Immigration Minister Sen. David Burch added more flesh to comments he made last month on issuing longer work permits, but supporters of relaxations to the Government's term limits shouldn't uncorck their champagne bottles too soon.

After April 1, the Department of Immigration will be able to issue ten-year work permits for the princely sum of $20,000. In the Senate on Monday, Sen. Burch said the ten-year work permits were intended to give "a level of comfort" to international companies.

Last month, Sen. Burch said expatriates identified as key members of staff would soon be able to get work permits which extend beyond the current five-year maximum.

That suggests that non-Bermudians who have already been identified as key employees of companies and have received a waiver from the six-year term limit will now be able to apply for a ten-year work permit as well.

So that suggests a relaxation of the work permit regime, because it means that those employees would not have to have their jobs advertised for a period of ten years and could not be replaced by a Bermudian for that time.

As such, that is a significant concession by the Immigration Department, although questions remain, especially as regards whether this would apply to all companies or just those in the international sector.

It is worth restating just how the work permit and term limit policies work, because they are not the same thing.

Work permits are granted for anywhere from one year to, now, possibly ten years. When a work permit comes up for renewal, the employer must advertise the job and give full consideration to qualified Bermudian applicants. If there is no qualified Bermudian, the non-Bermudian can be rehired, assuming they have not exceeded their six-year term limit or any extension granted to it.

But even a person who had received an extension (or a full waiver) of the term limit is not exempted from having his or her job re-advertised and being replaced by a non-Bermudian. That's because the sole purpose of term limits is to avoid creating a situation where Bermuda has a large population of non-Bermudians who have been on the Island for decades demanding more rights.

Thus the ten-year work permit is fairly limited in its scope, although for those who have a waiver already, it will give some security to them and to their employer. If what Sen. Burch said last month still holds true, this therefore affects no more than 2,330 people who have been granted waivers or exemptions from the term limit policy. So this is a reasonably small concession in practical terms by Sen. Burch, although psychologically it is quite significant. But, as Sen. Burch has been at pains to say all along, it does not alter the term limits policy in any way.

It seems unlikely that Bermuda-based reinsurer Flagstone HoldingsLtd.'s decision to move its holding company to Luxembourg had anything directly to do with term limits.

But Flagstone's comments about wanting to be seen as a "European company" should raise concerns. Flagstone said the move (which will leave the company's operations in Bermuda unchanged for now) was not related to "Solvency II", the risk-based European regulations governing insurers and reinsurers operating in the European Union.

Bermuda does not yet have "equivalence" or mutual recognition status, although the Bermuda Monetary Authority says it has now done everything asked of it. And it is possible that other Bermuda companies may look at restructuring their operations if the Island does not get equivalence soon.

But Flagstone's desire to be seen as a European company should worry proponents of the Bermuda market, while those who think that term limits, Bermuda's reduced political stability and the weakening of public finances and the economy generally has absolutely nothing to do with moves like these, is being naive or deliberately obtuse.