After seating inside the building reached capacity, officials erected a small marquee with seating underneath to accommodate the overflow of customers.

Officials said Tuesday that WORC “wants to thank the public for their patience and reminds customers they may expect service delays as the front counter staff continues to be trained on the new system coming soon”.

Apologising for the delays, officials said that WORC is now open from 7:30am and offers extended closing hours every Wednesday until 7:00pm.

The new Customs and Border Control Agency, which absorbed the enforcement and border control aspect of the old immigration department, has been fully operational since the beginning of the year, but the transition does not appear to be going quite as smoothly for WORC. Government still needs to bring changes to the immigration law, and the system to transform the management of both local and expatriate labour is not yet functioning.

However, speaking at the Chamber’s Economic Forum in June, WORC Director Sharon Roulstone was confident that once it was up and running, the new system would be a huge improvement, cutting the permit application time to as little as two weeks and eliminating much of the previous bureaucracy. But Roulstone said it was a “monumental” undertaking to transform the system, which is expected to be fully operational next month.

The development of the technology has been the main issue and the cause of delays. The staff now needs to be trained to use the new system, which will require every single job vacancy in Cayman to go through the new job portal if a work permit is required.