Work Permits and Immigration
Anybody who has not lived on the island for five years, including British citizens, requires a Control of Employment work permit from the Manx government to take up employment on the island. Manx people, as British Citizens, may travel and work freely in the United Kingdom. Passports issued on the Island are marked 'British Islands - Isle of Man', instead of 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland', and these passports are issued to all British Citizens resident on the island.
Protocol three of the Treaty of Accession of the United Kingdom to the European Economic Community stipulates that those defined as Manxmen "shall not benefit from provisions relating to the free movement of persons and services". Such people have a stamp in their passports stating that 'he holder is not entitled to benefit from EC provisions relating to employment or establishment'. Manxmen, like Channel Islanders, are not technically covered by the rights of the freedom of movement of workers and, therefore, have no automatic right to work or start a business within mainland Europe. In practice, this is rarely a problem.
Travel to the Isle of Man is regulated by British law. Most travel to the island is from air and sea ports in either the UK or Ireland. Schedule 4 of the Immigration Act 1971 applies a reciprocal arrangement whereby foreign nationals legitimately present in the UK or a Crown dependencies do not legally require any leave to travel to any other part of the British Islands.
The Isle of Man, together with the Channel Islands, the UK, and the Republic of Ireland form a Common Travel Area, which means there are no immigration controls imposed on those travelling inside the area. However, because the Immigration Act 1971 does not apply to the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man uses the Control of Entry Through the Republic of Ireland Order to automatically grant legal leave to anyone arriving on the Island from the Republic.
Section 7(1) of the Immigration Act 1988 grants the legal right to visit and reside in the Isle of Man to EU and EEA citizens. The Isle of Man is not permitted by EU law to discriminate between the citizens of the UK and other EU countries, and consequently any British or other European citizen is currently free to immigrate to the Island to live. However, the requirement for a work permit before taking up employment still applies.
Read more about this topic: External Relations Of The Isle Of Man
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