Expert: Drew Wilmoth - 6/11/2009

Question
Hi...do you know to what extent Immigration checks for previous bankruptcy. I went bankrupt 17 years ago and I am not inclined to reveal this out of both embarassment and the risk of having my employment offer revoked.

Would be grateful for a reply as I can see that my dream job may fail due to something that happened so long ago.

Many thanks

Joanne

Answer
One of the questions you must answer on an application for a work permit is: "18. Have you ever been bankrupt or owned shares, equity or rights in a non-public quoted company or been a director, manager, or officer of a company, partnership or entity which went bankrupt or ceased trading without creditors being paid in full? If so, please provide details:"

To answer this question you must consider whether you have ever filed personal bankruptcy (or if the business bankruptcy provisions of the question apply) and also whether your creditors were paid in full.

If you filed a bankruptcy reorganization and your creditors were paid in full then the true answer to the question is "No".

Only if you filed a bankruptcy and the creditors remained unpaid would the answer be "Yes". In such a case you would need to provide basic details of the filing.

Lying on a work permit application is a criminal offence. Upon conviction you might find yourself fined, deported and barred from future entry into the Cayman Islands, at best. At worst you could find yourself imprisoned.

Whether a work permit would be refused or a job offer rescinded would depend, in part, on the relevance of your personal circumstances to the job on offer.

Other questions on the form may provide a clue as the the sort of timeline they consider significant. One question asks if a work permit grant or renewal was refused by any country within the last 15 years. Older refusals would be irrelevant.

I do not know what efforts the Department of Immigration undertakes to check the accuracy of the information you provide. I do not know if they run a credit check or how long a bankruptcy would show on a credit check.

The work permit application form asks for personally identifying information such as name, date of birth, passport number, and current and past addresses. There is no question asking for a social security number or other national identity number. I do not know what information could be retrieved with the information you provide.