Almost nine out of every 10 work permit applications were approved from September 2025 through September 2026 according to the latest government figures.

Responding to a Parliamentary question from Deputy Opposition Leader Kenneth Byran, Minister for Caymanian Employment and Immigration Michael Myles told MPs that 44,540 work permit applications were processed by Workforce Opportunities & Residency Cayman between 1 Sept. 2025 and 8 Sept. 2026. Of these, 39,079, or 87.7%, were approved, while 5,461, or 12.3%, were refused.

Temporary work permits made up the highest amount of rejections. Of the 15,595 temporary work permit applications, 3,817 or 24.5% were turned down, which made up 70% of all refusals.

Full work permits were the next highest category, with 965 of the 11,783 applications refused, accounting for 8.2%.

Most other categories had low refusal rates, said Myles. Work permit renewals were refused in 3.3% of cases, or 428 out of 12,904; temporary permit extensions were refused in 7.9% of cases, or 114 out of 1,439; and 66 out of 1,512 applications for provision for continuation were refused, or 4.4% of the cases.

Several smaller categories including Special Economic Zone work permit renewals and specialist caregiver renewals had no refusals.

There was a frank exchange between Myles and Kenneth Bryan, the deputy opposite leader, over the work permit figures, with Bryan wondering why the minister had told Radio Cayman in August that there were more work permit refusals than approvals.

Myles had appeared on Radio Cayman’s ‘For The Record’ programme on 21 Aug. to discuss employment issues. When discussing work permits, he said, “We refuse more applications than we approve. And I just want to make sure that the folks understand this because I see the documents, right? I see the stats.”

However Bryan said, “The evidence he gave to this house today is the total opposite. Which one of the statements the honourable member made is true? The one today or the one on the radio?”

In response, Myles said, “The comments that I made on the radio was based on the information that I had on a day-to-day, certainly week-to-week basis. I sign off on hundreds of thousands of dollars of refunds, refusals, etc. On the document that I had received, there were more certainly refusals, withdrawals and cancellations on the document that I have.”

He added, “I’ve just shared with the members what our current figures are. The current figures that I’ve reported are what I am reporting today to the country on what we have in work permit approvals and refusals.”

Myles said that his team worked hard to provide the answers, saying, “The department of WORC is doing a fantastic job in ensuring that we are screening applications better.

“Therefore, what we have is a higher refusal rate, because we’re doing a much better job and making sure that cheating applications are no longer getting through. Our boards are also doing a great job in making sure that applications are screened appropriately based on our laws.”

Myles also updated Parliament on the current revenue projection for WORC from work permits.

The year-to-date work permit revenues as of 31 Aug. come to $75.7 million, he said, around $6.5 million, or 7.9%, below the projected revenue target of $82.2 million. This means that WORC is currently below its estimated revenues for the year, with funds collected amounting to $103 million to the end of August, $2.6 million, or 2%, below its budgeted amount of $105.6 million.