Any business in Cayman which regularly needs workers to come from overseas to work for no more than 14 days on any particular visit, may seek to apply for a Business Visitor’s Permit allowing such individual(s) permission to work for a specified number of visits per year, subject to strict limitations. There is also a category of Visitor’s Work Visa, which permits individuals who are employed outside of the Islands, and who wish to visit for up to five calendar days at a time, in order to engage in commercial activity with a locally licensed entity or person (a ‘sponsor’), to apply for the grant of a Visitor’s Work Visa.
These Business Visitor’s Permits are not available for people attending for one visit only.
There is also a category of Visitor’s Work Visa, which permits individuals who are employed outside of the Islands, and who wish to visit for up to five calendar days at a time, in order to engage in commercial activity with a locally licensed entity or person (a ‘sponsor’), to apply for the grant of a Visitor’s Work Visa. To obtain a grant on arrival, the requirements are as follows: the local business or visiting worker must download a ‘Letter of Invitation’ form from the Immigration website and email it to imm-vwv@gov.ky at least 24 hours before they are due to arrive. It should be noted that once approved, the person will be required to pay CI$100 at the airport.
The Visitor’s Work Visa is not available to those who are employed in a professional capacity (lawyers, accountants, medical professionals, architects, surveyors, teachers and other occupations) or who are otherwise not entitled to a work permit by virtue of having reached their term limit. The Visitor’s Work Visa also does not exempt someone from the requirement to obtain an entry visa if they possess a passport from a country which would otherwise require a Visitor’s Visa to enter the Cayman Islands. In addition, a business visitor may not hold more than one Visitor’s Work Visa in relation to the same sponsor or sponsors within the same calendar month, but, unlike a Business Visitor’s Permit, a Visitor’s Visa may be used for a single visit.
Visitors Work Visas are dealt with by Customs and Border Control (not WORC).