Local passports to retain country’s name
(CNS): Fears that Cayman passports would lose their unique identity have been alleviated, the premier has stated, following discussions with the UK’s passport officials. Following announcements that the British were repatriating the production and issuance of its overseas territories' passports to make them bio-metric, concerns were raised that the OT passports would no longer identify the territory the holders came from. However, Alden McLaughlin said he was given assurances that those issued to Cayman Islands residents would continue to bear the country’s name.
“They will be bespoke passports, meaning the country’s name will still be on the front cover,” McLaughlin said. “I feel a bit more comfortable about that,” he added, after he had been particularly concerned about the implications of what many saw as a retrograde step in Cayman’s move towards more autonomy and the modernisation of its relationship with the UK.
The Cayman Islands authorities will also retain control of passport applications and distribution and the ability to produce emergency passports locally. The country has about two years’ of stock for emergency passports.
Once the UK begins printing OT passports, Cayman passport applicants will enter their information here and it will be transmitted to the UK using secure technology. The passports will then be printed in the UK and returned to the Cayman Islands Passport Office where they will be distributed.
Last year the UK set a deadline of December 2014 for the repatriation of passport printing for all overseas territories. The UK-printed passports will be biometric. Passports issued in the Cayman Islands do not have the biometric features.
Category: Local News
Am gonna add my 2 cents. We are all if not UK decendants so people get over it. We have always had British passports not Caymanian ones. Either way be gratefull you have a country to call your home. What gets me on these comments is the fact that no one prints their names who are you afraid of. Am a Caymanian and Caymanians have only themselves to blame for what is happening in this country. See the way I see it there is not Love among Caymanians only the love for money. You reep what you sow remember that one bo bo.
There is love amongst Caymanians it's just that you don't mix bobo.
LOL. "C. Ebanks" is not exactly publishing your name. In Cayman that is pretty anonymous.
Seriously, what part of British Passport do you not understand?
There isn't, nor has there ever been a Cayman Islands passport, read the cover above, it clearly says:
BRITISH PASSPORT CAYMAN ISLANDS
The clue to the issuing authority is printed in bold letters on the face of the document. It also carries the British Government coats of arms, not a Cayman Islands flag.
And contrary to some idiotic notions that the said passport does not identify a Cayman Islands citizen who has qualified for Caymanian status is totally wrong. If that was the case, what is a passport for. Those comments are made by uneducated bigots who think that 'foreigners' can't qualify as Caymanians. Newsflash, you or your descendants were all immigrants once, you'd do well to remember that before playing the nationalist card.
You are simply wrong on your last point. There are thousands of Caymanians who do not qualify to hold a BOTC Cayman Islands Passport, just as there are thousands of non Caymanians (persons who do not have Caymanian status) who do have Cayman Passports. There are even prohibited immigrants (persons not permitted to travel to Cayman) who have Cayman passports. Get your head around that!
Seriously bro you need to watch it you may get a stroke . Catch your breath between words and oh yeswehabecome from many places and many of us have respect for the people who allowed us here, so just chill yeah!
News flash: Stop trying to water-down who we are. We will never give-up our autonomy. We share a soverign open CONSITUTIONAL realtionship with the UK. Any day we want to not be a part we can – through a vote! There is no slavery relationship here. Respect is due we are a small trio-island nation of people that determines our own destiny.
So vote then. Oh, that's right, you don't trust your own politicians to run this place properly. You need Mummy to watch over them and tidy up when they throw their toys out of the pram.
Yeah, I wouldn't rest bank everything on a vote. Ask any former British passport holder from Hong Kong if they got a referendum?
They just woke up one day in 1997 to find their passports had been cancelled.
Rubbish. HK was a special case because of the planned return of the territory to China. It didn't just happen in 1997 as you suggest.
Let's put it to the test then.
I predict that the sway of any result of any referendum will be worth as much as the square root of nothing.
I will be the first to admit it if I am wrong.
I suggest you read the British Nationality Act which defines who is a BOTC Citizen, and the Immigration Law, which defines who is a Caymanian, before calling anyone an uneducated bigot. I have, which is why I can most certainly call you one.
I think it's nice that the UK allows Caymanians to have passports. Why all the fuss?
Why are you saying it is NICE for the UK to allow us to have passports? I am so tried of the UK dictating to us. They not doing us any favors….
