From 1 September 2026, if you are not Caymanian, the price of driving on these islands jumps by up to eight times — and the government has told you exactly why: because you weren’t born to the right passport.
Under the new regime introduced in the 2026–2027 budget by Finance Minister Rolston Anglin, the split is decided entirely by nationality. Same steering wheel, eight times the price. The Treasury expects to collect an extra $9.6 million a year — largely from the nurses, teachers, masons, cooks and caregivers who keep this island running on salaries that don’t stretch to a spare $600.
“Presumed” legal
Asked whether charging people different prices based on nationality is even lawful, the Attorney General reportedly called the structure “presumed” legal. Read the reason carefully — the islands’ top legal officer did not dispute that this is discrimination. He defended it as the permitted kind:
The Constitution provides for government to discriminate in favour of Caymanians.— Attorney General Samuel Bulgin, on the licence-fee structure
“Presumed” legal is not the same as legal. It’s the word you reach for right before a court tells you otherwise.
The marriage tax
Non-Caymanians married to — or in a civil partnership with — a Caymanian get the local rate. So the exact same expat, doing the exact same job, driving the exact same car, pays a wildly different price depending on who they married.
Two neighbours, identical on the road — separated by a marriage certificate the government approves of.
Not the people who can afford it
It is not the hedge-fund partner or the law-firm director — $600 is a rounding error to them. It lands on the people who cannot vote, cannot easily leave, and now cannot renew a licence to get to work without a penalty for existing here as a foreigner:
And let’s not pretend everyone will reach for polite language: when a charge falls overwhelmingly on migrant workers from the Caribbean, Latin America and the Global South, plenty of people are going to call it by a blunter name than “discrimination” — and they won’t be wrong to ask the question. When you means-test a policy and find it bites hardest at the bottom, you haven’t found a revenue measure. You’ve found a targeted one.
This belongs in a courtroom
Policies like this rarely die in the newspaper. They die in front of a judge. The Cayman Islands Bill of Rights guarantees equality before the law and protection from discrimination — and a fee eight times higher for one group of residents than another, on the basis of national origin, is exactly what a judge is asked to weigh. The AG’s own “presumed legal” hedge is an open invitation. It would take one determined resident, one willing attorney and one filing to make the government defend “discriminate in favour of Caymanians” in front of a judge instead of a press microphone.
Cayman sells itself as open, welcoming, international — built by people from everywhere. You can’t run that ad on Monday and hand the same people an eight-times bill on Tuesday. Charge everyone the same, or admit what this really is.
Cayman driver’s licence fees: FAQ
How much is a driver’s licence for a non-Caymanian?
From 1 September 2026, a non-Caymanian pays $600 for a three-year licence (vs $75 for a Caymanian) and $200 for a one-year licence (vs $25). The driving test is $200 vs $50.
When do the new Cayman licence fees start?
1 September 2026, under the 2026–2027 budget introduced by Finance Minister Rolston Anglin.
Are non-Caymanians married to Caymanians exempt?
Yes — non-Caymanian spouses and civil partners of Caymanians qualify for the Caymanian (local) rate.
Why are non-Caymanians charged more?
The government says it raises revenue while easing the burden on Caymanians. The Attorney General called it “presumed” legal because the Constitution provides for government to discriminate in favour of Caymanians — which critics argue could be challenged under the Bill of Rights.
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So if I marry a Caymanian I pay $75, but my coworker doing the identical job pays $600? That's not a licence fee, that's a marriage tax. Pick the right spouse or pay the penalty — absolute madness.
Same road, same potholes eating my tyres, same test — but I pay 8x because of my passport? For $600 I want a chauffeur, not a licence. Make it make sense.
This lands on the nurses, carers, cooks and labourers who can least afford it — the people who literally keep this island running and can't even vote on it. Someone is going to lawyer up and challenge this in court, and honestly it deserves to be challenged.
$600 versus $75 for the exact same licence, the exact same test, the exact same roads — there is no polite word for pricing people by nationality. The AG says it's 'presumed' legal; presumed is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. This ends up in front of a judge and I don't see how it survives the Bill of Rights.