Roughly 700 people have applied for status under a provision of the Island’s immigration law that allows certain holders of Permanent Resident Certificates to seek full citizenship.

However, with only about 100 requests processed so far, six Bermudian staff from the firm KPMG have chipped in pro bono to help the Department of Immigration deal with the backlog.

Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy told the Senate yesterday that the five accountants, and one senior auditor, were all graduate students working on their Certified Public Accountant qualifications.

The group would gain experience and get an opportunity to give feedback to the department on how its procedures work.

Opposition Senate Leader Diallo Rabain queried why out-of-work accountants registered with the Department of Workforce Development had not been selected, but Sen Fahy cited the need for swift action.

The minister said he had been approached in March by Mike Morrison, the head of KPMG advisory, and Neil Patterson, chairman of KPMG Bermuda, with an offer to help with the applications made under 20B (2)(b) of the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act 1956.

An agreement was signed on June 12, with the team of secondees to put in 1,500 hours of work over periods of three to six weeks each between June 16 and August 28.

Sen Fahy said he hoped for “most, if not all” of the applications to be vetted by the end of the stint.

The KPMG team’s primary duties are:

• Reviewing applications for completeness;

• Contacting applicants for outstanding information;

• Helping Department staff with additional tasks such as naturalisation, police reports and advertising, to enable a review and final decision by the minister.

• For the full ministerial statement, click on the PDF link under “Related Media”.