Go indpendent or stop moaning.
These a British OT passports. I don't see why the UK should print different versions of them to meet the whims of nationalists.
Since having a Cayman Islands Passport is irrelevant as to whether the holder is a Caymanian or not, or even has the right to live in the Cayman Islands, it is probaly true that a little too much emphasis is being placed on this issue.
If it was one generic passport for all OT countries then what would prevent someone from Turk & Caicos from claiming to be Caymanian based on their passport?
Place of birth would be noted inside the passport.
Place of birth is not relevant to whether someone is Caymanian or not, just as having a Cayman passport is not relevant. All that identifies whether or not someone is Caymanian is whether or not they have and maintain status, whether by grant or descent.
Do you have any idea how many people born in a Cayman who are NOT Caymanians?
If your place of birth is other than an OT then how do you know which one it applies to? Many Caymanians were born either in the USA or Jamaica, but these days is not too far-fetched for a Caymanian to have been born in another OT, but not have any right to reside in the place where they were born.
Passports do not tell if someone is Caymanian.
It does if you get it stamped stating that you are a Cayman citizen!
There is no such citizenship.
But why should they? Caymanian is not a nationality and it is merely a status which entitled certain local employment, business and political privileges but has no extraterritorial effect.
The whole bunch of you go suck your thumbs, what'd done is done whether you, your ancestors or whoever else like it not so there take that!
What stunning argumentation you have. Do I have to suck both thumbs at the same time or one after the other? When are you leaving 5th grade?
Exactly. The UK has been far too soft on the territories and some of them are gettingto big for their miniscule boots.
How very patronizing, you must be successful.
Since you can't spell "patronising" correctly, your opinion is of no moment to me.
pa·tron·ise
I guess you're also a dum dum to think that nobody spells it that way. Perhaps that's moment enough?
Caymanians need to just embrace their British nationality as we no longer have any actual control over the direction of this country. This is not to say that anyone other than Caymanians are to be blamed as it is the crabs in a barrel mentality that has created the problems that we have today.
Replace, 'no longer have' with, 'never had' actual control over the direction of this country.
And that's because you are not a sovereign nation, not independent, never have been and looking like you never will be.
Caymanians are their own worst enemies, not the British.
So that is all it took to satisfy some? Keeping the words Cayman Islands on the passport?!! Not the fact that we are no longer in control of our own passports!! Why are some people so easily distracted?
The best wao distract someone around here is to simply say "hey look over there, no I mean over there".
When will Caymanians wake up?!! Why doesn't this "security measure/concern" not extend to the Falklands?
Good Question. Uk slowly taking over.
'UK slowly taking over', you moron, this is a Crown possession, a territory of the United Kingdom, read what it says on the front of the passport. And as far as I'm aware the possibility of removing the Cayman Islands from the front of the passport was never proposed.
Personally, I, like many of my countrymen, are sick and tired of handing out our passports to those who don't offer any form of reciprocal arrangement in return. You can freeload off the backs of the British taxpayer for defence, intelligence, diplomacy, European rights, UN, NATO and many other privileges that come with the British Territory status. But what do you do for us, the British taxpayer, you don't even allow us to work here without the same regulations that apply to non British citizens?
No one wants unfettered access to your jobs market, but when another 'British Citizen' finds work here legitimately and within all of the required immigration controls, why should he be subjected to the indignity of being labelled a 'foreigner'?
Definitely Cayman double standards.
Oh, you think it's perfectly reasonable for a territory of 60,000 and 100 square miles to just allow an open door to millions of British/UK citizens? Yea, that's rational.Moron.
No, what is reasonable and rational is reading the full text of the post, especially the bit that confirms adherence to local immigration controls and application legitimacy.
You are so bitter and twisted your bigotry blinds you to the facts, learn to read before making dumbass comments. Moron.
I am not the poster you are responding to but there was nothing in that post that resembled bigotry. However, it is surely reflected in yours. Take in a look in the mirror.
Don't flatter yourself. Not everyone wants to be here.
My company has a real problem recruiting staff for specific roles as the residency deals are far better in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. These roles cannot be filled in the Cayman Islands.
Now Abu Dhabi and the UAE are starting to poach staff from here, that has dried up the pool some more. Two people have cut contracts short or not renewed to work in UAE.
