Immigration Alert
The Cabinet Secretary responsible for immigration services announced during a meeting of the Parliamentary Security Committee in Mombasa on Friday, 20th April 2018 that the Immigration Department was planning on carrying out a major crackdown in conjunction with the National Police Service on illegal foreign workers in Kenya, with a goal to identify and remove from Kenya any foreigner who does not have the appropriate immigration status.
The Cabinet Secretary ordered that foreigners in Kenya should regularize their status in Kenya within the next 60 days, after which an operation to verify and take action against those who are working in Kenya illegally shall be launched. He also announced that the government will introduce and issue an electronic work permit card to foreigners holding valid work permits, further details of which shall be released by the Immigration Department progressively. The ultimate purpose of the process is to have a digital Immigration Register.
To manage your immigration matters during the crackdown period and thereafter, we recommend the following prudential measures:
- That all foreign nationals in your office premises/establishment have valid immigration status. Any foreign national who is in the country for work related activities, notwithstanding the longevity of stay, should have valid work authorization status. As you are aware, valid work authorization is either (i) a work permit or (ii) a special pass.
- That all foreign nationals in your office premises/establishment have (i) in the case of work permit holders, their original Alien Cards, and (ii) in the case of Special Pass holders, their duly endorsed Passports, with them at all times.
- Your Staff in charge of HR matters should always have an up to date record/file of all foreign nationals in your employ. This includes but not limited to, (i) original work permit/special passes, (ii) copies of passports, CV, academic and professional certification and job description submitted to Immigration Department, (iii) receipts for all payments made to immigration, etc. This would be useful in the event that the Immigration Officials visits your Office premises for purposes of verifying the status of your expat staff.
The Cabinet Secretary has further hinted that the Government is planning a radical change in how work permits are to be processed and issued, a process which might lead to a heightened scrutiny of work permit applications and more strict enforcement of the Kenyanization Clause (not issuing permits for roles that can be filled by Kenyans) resulting into delays in timelines for processing the permits. We will closely monitor this and advise should there be a need for us to revise our expected timelines for service delivery.
