worked on one of the military bases or as a consular employee.

5.04 Special Cases Replacement of the interim Working Resident's Certificate policy offers the opportunity to address the hardships encountered by certain groups, who through no fault of their own, are placed at an exceptional disadvantage compared with the rest of Bermuda's residents.

To give special relief to such groups, they could be deemed to be long-term residents provided they are of good character and conduct. Such persons would then qualify for Permanent Resident's Certificates.

Specifically, those who could be considered are: the spouse of a Permanent Resident; the brother or sister of a Bermudian where that person cannot qualify for the grant of Bermudian status; the natural parent of a Bermudian where that person cannot qualify for the grant of Bermudian status; and the son or daughter, over the age of eighteen years, of a Permanent Resident, provided the applicant has been ordinarily resident in Bermuda with his or her parents and continues to reside in Bermuda.

5.04.01 Spouse of a Permanent Resident Option: : Allow the spouse of a Permanent Resident to be eligible for the Permanent Resident's Certificate The spouse of a Permanent Resident could be treated as a special case, i.e.

simply being the spouse of a Permanent Resident would qualify him or her for the privilege. A problem with this approach is that a person who is newly wed to a Permanent Resident acquires the privileges at once and is in direct competition with Bermudians and spouses of Bermudians from the date of the wedding.

Option: ...provided he or she meets certain conditions An alternative proposal could require the spouse to qualify in his or her own right under more flexible criteria. This would have the advantage that only people with long-term ties to Bermuda would qualify.

Option: or meets certain length of marriage and residence requirements as the spouse of a Permanent Resident A variant of the previous option would be to require the person to have been married to his or her spouse for at least ten years after the latter had acquired a Permanent Resident's Certificate. The person would also be required to have been resident in Bermuda, for an aggregate of seven years, together with the Permanent Resident. This is analogous to the requirement that a spouse of a Bermudian must fulfil to qualify for the grant of Bermudian status.

5.04.02 The Sibling of a Bermudian A long-term resident child is one who, before 1 August 1989, was born in Bermuda or came here before the age of six years. Such a person, if of good character and conduct, can apply for Bermudian status once he or she has reached 18 years of age and has been continuously resident in Bermuda for at least ten years. To qualify for Bermudian status, such a long-term resident child must apply for Bermudian status before 1 August 2008. A long-term resident child who has acquired Bermudian status may be the only member of his or her immediate family who is Bermudian.

Option: Allow the sibling of a Bermudian to qualify for the Permanent Resident's Certificate In families that arrived in Bermuda with two children it can happen that one may qualify for Bermudian status as a long-term resident child, while the other is too old on arrival to be eligible. Another possibility is that both children are over the age of six years on arrival in Bermuda but a third child is born into the family in Bermuda. In such cases, one child will become Bermudian but the older sibling or siblings will not qualify for the grant of Bermudian status.

Policy could allow the sibling of a Bermudian to qualify for a Permanent Resident's Certificate provided the person is of good character and conduct and has been continuously resident in Bermuda up to the date of application for the certificate. The person who is eligible to become Bermudian will be at least 18 years old when he or she acquires Bermudian status. As the sibling of such a person will necessarily be older, he or she will also be over the age of eighteen when he or she becomes eligible to apply for a Permanent Resident's Certificate.

Granting a Permanent Resident's Certificate to the sibling of a Bermudian helps to alleviate the hardship generated by the splitting of families, who are resident in Bermuda, along the lines of Bermudian/non-Bermudian.

5.04-03 The Natural Parent of a Bermudian Option: : Do nothing extra as a special case With respect to the parent of a Bermudian, where the Bermudian was born out of wedlock, "natural parent'' refers to the Bermudian's natural mother. The question is whether anything should be done for the non-Bermudian parents of a Bermudian child. There appears to be no compelling reason to treat the parent of a Bermudian child as a special case beyond what will be provided for long-term residents in general.

There is a lower work permit fee for a non-Bermudian who is the parent of a minor Bermudian child. At the end of June 2000, there were 61 people who held such work permits.

5.04.04 Divorced Natural Parent of a Bermudian Child A non-Bermudian married to a Bermudian has two important privileges. He or she is free of work permit control and has an expectation of becoming Bermudian after ten years of marriage and seven years of residence in Bermuda. Upon divorce, the non-Bermudian loses those privileges, even if he or she has been married for ten years and resident for seven years in Bermuda or there is a Bermudian child of the marriage.

When there is a child of the marriage and the non-Bermudian has been granted custody of the child, the situation is worsened. The non-Bermudian parent must work in order to support the Bermudian child. However, the divorced person frequently finds it very difficult to find employment because Bermudians and their spouses are easier to employ and employers prefer not to have to apply for work permits.

Proposed changes in the draft work permit policy have raised the issue of non-Bermudian spouses with Bermudian children being assigned a preferred position in the hierarchy of work permit holder categories. A divorced parent of a Bermudian child ranks in priority to those non-Bermudians who do not have a Bermudian connection.

Option: Allow the divorced parent of a Bermudian child to be eligible for a Permanent Resident's Certificate It could be stipulated that, the divorced former spouse of a Bermudian would qualify for a Permanent Resident's Certificate after ten years had elapsed since the celebration of the marriage to the former Bermudian spouse and after residing in Bermuda for at least seven years, in aggregate, during that period. These requirements are analogous to those for the widow or widower of a Bermudian to acquire Bermudian status.

5.04.05 Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents Of the 447 Working Resident's Certificate holders, 275 (62%) have 458 children between them. Of these children, 227 (49.5%) are Bermudian, 146 (32%) are not yet Bermudian but may qualify as long-term resident children. The remaining 85 children (18.5%) cannot qualify for Bermudian status under current legislation.