Don't want to burst your bubble here, but millions of people in the UK have never heard of the Cayman Islands let alone want to move there.
Get over it, this is not the centre of the earth.
Wow. I don't know why you came to work in this country in the first place if you feel this way. Better opportunity perhaps?
No, just better weather in the winter, the rest is just work.
You really are as dumb as you act aren't you? I work here because I do work Caymanians don't want to do, I get paid reasonably well and I spend all of my earnings here on island. Trust me, compared to many places around the world, this is not a land of opportunity, just a land of self interest and entitlement.
And yes, I suppose that would include me, but at least I'm in good company.
Hehe, stop it, please, you're making my sides hurt!
The person asked why the heck are you in Cayman given your obvious resentment to the islands. A fair question I might add.
"Oh I travelled 4,500 miles to help out your little nation because your Caymanian people don't want to do the work." Haha ahhh. You're too cute. You're just like any other immigrant. A category which I can happily own up to being a part of. "I want to be here, I like it here. I proved to management that I wanted that job far more than anyone else who showed interest in it." Was that not easier, is that simply not the case for you? This is not a land of opportunity but this is where you choose to waste years of your life <sigh>. Is it because the real lands of opportunity wouldn't take you? Please go show your boss your CNS posts to justify just why you don't deserve your job or deserve to be in Cayman.
LOL. If it's not a land of opportunity for you then why are you here?
Probably the same reason that we were afforded the same indignity in the UK for so many years. I distinctly remember being taken out of the British Passport line at Heathrow and put in the line with foreigners from all over the globe. Now, all of a sudden, when the shoe is on the other foot you are horrified at the indignity of it. Damn hypocrite.
Does that happen now,? No it doesn't, (I note that you decline to offer a date for this dreadful slight). And although you went through the terrible ordeal of having to change into another queue at the British border you were still able to utilise all the benefits associated with the passport.
Does Cayman offer a line for other British citizens, does it offer any concessions for other British citizens, no it doesn't. And I'm a hypocrite?
It is clear from your text that you have a real problem with 'foreigners' from all over the globe, why didn't you just simply refer to them as other travellers? I suggest it is you who wears the mantle of hypocrite, as it is you who merely had to stand in a queue with other human beings, but because of your deep cultural prejudice, you thought you shouldn't have to.
I too have had to stand in line with those not of my race, colour, creed or nationality when entering my own country. But I don't feel that their queue is any more demeaning than having to queue in the first place. I hold a British passport, they don't, that's all that really matters.
You sound like a spoilt school child who couldn't get their own way, so feels that spoiling it for others is the mature way to proceed. Oh please, grow up and join the real world.
I've made a valid point and you know it. You can try to deflect all you like with unfounded accusations but you need to take a look in the mirror.
The point is that there was no special benefit to being the holder of a British Passport in the UK all because it had "Cayman Islands" stamped on it. The "holder (was) subject to control by the Immigration Act, 1971", did not have right of abode, had no right to work and was treated like the citizen of any other country. The rest of your garbage has no relevance to the issue but is just an attempt to deflect.
Two things:
1) You should have thought of all that before taking over these islands.
2) It's really not that serious, just passports. I promise you, Cayman is not the big spoon in the relationship with the UK.
Bonus things:
When was the last time you've been back to the UK? Really never heard someone call another person a 'foreigner' and advising them in a friendly manner to "go back to your country" Careful up there on that high horse.
As for all the 'freeloading' points, I'd love to see the application form that Cayman filled out to to become a British territory.
Ignorance must be bliss in that Stone Age brain of yours.
These Islands have always been a British territory, they were settled by the British and have remained in our constant possession since. For heavens sake, read your own history, we never took them over, we never conquered them in a colonial war and we never gave you an application to join anything, because they were already ours.
I go back to the UK often, but have never heard anyone refer to a Caymanian or anyone else who holds a British passport as a foreigner. But then again, how many Caymanians have ever been further than Miami or Cayman Brac for that matter. How many actually hold British passports and not passports from dual nationality country's, such as Honduras or Jamaica?
No my friend, you are wrong on all counts, passports do matter, knowledge of your Islands history matters, and bigotry matters. However, if you don't want the passports and all the benefits, please don't bother applying and stay here on this rock so that your stupidity doesn't become obvious to the outside world.
