Dear ABIC Members,

I am pleased to report to you that in a letter addressed to me as Chairman of ABIC, The Minister of Labour and Immigration, the Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, JP. MP, has confirmed that from 1st October 2007 the turnaround time for all initial work permit applications and all renewals in the insurance, reinsurance, financial services and related areas will be ONE MONTH. The processing of these work permits is handled by the Immigration team headed by Mrs. Belinda Woolridge, Industry Relationship Manager.

ABIC has had regular meetings with the Minister to express concern with the delay in the processing of work permits and the impact on our business, we have made the point that our competitiveness is compromised, and that very good prospective employees are often lost. The Minister shares our concern and has moved to improve the work permit process.

The one month turnaround time will apply in all cases where complete work permit applications have been submitted, where the Department of Immigration has no concern that a qualified Bermudian is being disadvantaged and where there is no statutory responsibility for consultation to a third party.

We are very pleased that the Minister has made this commitment to improving the turnaround time for work permit applications, a move that is long overdue and one which we know the Minister has made a priority since taking office. Our internationally competitive business environment requires that we must be in a position to attract and recruit qualified employees in order to maintain our leadership position, and this action will certainly help. None of this will change our commitment to hire, retain and promote qualified Bermudians wherever possible.

We applaud the Minister’s decisive action in this matter and look forward to continuing our dialogue with the Immigration department on matters that relate to the environment in which our members operate. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our ABIC team, and our Industry partners in joining us in these initiatives.

Sincerely yours,
David Ezekiel
Chairman