Option: : Allow the working-age son or daughter of a Permanent Resident to be eligible for a Permanent Resident's Certificate Granting the working-age son or daughter of a Permanent Resident the same privilege, prevents any hardship arising from splitting families along the lines of Permanent Resident/work permit holder. To be eligible the person would have to be of good character and conduct. The privilege would be restricted to those sons and daughters who remain in Bermuda and could be lost after residence outside Bermuda for a number of years.

5.05 Acquisition of Land Although the Government has held back from granting Bermudian status to long-term residents because of the greatly increased competition for land which that would generate, there may nevertheless be some scope to allow some relaxation of the land policy to assist long-term residents in this area.

5.05.01 Condominiums With respect to condominiums, currently, only units in certain designated developments are available for purchase by non-Bermudians provided the units meet certain requirements.

Option: Allow condominium units anywhere in Bermuda to be available to Permanent Residents: ... without restriction An option would be to allow a long-term resident with a Permanent Resident's Certificate to acquire a condominium unit anywhere in Bermuda with no restriction on the Annual Rental Value of the unit. This would give a free choice of affordable condominium housing to the many long-term residents who are ordinary working people.

However, this option is not favoured by the Government as it would be tantamount to putting long-term residents on an equal footing with Bermudians.

This is not the intent, especially in what seems to be an overheated housing market, where it is difficult, if not well-nigh impossible, for young Bermudians earning a median income to be able to afford a starter home. This is not to minimise the impediments for other Bermudians who may not be young or in a median income range and who also find it difficult and frustrating to secure an affordable home for purchase.

Option: : ...provided the units have Annual Rental Values above the minimum for purchase by non-Bermudians An alternative possible option is to allow long-term residents with Permanent Resident's Certificates to acquire condominium units anywhere in Bermuda, provided the individual units fulfilled the same requirements as units in designated developments. Such a policy already pertains to non-Bermudians who are residential certificate holders.

5.05.02 Houses With respect to houses, the land policy could be relaxed to allow long-term residents to buy single-unit houses above a certain minimum Annual Rental Value which is lower than the current minimum for purchase by non-Bermudians.

The current minimum Annual Rental Value for houses in the non-Bermudian market is $126,000. Such houses sell for an average of about $3,000,000, which is well beyond the means of most long-term residents.

Option: : Allow Permanent Residents to buy houses in the top 20 percent of the housing market An option is to set a minimum Annual Rental Value on single unit houses at about $50,000 for purchase by Permanent Residents. This would make about 1,500 houses in the top 20 percent of the housing market available to them. Such houses currently sell at prices of about $800,000 and above. This would still reserve 80 percent of single unit houses for Bermudians only.

SUMMARY Bermudian status Option: Relax the Bermudian status law for the benefit of people who arrived in Bermuda before 1 August 1989 Option: : Relax the Bermudian status law for the benefit of existing long-term residents Option: Allow some relaxation of the Bermudian status law to permit non-Bermudians, who are already on the Parliamentary Election Register, to qualify for Bermudian status Applicability of The US `Green Card' Model Option: Introduce a Permanent Residency status similar to the US green card for special cases Permanent Resident's Certificate The Spouse of a Bermudian Option: Allow the spouse of a Bermudian to obtain a Permanent Resident's Certificate, if he or she qualifies in his or her own right.

Qualifying Date Option: : Allow anyone who arrived in Bermuda before 1 August 1989 to qualify for a Permanent Resident's Certificate, once he or she fulfils the remaining conditions.

20 years' Residence Option: Allow a person to count any period of 12 months, or more, of continuous ordinary residence in Bermuda towards an aggregate sum of 20 years of ordinary residence.

Option: Allow the period of absence abroad to be unlimited.

Option: ...or limit continuous absence abroad to periods of less than two years Option: ... or allow longer periods of absence for secondments overseas 15 years in the Bermuda Work Force Option: : Replace the requirement to have worked in Bermuda for a certain number of years, with a minimum age of 40 years for eligibility.

Special Cases Spouse of a Permanent Resident Option: Allow the spouse of a Permanent Resident to be eligible for the Permanent Resident's Certificate.

Option: ... provided he or she meets certain conditions.

Option: ... or meets certain length of marriage and residence requirements as the spouse of a Permanent Resident.

The Sibling of a Bermudian Option: Allow the sibling of a Bermudian to qualify for the Permanent Resident's Certificate.

The Natural Parent of a Bermudian Option: : Do nothing extra as a special case.

Divorced Natural Parent of a Bermudian Child Option: Allow the divorced parent of a Bermudian child to be eligible for a Permanent Resident's Certificate.

Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents Option: : Allow the working-age son or daughter of a Permanent Resident to be eligible for a Permanent Resident's Certificate.

Acquisition of Land Condominiums Option: Allow condominium units anywhere in Bermuda to be available to Permanent Residents: ... without restriction.

Option: : ... provided the units have Annual Rental Values above the minimum for purchase by non-Bermudians.

Houses Option: Allow Permanent Residents to buy houses in the top 20% of the housing market.

EPILOGUE The Government is determined that the problems created for Bermudians and non-Bermudians by the presence of large numbers of long-term residents without employment or residential security will be solved.

Those policies will have a dramatic effect on people's lives. It is important to get the right balance between protecting the livelihoods and the quality of life for Bermudians and being fair to those non-Bermudians who have lived and worked a very long time in Bermuda and at one time had the hope of obtaining Bermudian status.

All members of the community are urged to discuss these issues and make your Members of Parliament aware of your sentiments. You are also invited to write directly to the Minister of Labour, Home Affairs & Public Safety.

With your input, Members of Parliament will be able to debate these issues and arrive at a sound, fair and sustainable policy for Bermuda's long-term residents.

Thank you for your time and attention in this regard.