What the Cayman PR points system is
Permanent residence in the Cayman Islands is decided on points. After eight years of legal and ordinary residence - s.37(1) of the Immigration (Transition) Act (2022 Revision) - a person may apply, and the application is scored against Schedule 2 of the Immigration Regulations (2025 Revision) across nine factors: occupation, education and experience, local investments, financial stability, community involvement, knowledge of Cayman history and culture, Caymanian connections, nationality and age. The pass mark is 110 points; the maximum reported under the Gazette’s own tabulation is 215. A score of 110 makes an application eligible for consideration - the grant itself remains a decision on the whole application, including character, health insurance and the ability to maintain oneself and any dependants.
Each factor card above carries the Schedule 2 section and page it is read from, and the calculator itself is version-tagged (currently v2026-01, last reviewed 2026-08-30) so a rubric change becomes a visible version change, not a silent edit. Two headline factors bound what most applicants can score: Factor 7 awards up to 40 points for being the parent, son or daughter of a Caymanian (20 for a brother, sister or grandparent - the tiers do not stack, and marriage to a Caymanian is not a Factor 7 route), and Factor 8 scores nationality by its share of the work-permit population, a rule the Privy Council upheld in April 2025.
What changed on 1 May 2026 - and what did not
The Immigration (Transition) (Amendment and Validation) Acts 2025 and 2026 came into force on 1 May 2026. They do not change the points framework: the Schedule 2 values, the 110-point pass mark and the eight-year residence requirement all stand - the nine-year figure that circulated in early 2025 was a clause of the draft Bill that was never enacted, and gov.ky confirms the amendments “do not introduce changes to the Permanent Residency points-based framework at this time”. What did change sits either side of the PR application: the right to be Caymanian now needs twenty years of residence and ten years holding PR (previously fifteen and five, s.28(3)), and the spouse of a permanent resident receives a fifteen-year Residency and Employment Rights Certificate with an annual declaration. The roll-over calculator turns a work-permit start date into the three dates that frame all of this - the eight-year eligibility date, the nine-year term limit and the status horizon - with the section cited next to each.
The History & Culture test - 20 points of the gap
Factor 6 is the one factor scored in an exam room: a 40-question test on Cayman history and culture, half a point per correct answer, up to 20 points (Schedule 2 §Factor 6, Immigration Regulations (2025 Revision), p.106). It can be rescheduled once, within 30 days of the original sitting; a missed test scores zero. For an applicant short of 110, it is often the largest block of points available on a timescale measured in study weeks rather than years - which is why the free practice test on this site exists, with original questions and the source for every answer.
What an application costs
Fees changed on 2026-05-01 under the Caymanian Protection (Fees) Regulations, 2026, and most of them are now tiered by the annual work-permit fee for the applicant’s occupation. The application fee is CI$1,500, CI$2,500 or CI$5,000 across the three bands (previously a flat CI$1,000); permission to continue working while the application is decided costs CI$150–CI$500; each dependant on a grant costs CI$350–CI$750 per year; and holders file an annual declaration with a CI$250 fee. The issue fee on grant and the occupation-based annual fee were not amended. The PR cost calculator itemises all of it for a specific band and household, each line with its citation.
How the planner works - the annual caps
Most points calculators answer one question: the score today. The planning problem is different, because Factor 5 - community involvement, up to 20 points - is earned per year, inside an eight-year lookback window, and only where an activity reaches 35 documented hours in the year. Category I activities (mentoring a Caymanian outside work, tertiary-education sponsorship of at least CI$3,500 a year, offender-rehabilitation mentoring) earn 2 points a year; Category II activities (youth, sports, arts and church programmes, service clubs, non-profit volunteering, personal donations of at least CI$2,000 a year) earn 1.5 - Schedule 2 §Factor 5, Immigration Regulations (2025 Revision), p.105-106.
The consequence: a year that passes without a qualifying activity is a year of Factor 5 points that cannot be earned later. The calculator’s gap analysis takes the planned application date, projects age-bracket and experience changes to that date, and shows each remaining category with its cap - how many points remain reachable, and by when the activity has to start for a given year to count. It presents the arithmetic of the caps; the choice of activities, charities and amounts stays with the reader, and eligibility questions belong with a licensed Cayman immigration attorney.