Up-Front
Chief Immigration Officer,Orrett "OC" Connor -'No Need To Fear'
Chief Immigration Officer- Orrett "OC" Connor
This is the second installmentof our two part series in which Cayman Net News highlights thechanges that are modernizing the immigration process of the CaymanIslands and the efforts being made to create a more efficientand customer-friendly Immigration Department and a more transparentImmigartion Board.
Last week, in our profile of the Immigration Board's Acting Chairman,Sherri Bodden Cowan, we highlighted the Board's role in the currentprocess of innovations.
In this issue, we turn the spotlight on Chief Immigration Officer,Orrett "OC" Connor, and the Department of Immigration,the gatekeeper to all who would enter these islands.
As Chief Immigration Officerand head of the Immigration Department, Mr. Orrett "OC"Connor is perhaps the most readily recognizable authority figurein the Cayman Islands Immigration and has been perceived as powerfuland feared.
It is a perception that Mr. Connor is keen to dispel.
"My role as a public servant is to serve the public and Ifeel that it is unfortunate that people see it in any other light.I don't look at it as a position of power to have a negative influence,"-- he says of the tremendous responsibilities he has as ChiefImmigration Officer - "but to have a positive influence onpeople."
His job is an opportunity, he says, to help people, and "thatis what is important."
Presiding over the department that implements the decisions ofthe Immigration Board in matters regarding work permits (excepttemporary grants, for which he has direct responsibility) andpermanent residency applications, Mr. Connor -- the first Caymanian-bornChief Immigration Officer -- has encountered what he says is a"misperception" that he can personally make decisionsregarding these processes.
This "misperception" and a general fear of the Departmentare perhaps steeped in the role that it has to play as the gate-keeperto the Cayman Islands.
"We are charged with ensuring that desirable people comein and that the undesirables do not come in," he says ofthe Department's role. "The law is quite specific in termsof those persons who are deemed to be undesirable inhabitants.It sets certain criteria for us to go by," he emphasized.
He cited as an example that an immigration officer could requireevidence of good character from a person entering the island,depending on the nature of the visit. "We don't require thisof every visitor coming to the island," he says. "Studieshave shown that 95 percent of the traveling public are genuinetravelers. You only get about five percent that are coming forpurposes other than they stated, and it is these that are focusedon," he notes.
In the administration of immigration matters, he makes the distinctionbetween the actions of the Board - which has responsibilitiesfor immigration laws and policies, and is answerable to directivesgiven by the governor in council -- and those of the Department,which "is obligated to enforce the decisions of the Board."
As Chief Immigration Officer, he also reports directly to theChief Secretary, Mr. James Ryan through the Deputy Chief Secretary,Mr. Donovan Ebanks.
The Department is the enforcement arm for immigration and monitorsall entry and exit to and from the Cayman Islands, breaches ofimmigration policies and institutes or recommends sanctions -including deportation-for such breaches.
The Department is staffed with a local intelligence-gatheringunit and conducts routine checks on guest-houses and constructionsites to ensure that people are not living or working in the islandsillegally.
In carrying out its functions, Mr. Connor says the Departmenthas taken on a direction and stayed on a course to be a customer-friendly,service-oriented one. "The whole question of fear shouldn'tcome into it at all. It does because people have a tendency tooverestimate what we as individuals can do."
The drive to be service-oriented and responsive to the publichas led to a number of continuing strategies to improve both theoperations of the Board and the Department.
Improvements at the Department are not a new phenomenon, thoughthey have been accelerated recently. Mr. Connor points out thatthe department was the first one in the government service tobe computerized, from as far back as 1982/1983 and since thenhas been in the forefront of technological changes.
Mr. Connor was well prepared to undertake the challenge as thehead of the 100-plus immigration staff. In 1995 he travelled toCanada, and in 1996 to Bermuda and observed immigration enforcementand administration principles in those territories. Some of thisknowledge he has applied in regulating local immigration matters.His knowledge of immigration laws and the British NationalityAct has also guided his decisions in dispensation of his duties.
The Reinvention of Government Services presented an opportunityfor the Department to assess its performance and to get feedbackfrom the public about its services. The Department's efforts wererecognised with one of the cash prizes -- the Governor Owens Awards-- for innovativeness in the Reinvention exercise.
Improvements have also been initiated as a result of the workof the Legislative Assembly's Select Committee on Immigration,which enabled changes through Executive Council. Mr. Connor isa member of that Committee.
The cumulative effect of this thrust towards a higher level ofcustomer service, is the implementation of a number of measures,designed to make the immigration process open, accessible andhassle-free.
In a matter of weeks, the Department is slated to be only thesecond one in Government with its own web site. The site willprovide information on the status of work permit applicationsand "is expected to reduce the calls to the Immigration Boardby 80 percent," says Acting Board Chairman, Sherri BoddenCowan. This access to information, will not only make the Boardmore transparent, but will hold it accountable, she adds.
