Cayman Islands PR Fees and Timeline in 2026: Every Government Charge From Filing to the First Annual Declaration

From 1 May 2026, applying for Cayman Islands permanent residence after eight years costs CI$1,500, CI$2,500 or CI$5,000 in government application fees, depending on the annual work-permit fee for the applicant's occupation. Before that date the fee was a flat CI$1,000. The new figures come from the Caymanian Protection (Fees) Regulations, 2026, as published in the Ministry's Immigration Reform Guide fee tables of 29 April 2026, and they run alongside a set of recurring fees that continue for as long as the residence is held. This page lists each fee with its source, marks the ones the Regulations did not amend, and lays the whole sequence out as a timeline from the test sitting to the first annual declaration.

Every figure below is in Cayman Islands dollars. The fixed rate is CI$1 to US$1.20. The PR cost calculator applies these numbers to a specific fee band and household and prints each line with its citation; this page is the explanation behind it, and a spoke of the complete points guide.

The three fee bands

Most of the 2026 fees are tiered by the annual work-permit fee that applies to the holder's occupation, not by salary. The three bands are used verbatim across the Regulations:

• where the annual work-permit fee for the holder is CI$2,100 or less;
• where it is between CI$2,101 and CI$10,400;
• where it is more than CI$10,400.

The band on the applicant's current permit is therefore the single input that sets most of the numbers. The occupation-based work-permit fee schedule itself was not changed on 1 May 2026, so the band is read from the existing permit.

Fees at filing

Fee	Band 1	Band 2	Band 3	Before 1 May 2026	Source
Application for permanent residence after eight years (Residency and Employment Rights Certificate)	CI$1,500	CI$2,500	CI$5,000	CI$1,000 flat	Fees Regulations 2026, "Permanent Residence, Eight Year Residence", Reform Guide p. 17
Application to the Director of WORC for permission to continue working while the application is decided	CI$150	CI$250	CI$500	CI$100	Fees Regulations 2026, "Permission granted by Director of WORC to remain in employment", Reform Guide p. 23

The application fee is paid with the form and is not refunded on refusal. The permission to continue working is discussed below. WORC's published guidance on the permission describes it, once granted, as attracting a fee equivalent to a six-month work permit on top of the application fee in the table; that figure depends on the occupation and has not been reconciled against a primary copy on this site, so the worked totals below leave it out.

Fees on grant

Section 37(1) of the Immigration (Transition) Act (2022 Revision) lists what accompanies an application: the application fee, the issue fee, the dependant fee and the annual fee for the first year. Two of these are quantified by the 2026 Regulations; two are not.

Fee	Amount	Status
Issue fee on the grant of permanent residence	Set by annual-earnings band in the consolidated fee schedule	Not amended by the 2026 Regulations; not yet reconciled against a primary copy on this site
Annual fee for permanent residence with the right to work	Equivalent to the annual work-permit fee for the holder's occupation	Not amended; read from the occupation's work-permit fee
Annual dependant fee, per dependant included in or added to the grant	CI$350 / CI$525 / CI$750 by band	Amended; was CI$500 per dependant

Rather than print a guess for the issue fee, the calculator lists it as unquantified until the schedule is reconciled at the next statute review. The annual fee for PR with the right to work is a recurring cost equal to a full work-permit fee each year; for any occupation whose permit fee exceeds the dependant and declaration fees combined, it is the largest recurring line.

Fees that recur

Permanent residence is not a one-off purchase. Three lines continue for as long as the residence is held.

• Annual declaration, CI$250. New on 1 May 2026. Section 37(12) of the Act, as substituted by section 14(d) of the Immigration (Transition) (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2025, requires the holder to file an annual declaration with the prescribed fee. Section 37(12A) makes failure to file an offence and a ground for revocation.
• Annual dependant fee, CI$350 to CI$750 per dependant. Per dependant per year, on the same three bands.
• Annual fee for PR with the right to work. Equal to the annual work-permit fee for the holder's occupation, payable each year by the holder or the employer.

Related fees on the road to and from PR

Two further sets of fees frame the application. Before it, the work permit that provides the eight years of residence carries its own charges, several of which also changed on 1 May 2026:

• Application for the grant or renewal of an annual work permit: CI$150 / CI$250 / CI$500 by band (was CI$100). Reform Guide pp. 22 to 23.
• Annual dependant fee on a work permit: CI$350 / CI$525 / CI$750 by band (was CI$500). Reform Guide p. 22.

