Nine-month extension for permit holders

The rules governing how long people on short-term employment permits can stay in Guernsey have been relaxed.

Home Affairs has announced anyone on a three-year licence can apply for a nine-month extension.

Committee president Marc Leadbeater said they had made the move as they were "sympathetic" with the challenges faced by employers when it came to work permits.

States chief executive Boley Smillie announced the government's internal audit team would be reviewing the work of population management after it was revealed that as of 17 September, 3,886 population management applications were outstanding, alongside 324 applications within immigration workstreams.

Since then Smillie said the population management team was under new leadership, after the previous leader of the department was revealed by the BBC to have been living in the British Virgin Islands, while working for the States.

On Linkedin, Smillie said career civil servant Claire Eley would be running population management as the interim administrator of the department.

Home Affairs said it expects the backlog within population management to be "stabilised" during 2027, "bringing greater certainty around permit processing times".

The committee said as part of its work it had looked at extending to a full four years or longer, but said that "would likely mean a greater risk of short-term permit holders reaching a point where they may become eligible for settlement due to their length of residency or on human rights grounds."

Currently Home Affairs is reviewing the island's population policy, with that review set to be published before the end of 2027.

The last population data from the States of Guernsey is from 2023 and the BBC has asked when up to date data will be provided, but has not had a response.

Leadbeater said the lack of accurate data was frustrating when it came to the review of population policy.

Issues with the data provided by the States of Guernsey have been blamed on problems at the island's revenue service, which collates a lot of the statistics.

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