The Cayman Islands Government have just announced the Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board (CSPR) have “continued” work on the permanent residency applications.

For the Board to have actually considered ten applications at their meeting last week this achievement warranted a Press Release.

The PR did not say there are over 1,000 more applications to process but they have another four years (less a month) to look at these. If they have two meetings a month without a break they might just make it. That is also not allowing any new applications to come in to the board.

Therefore, even at this gallop the four years available will not be enough.

And only one PR was approved by the Board out of the ten. Five were denied outright, two were withdrawn by applicants and two were deferred pending updated information from applicants.

Therefore, we can expect those deferrals to go back into the mix some time soon.

This did not stop Ministry of Immigration Chief Officer, Mr. Wesley Howell, sayings, “I wish to thank Mr. DaCosta, and his board members, for their diligent work. I appreciate the efforts that have already been made this week to make the plan of action a reality, and I look forward to the CSPR board continuing to apply their expertise and experience during this process.”

I suppose compared to the last four years one might say Mr. Bolt might have been one of the members of the Board.

There was also praise from the Premier, Alden McLaughlin, who is overseeing the PR applications (as he was last time around). He said, “The early number should serve to assure the public that PR applications are being carefully considered, and that there will be no mass grants, only those applications that meet the requirements in legislation are being approved.”

“…only those applications that meet the requirements in legislation are being approved.”

That doesn’t sound grounds for much applause to the thousand or so waiting.

However, it is good Public Relations to all those Caymanians worried about mass grants that led to hundreds of persons being granted status under a previous McKeeva Bush administration. And to all the MLA’s who got elected under the battle cry of ‘Jobs for Caymanians Only’.

I leave the last words to Howell.

“The board takes their role very seriously and their goal is to consider the applications as quickly as possible, while ensuring that each is properly reviewed and given the consideration it deserves, while also working on the other applications that have to be dealt with by the CSPR board,” he said.

Yes, it’s going to be a long hard road.

For everyone involved, no matter what side of the fence they are behind.