Immigration Lawyer Blog

The UK Border Agency has completed its review of the criteria to become a Highly Trusted Sponsor (HTS) under Tier 4 of the points-based system. We are now inviting comments on the proposed new criteria. From April 2012, all Tier 4 sponsors must obtain HTS status. By the end of 2012, they will also need to have been inspected, audited or approved by one of the educational oversight bodies specified by us.

In April 2011, we committed to review the criteria to become a Highly Trusted Sponsor. We have now completed this review, and the proposed new criteria are set out below.
- Mandatory requirements - all must be passed
- Minimum qualifying period 12 months, with the last 6 months as an A-rated sponsor
- Minimum period with no civil penalties 3 years
- Refusal rate < 20 per cent
- Enrollment rate > 90 per cent
- Course completion rate More than 85 per cent
- Declaration of progression 100 per cent
- No serious concerns (Linked to the new visiting officer report)

Core measurable requirements start with 100 points; must score 70 or above.

To become a Highly Trusted Sponsor, you must pass each of the mandatory requirements. You will then be assessed against the core measurable requirements, with points deducted according to a sliding scale.
For example, a sponsor meets all the mandatory requirements and has an 18 per cent refusal rate, a 94 per cent enrolment rate and a 92 per cent course completion rate. They are deducted 20 points for the refusal rate, 10 points for the enrolment rate and a further 10 for the course completion rate, losing 40 points in total. This leaves a score of 60 points so their application is refused.
If you fail on one or more mandatory requirements, you will become a legacy sponsor. You will not be able to sponsor new students, and your licence will be revoked from April 2012.
Sponsors failing on the core measurable elements may reapply after 3 months.
All education providers who wish to begin or continue to sponsor students from outside Europe must apply for HTS status by a date to be specified, and must obtain HTS status by April 2012.
Sponsors who currently have HTS status will need to apply up to a month before their current status expires. For the current renewal process and guidance, see our How to apply as a Highly Trusted Sponsor page.
Sponsors who do not already meet the accreditation requirements must also apply to Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) or the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) by 9 September 2011. We published further information about the enhanced role of QAA and ISI in a news story last month.
Since 21 April 2011, all independent schools with an 'A' rating and appropriate accreditation are automatically awarded HTS status. Independent schools with a 'B' rating are given HTS status, if they have the appropriate accreditation, as soon as they become A-rated.
New independent schools are given HTS status immediately, if they are A-rated and have the appropriate accreditation.
If you were registered after 1 March 2011 with a zero CAS limit, you will be given 50 per cent of your requested CAS allocation and must apply for HTS 12 months after receiving your licence, providing you have been A-rated for the last 6 months.
Any sponsor who misses either application deadline will become a legacy sponsor, unable to sponsor any new students. Their licence will then be revoked in April 2012.
Sponsors who achieve or successfully renew HTS status will be subject to an interim CAS limit until they have obtained satisfactory educational oversight (EO) inspection.

Reflecting the importance of the United States’ diplomatic relationship with Malta, Chargé Richard M. Mills, Jr. dedicated the new United States Embassy facility in Valletta today. Malta’s President, George Abela; Prime Minister, Lawrence Gonzi; and Office Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), Patrick McNamara, participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The new Embassy facility, located in the Ta’Qali neighborhood of Attard near Ta’Qali National Park, was designed to incorporate green building techniques and to meet the principles of the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system. The multi-building complex provides more than 125 U.S. embassy employees, both American and Maltese, with state-of-the-art work space that features a collection of contemporary Maltese, American, and Maltese-American art, curated by the Office of Art in Embassies.

A.I.C.I-SP of Arlington, Virginia constructed the facility, which was designed by the architectural firm Karn Charuhas Chapman Twohey (KCCT) of Washington, D.C. The $125 million project generated jobs in both the United States and Malta. The new facility was completed in May 2011 and, at times, involved more than 800 workers in its construction.

Since the 1999 enactment of the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act, the Department has moved more than 24,000 people into safer facilities. Including the new Embassy in Malta, OBO has completed 82 diplomatic facilities and has an additional 35 projects in design or construction.

Kenyans planning to travel to USA may soon be required to prove that they have basic knowledge of how life ‘actually’ is in America before they are issued with travel visas.
Proof, to be in the form of some kind of ‘certificate of induction’ issued after attending Basic Information sessions conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be part of a retinue of requirements that must be presented to the US Embassy in Nairobi as part of qualifying documents when one is seeking to travel to America.

Currently, one has to show proof that they are financially able to sustain their stay in the USA without becoming a ‘public charge’. For those going to study, they must present financial bank statements from their sponsors either in Kenya or in the USA. The move that is bound to be received with mixed reactions by a public that is wary of the many complications around visa applications for traveling abroad, is being spearheaded by the Kenyan Embassy in the USA, more specifically Ambassador Elkanah Odembo.

Odembo who first proposed the requirement through a letter he sent to his Permanent Secretary in Nairobi, says the move is aimed at protecting the safety and integrity of Kenyans migrating to the USA. In the recent past, the Kenyan embassy in the DC has been inundated by calls and letters from Kenyans living in the USA seeking help for all manner of problems. "We are seeing too much suffering on the part of some Kenyans who came to this country with scanty information about how life actually is. We think part of the solution to this problem can be tackled when someone is still in Kenya and that is why we are proposing this initiative," Odembo said.

