International businesses have expressed growing concern about the impending term limits to work permits.

Reports that several companies may be mounting a legal challenge to the work permit renewal issue could not be confirmed yesterday but several companies are known to have held meetings with the Department of Immigration to discuss the issue.

Tim Marshall, a partner at Marshall Diel and Myer commented: "We are currently seeing a general discontent with how the immigration policy is being implemented and the unacceptable delays in the processing of applications. Unless immigration policies are implemented in a fair, just and open manner, we are going to reach the situation where international businesses are not going to invest in Bermuda and local businesses are not going to expand their operations here."

Chief immigration officer, Dr. Martin Brewer, confirmed yesterday that come April 2007, no further work permit renewals will be granted for non "key" expatriate staff.

Government policy currently states that work permits will not be renewed beyond a maximum term of six years. Under exceptional circumstances, a further renewal for three years may be given, but generally expatriate will have to leave unless they are recognised as "key" to the business.

This policy came into force in April 2001 and since then, the clock has been ticking.

Government's immigration policy accepts that there are not enough qualified Bermudians to fill certain categories of jobs, but companies must meet their needs by replacing staff with new expatriates after the six year term limit has expired.

"The fact that we need a work permit holder doesn't mean that we must have a particular work permit holder." said Dr Brewer.

Asked to explain how the policy will apply, Dr. Brewer said that companies can apply for employees to be recognised as "key" and they will receive written confirmation of whether that person has been accepted as "key" or not."

He said that so far, he only knows of one or two individuals who have received such confirmation.

The chairman of the association of Bermuda International Businesses, David Ezekiel said implementation of the policy would be difficult. "An organisation is bound to regard the category of "key" people as wider than someone looking in from the outside."

He said that replacement of staff members whose work permits had run out could not be regarded as merely a matter of replacing technical skills: "One builds up a rapport with clients, one builds up knowledge of the product and a deep understanding of how the company works and that ends up being of great value."

Asked what constitutes a "key" employee, Dr Brewer referred to the definitions laid out in the Department of Immigration's work permit policies published 1 April 2001. That document is available on the department's website: www.immigration.gov.bm and lists seven criteria. One or more of the criteria must be demonstrated in order to prove that an employee is "key".

Dr Brewer emphasised that "key" employees need not necessarily be top executives: "If Bill Gates were here, he would be "key" but it could also be someone lower down the company such as someone in the IT department" he said.

According to Dr Brewer, a company should not assume that all the members of their board would be recognised as "key". "Board members don't necessarily have to be based in Bermuda." he said.

Asked whether there would be a limit to the number of "key" employees, Dr Brewer said: "The Minister has said that he does not expect there to be large numbers of key people."

The waiver to term limits is one of several privileges that may be granted to companies if they demonstrate that they have been "good corporate citizens." Other privileges include "Fast track" work permit processes. According to Dr Brewer, in order to maintain this "state of grace" companies need to inform the Department of their record in recruiting, training and developing Bermudians once a year.

Asked whether a staff member who had been designated "key" to a business would need to reconfirm that status on an annual basis, Dr Brewer said he did not expect it to be an annual process: "As part of the ongoing "good corporate citizen process, we would expect a recap of who are key employees."

Dr Brewer said that the need for companies to be able to plan their long term staffing has to be balanced against the problem of expatriates acquiring permanent residents rights if they are in Bermuda over ten years. The Department of Immigration's work permit policy paper states:

"This term limit is a reasonable compromise between the uneconomical short end and the socially unacceptable long end of the scale.... "

The Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Terry Lister was off Island yesterday and acting minister, Neletha Butterfield had not returned calls at the time of going to press.