Don't forget, the British were here long before this place received the influx of immigrants that now rightly call themselves Caymanians. The Union Flag has always flown over Cayman, and it will do so until you can afford independence.
Regarding your first paragraph, that was my point entirely! Yeesh. It was really just a tongue-in-cheek point to say that neither Cayman nor Caymanians had a choice in the land being a British territory. Not saying it's a bad thing, my personal view is that it really is for the best to keep it that way. Now go ahead and retract your claws kitty.
Now this blows my mind and I really hope you do it simply for argument sake otherwise shame on you for your ignorance and for trying to fool me into thinking you're an intelligent person. >>>> When you hear someone in the UK referring to someone who appears to not be British as a foreigner, we both know (there I go assuming again) that they don't check passports to confirm this, it's done simply on the basis of appearance. I didn't say it's done specifically to Caymanians, I'm speaking generally as over the course of a couple months I've seen it happen to individuals of South Asian descent who were 'BORN' in England and are indeed NOT foreigners. My point is there is no reason to make the claims you do about Cayman as things are not much better in your backyard. In fact I can't recall many cases of Caymanians physically attacking foreigners but I immediately think of several serious cases in Nov & Dec 2013 alone in the UK.
The problem with you playing the victim card saying that Cayman or any other territory owes you more than you have is inherently wrong, which is why you don't have the benefits you demand, simple as. If you didn't check the laws to see what applied to you as a UK citizen then that is your own stupidity. If you did check and you decided to move to Cayman anyway then you already know what you were in for so quit your whinging.
I presume you have somewhat of a better life in Cayman otherwise I have to ask, are you being held captive and why are they so nice to allow you unfettered access to the internet? Surely, if you were there of your own volition and you didn't like it, you'd be gone by now.
Passports bearing the words 'Cayman Islands' on the cover is what the people of Cayman feel they deserve and evidently the UK gov't views it is an insignificant enough compromise to warrant going through with it. Why is that so unsettling?
To someone who proclaims "These Islands have always been a British territory, they were settled by the British and have remained in our constant possession since." Thanks for that. Are you familiar with 'duty of care'? As a result of your statements wouldn't you say the British owe a duty of care to the Cayman Islands and it's people, not the other way around? You can agree to that, can't you?
Finally I am not denying that bigotry exists in Cayman as it does. My point is it exists amongst some natives of all nations hence you travelling across the world to Cayman and thinking they owe you these numerous points simply because the UK 'owns' them. Yet at home you bashing in the heads of the poor Asians/Arabs who were actually born there and tell them to leave.
I don't live in Cayman. Just a person rooting for what's fair to the little guy (that's Cayman if it was unclear). I know a person like yourself cannot understand why anyone would do that, the ignorance is just oozing out of you. You my friend, are the poster child of bigotry.
UK slowly taking you over if you don't want to be called a foreigner then we will call you NonBelonger ok, now what does it matter to you anyway, you have never had it so good back home. Respect ya self and earn ya money and go, oh you can keep talking all you want but you is a non belonger.
But it has always been our territory.
Actually, they are not "our" passports although they bear our name on the front. Obviously the same rule applies to the Falklands as it does to us.
Read the front of your passport. They were never your own.
We are not an independent country! What is so hard to understand about that???
Yes stupid, it applies to all British territories, and just for the sake of clarity and for the avoidance of doubt, they are OUR passports, the taxpayers of the UK, not yours. They have the UK Government seal on the front, not a Cayman Islands flag, which is subservient to the Union Flag in any case.
Get over it, or give them back. We don't care either way.
And I hope you are not in Cayman?!
No, I prefer living in a tolerant country that believes bigotry and racism should be consigned to the past. I don't want to live in a place where a simple matter of nationality is met with such ignorance and blatant prejudice.
I'd imagine you should be reading the news for that os so tolerant utopia instead then. Hopefully you're not in the US, UK or Australia because, you've got quite a wake up call coming if you think bigotry, racism & zenophobia doesn't exist. So many stories in the news lately in each of those countries on the very topic you mention.
Read this in a redneck accent: "They tuk our jobs!"
Caymanians in Cayman think Cayman is tolerant too. I am sure the expats in your country don't agree with you.
Slowly step away from the thread, the issues are clearly beyond you