He says proper information for those going to America is very key in helping them prepare financially and psychologically for the life they are bound to find there. Odembo, who was himself once a Diaspora student in the USA, said the embassy is in the process of developing a manual containing basic information about America. This will be part of the literature that will be given to those intending to travel to the USA for whatever reasons but especially for those choosing to study in America.

"When we came to America to study long time ago, this was part of the requirements. We had to prove that we knew what we were going to do in America. Of late, this is not happening," he said, adding that the manual is a necessity and will contain not just the do’s and don’ts but also basic information about important contacts and help centers managed by the Diaspora in the USA. Odembo said he was working closely with the newly appointed USA ambassador to Kenya, Scott Gration, whom he described as someone who is very ‘conversant’ with these issues.

If approved and implemented by the Kenya government, this will be one of the measures aimed at tackling some of the immense challenges that the Diaspora is currently facing in the face of changing fortunes for USA, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and the collapse of the financial markets.

Many Kenyans living in the USA have not only lost their jobs in the recent past but also their homes and investments as a result of the economic recession. Some of the measures aimed at checking illegal immigrants to the USA include tightening rules for foreign students. Many foreign students can’t find jobs within the campuses and if they drop some classes to find work to supplement their upkeep, their student visas are revoked. Frustrations arising out of this have led to increased social ills such as domestic violence, suicides and drug and alcohol abuse.
Hardest hit are those who are migrating on the lottery visa commonly known as Green Card. Many are staying for months on end and sometimes years without finding employment.

U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced it will no longer offer parole to Lautenberg category members who are denied refugee status in Moscow. Individuals who have been offered parole by USCIS in Moscow must make plans to arrive in the United States by Sept. 30, 2011.

A provision of the Lautenberg Amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act allows certain individuals who are paroled into the United States after being denied refugee status to adjust to lawful permanent resident status after being physically present in the United States for one year. Within the Moscow program, this provision is limited to only those refugee applicants from countries that made up the former Soviet Union who meet the Lautenberg criteria.

Congress has not extended this Lautenberg Amendment provision, which expires after Sept. 30, 2011.

Spain, Europe's second-most visited country after France, aims to welcome one million Chinese tourists in 2020, the government said recently. The country received 89,523 Chinese tourists in 2009, the last year for which figures are available, and Tourism Minister Miguel Sebastian said this figure should rise to 300,000 in 2012.

To increase the number of visitors from China, Spain plans to ease visa requirements for Chinese nationals, encourage more direct flights between the two countries and open more tourist offices in the Asian giant, he added. The government also plans to publish guides about Spain in mandarin and encourage restaurants and hotels to offer foods and opening hours that are more suited to Chinese tastes.

"This increase in the flow of tourists will increase knowledge about Spain in China and knowledge of China in Spain," Sebastian said at a China-Spain business forum in Barcelona.
Spain has just two tourist offices in China, in Beijing and Guangzhou and Air China, China's only national flag carrier, is currently the sole airline to offer direct flights between the two nations. The minister will present the government's plan to boost tourist arrivals from China, the world's most populous country, in Beijing on July 27.

Here are few significant changes to the Tier 4 student route of the points-based system have come into effect from July 4, 2011:
- restrict work entitlements, by only allowing students sponsored by higher education institutions (HEIs) and publicly funded further education colleges to work part-time during term time and full-time during vacations;
- restrict sponsorship of dependants to those of students sponsored by HEIs on postgraduate courses lasting 12 months or longer, and of government-sponsored students on courses lasting longer than 6 months;
- require institutions to confirm that courses represent genuine academic progression from any previous courses studied by the student in the UK; and
- create a streamlined application process for low-risk nationals sponsored by Highly Trusted sponsors.

These changes are aimed at delivering a strong migration system which tackles immigration abuse while allowing genuine students to study at genuine colleges.

The Embassy of Indonesia in Baghdad is getting reopened. The Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister, Labib Abbawi, welcomed the Indonesian reactivation team’s visit on 29 June 2011. The team delivered a Letter of Introduction (LOI) from the Indonesian Foreign Minister to the Iraqi Foreign Minister. The LOI constitutes the appointment of Minister Counselor Dharmakirty SP as the Charge d’Affaires Ad Interim until the arrival of the Indonesian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Iraq.

Reactivating the Indonesian Embassy is a part of the two countries’ commitment to enhance their bilateral relations in the field of politics, economy as well as social and culture, as quoted from the press release of the Indonesian Embassy in Baghdad.

Till date, Indonesia and Iraq have ratified a total of 15 agreements and had a bilateral cooperation mechanism of Joint Commission Meeting. In the economic field, the trade between both countries has reached the value of US$ 83 million from January-March 2011. Indonesia-Iraq diplomatic relations officially started in 1950. In 1961, the two countries respectively opened their embassy in Jakarta and Baghdad.

The Indonesian Embassy in Baghdad has officially resumed its duty and function as the diplomatic and consular representative after being suspended from any activity in middle of March 2003.