In addition to the web site, a new measure whereby employers canfile a Business Staffing Plan with the Immigration Board willalso be put in place. The employer will provide information onthe number of employees a company presently has, the positionstaken by each employee, whether the employee is Caymanian, permanentresident or on a work permit, the length of time the employersees that position existing in the organization, the possibilitiesof Caymanizing positions currently held by work permit holdersand the proposal for any new position coming into the companywithin three to five years.
It will also require employers to disclose their initiatives fortraining and scholarship. Once the Immigration Board, has approvedthe business-staffing plan -- including positions within it, whichrequire a work permit -- applications for such permits would nothave to be dealt with by the full board.
The Business Staffing Plan will "take the guessing out ofthe work permit process," Sherri points out and will giveemployers security in planning their employment needs over threeto five years.
In addition, other changes have been gazetted to come into effectsoon. These include the Immigration Exemption from Work PermitLaw (2000), the Trade and Business Licence Amendment Law (2000),the Immigration Amendment Law (2000) and the Immigration AmendmentRegulation (2000). These regulations include a change in the periodgranted for temporary work permits - from one month to 90 daysand changes to the categories of persons requiring temporary permits.
Both Mr. Connor and Sherri point to a harmonious working relationshipbetween the Board and the Department, which has contributed tothe implementation of changes.
Mr. Connor, who sits on the Board in an advisory capacity, saysthe Department's advice is generally taken and that "ninety-ninepercent of the times our views mesh with those of the Board."
"We want to be fair and we try to be fair," he says,"but we can't arbitrarily make decisions on our own, althoughdiscretion can be exercised."
Sherri acknowledges that, "Mr. Connor, as Chief ImmigrationOfficer, has set a tone of openness at the department." Underhis leadership any member of the public has access to call orvisit the department for information on work permits and relatedmatters.
She notes that Mr. Connor has also maintained open communicationwith the media, and has been amenable to participating in mediadiscussion programmes and other for a such as the Chamber of Commerce,to explain the role of and developments at, the department.
Mr. Connor, who has been with the department since 1983, firstin a supernumerary position as Assistant Chief Immigration Officer,admits that this new approach is a change from the reputationhe had developed for "going by the book" in his previousposition where he had "a tough job to do in Enforcement."In 1985, he rose to Deputy Chief Immigration Officer, still withresponsibilities in Enforcement. In 1996, he became Chief ImmigrationOfficer (Designate) and later Chief Immigration Officer.
His work has taken him to Cuba as part of a delegation handlingthe Memorandum of Understanding regarding the Cuban boat people.
Today, he says he still goes by the book, but he points out thathe is "certainly more flexible."
This flexibility underlines a desire to see the Board and theDepartment operate.
He has responsibility for the Board's Secretariat, which functionsas the connecting link between the Board and the Department incarrying out the administrative functions of the Board.
The Secretariat, a 15-member unit, has a Secretary to the Board- Liz Walton -- and two Assistant Secretaries, Brenda Carter andKaren Gourzong.
Mr. Connor says that he would like to see more of the administrativework of the Board handled by the Secretariat, thus allowing theBoard to be more policy makers and leaving the day-to-day functionsto the technocrats.
The Secretariat will take on responsibility of administering theBusiness Staffing Plan, Sherri disclosed.
"One of the things we will be doing is reviewing the workflow in the Immigration Board," Mr. Connor says, noting thatthe need may arise for adding senior staff.
Mr. Connor's work at the department is public service he feelsdriven to perform, in much the same way that he was always focusedon returning to Cayman to make a contribution to the islands'development after spending 15 years in New York, where he gainedhis Bachelors degree in Political Science at Hunter College anda Masters degree in International Relations from Long Island University'sBrooklyn Campus.
"Right after my Masters degree, I came back home," hesays. Home has been Cayman as well as the Department of Immigra-tion.
So focused is he on keeping ahead in a dynamic department, thatMr. Connor eschews any idea of moving on until he "gets thisplace in tip top shape."
"All we are interested in is that we are going to improvethe service. We are answerable to the public."
Sharon Roulstone-BovreChairman of the Immigration Board
The changing face of theDepartment of Immigration to a more flexible, and customer-friendlyone is a process that has recently gained momentum, but whichbegan sometime ago, under the direction of Chairman of the Board,Mrs. Sharon Roulstone-Bovre.
Both the current Acting Chairman of the Board, Mrs. Sherri BoddenCowan and Chief Immigration Officer, Orrett "OC" Connor,acknowledge the work and ideas of Mrs. Roulstone-Bovre, in thisprocess.
Mrs. Roulstone-Bovre was first appointed a member of the Boardin August, 1995 and became its Chairman in March, 1996.
Mrs. Roulstone-Bovre is an Associate at the law firm, Walkers,Attorneys-at-Law and is currently on maternity leave.