Anyone currently in the island on an employment permit who wants to stay longer, or any employer that has a member of staff on a permit who they want to keep longer, is being encouraged to contact the Population Management Office.
The Committee for Home Affairs is urging businesses and workers to contact Population Management before making any decisions about either recruiting replacement staff or leaving the island, as there may be solutions that can enable the member of staff to stay beyond their existing employment permit.
Solutions are potentially available as a result of the Committee's decision to introduce Population Management Employment Permit Extension policies to support businesses and their staff through the current challenging period.
The Population Management Office will be able to support by assessing an individual's options based on the current policy. As such anyone here on an employment permit and who would like to stay longer than the existing expiry date, is urged to contact the Population Management Office at population@gov.gg, giving detail of their circumstances so an officer can review their options. The same applies for businesses who want to retain existing staff.
Deputy Rob Prow, President of the Committee for Home Affairs, said:
'Our Committee has consistently said that we'll do everything we can to support businesses retain and recruit staff. We know that recruiting from outside of the Common Travel Area is particularly challenging at the moment as a result of Brexit changing the visa requirements for EU nationals entering the UK. While this is a UK process that we have little control over, from a Population Management perspective the Committee is determined to support both businesses that have staff already here that they want to keep, and individuals in the island on employment permits that want to stay longer than their existing permit would ordinarily allow. This is not always possible, depending on the length of time the person has been in the island, but our clear message is contact the Population Management Office to explore available options before making any decisions about leaving the island.'
Mark Nichols, Deputy Administrator of Population Management, said:
'We have had examples where either individuals approaching the end of their employment permit, or employers with staff in that situation, have contacted us and we have been able to provide them with options to remain based on current policies in place. We also know, however, that some individuals and employers assume that the end of an employment permit is the end with no prospect of an extension. While this can certainly be the case, depending on the overall length of time the person has been here, it is also the case that solutions may exist to help businesses keep good workers here. We are here to help and want to support people who want to stay, and businesses who want to keep good and important staff, wherever we can so we'd encourage people to contact us to discuss in the first instance.'