After it, the right to be Caymanian on grounds of naturalisation, which a permanent resident may seek after twenty years of residence including ten years holding PR under section 28(3) as amended:

• Application for the right to be Caymanian, naturalisation grounds: CI$1,000 (was CI$250). Reform Guide p. 15.
• Grant of the right to be Caymanian, naturalisation grounds: CI$5,000 (was CI$1,000). Grants by Cabinet under section 28 are CI$10,000. Reform Guide p. 15.

The History and Culture test

No separate fee for the Factor 6 test appears in the 2026 Regulations. The sitting is arranged by WORC after filing and is covered by the application fee. It is a cost in time: forty questions, half a point each, up to 20 of the 110 points needed. The test spoke covers the format and the reading list.

Professional fees

There is no prescribed scale for immigration attorneys in the Cayman Islands, and arrangements range from a single consultation to full representation before the Board. This page does not publish an unsourced "typical range". The cost calculator takes the quote the reader was actually given and labels that line as the reader's own estimate, so that every other figure on the page stays traceable to the Regulations. The contact page passes referral requests to a licensed Cayman Islands immigration attorney.

The timeline

No statutory deadline binds the Board's decision, and published processing times vary with the volume of applications. What the law does fix is the sequence and the position of the applicant while waiting. The steps below date from a planned application date; the calculator lets the reader set that date and an assumed decision wait.

1. Eight years of legal and ordinary residence complete. Section 37(1). The roll-over calculator gives this date from a work-permit start date, and also gives the nine-year term-limit date under section 66(1) that the application has to be filed before or carried across.
2. Filing. The application fee (CI$1,500 / CI$2,500 / CI$5,000) is paid with the form. Evidence for all nine factors accompanies it: employment letters, qualifications, investment records, twelve months of local bank statements, Factor 5 letters from the heads of organisations, and identity documents.
3. Permission to continue working. A person who applied during the currency of a work permit may seek permission from the Director of WORC to continue in employment on the same terms, or for a new employer in the same occupation, until the application and any appeal are determined (section 66(4)). The application fee is CI$150 / CI$250 / CI$500. This is what carries an applicant across the nine-year term limit while the decision is pending.
4. History and Culture test sitting. Scheduled by WORC; one reschedule, within thirty days. No separate fee.
5. Decision. Placed at the number of months the reader assumes, because no statutory timetable exists. On grant, the issue fee and the first annual fee fall due together, with the dependant fee for each dependant included.
6. First annual declaration. Twelve months after grant, CI$250, then every year thereafter.

Worked totals

For a holder in the middle band with no dependants, the quantified government fees at filing are CI$2,500 for the application and CI$250 for the permission-to-work application, CI$2,750 in total, or US$3,300 at the fixed rate, before the six-month-permit-equivalent fee on the permission itself. The first year after grant adds the CI$250 declaration plus the occupation-based annual fee and the issue fee, neither of which this page quantifies. For a holder in the same band with two dependants, the first year after grant adds a further CI$1,050 in dependant fees, and that line repeats annually.

For a holder in the top band with one dependant, filing costs CI$5,000 plus CI$500, and the recurring dependant fee is CI$750 a year. The calculator runs these totals for any band and household and converts to US dollars.

What changed and what did not

The 2026 Regulations raised the application fee from a flat CI$1,000 to a tiered CI$1,500 to CI$5,000, raised the permission-to-work application from CI$100 to CI$150 to CI$500, moved the dependant fee from CI$500 to CI$350 to CI$750 by band, and introduced the CI$250 annual declaration. They did not touch the issue fee, the annual fee for PR with the right to work, or the occupation-based work-permit fee schedule. The 1 May 2026 spoke covers the substantive changes in the two Amendment Acts, including the point that the eight-year residence requirement did not become nine.

Nothing on this page is legal or financial advice. Sources: Caymanian Protection (Fees) Regulations, 2026, as set out in the MCEI Immigration Reform Guide fee tables (29 April 2026), pages 15 to 23; Immigration (Transition) Act (2022 Revision) sections 28, 37 and 66; Immigration (Transition) (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2025, sections 10 and 14. Figures reviewed 30 August 2026. The fees marked "not yet reconciled" are on the quarterly statute-review list and will be filled in from the consolidated schedule.