195), Honduras (1,172), United States of America (919) and Nicaragua (720).

What is noticeable is that the Nepalese have jumped from the 7th largest group to the 5th largest group, overtaking both the Hondurans and Canadians. Of the increase of 337 work permits, half are made up of Nepalese people.

In May 2024 the Board determined:

•   71 Right to be Caymanian (“RTBC”) applications on the basis of naturalisation.
•   107 Right to be Caymanian applications on the basis of marriage.

In that period of time there were only 38 RTBC applications on the basis of naturalisation submitted and 39 applications on the basis of marriage submitted. This suggests the Board is currently concluding far more applications than are currently being submitted and accordingly applicants for Caymanian Status may find the wait time for determinations reducing significantly from the position in January 2024 when it reached almost 2 years to an average of approximately 15 months.