The country’s President Tarja Halonen announced during her visit to the Russian city that Finland will open a visa centre in March 2011in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan. It is a part of Halonen’s four-day state visit to Russia. Speaking with republican President Rustam Minnikhanov, Halonen said that the visa…
The Federal Government of Nigeria on Tuesday announced the extension deadline for expiration of the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) to the Harmonised ECOWAS Electronic (Smart) Passport, otherwise called e-passport from December 31, 2010 to April 30, 2011. The Minister of Interior, Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho, who made this known during the…
The Ministry of Interior has denied rumors that it has stopped issuing visas to the immediate relatives of expatriate residents. Major General Nasser Al Awadi Al Menhali, Director-General of the Naturalization and Residency Department, told Gulf News that visas are still being issued to immediate family members, and especially to…
Canada has admitted recently that its new visa application form, criticized by Russia for seeking sensitive information on applicants’ military service, aims to weed out visitors inadmissible to Canada. Citizenship and Immigration Canada ‘must protect the health and safety of Canadians, maintain the security of Canadian society and promote international…
Mauritius and Switzerland on Wednesday signed an agreement on short-stay visa waiver under which Mauritians could stay in the European country without visa for a maximum of three months in a six-month period. Mauritius and the European Community (EC) signed a similar agreement on 28 May, 2009, allowing Mauritians to…
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk backed on Thursday Bulgaria’s bid to join the European visa-free Schengen travel zone in 2011. “Bulgaria is on a fast track to join Schengen and Poland will help it in that direction. Tusk also praised the government’s “steadfast efforts against corruption and organized crime.” Borisov,…
The Green MEP said she expected the European Commission, EC, to open Kosovo’s path towards the White Schengen list, which allows citizens of a country to travel across most of the European Union without a visa, in the ‘next couple of weeks’. The news follows the European Parliament’s approval last…
Canada has begun the process of procuring millions of electronic passports and plans to start issuing them in 2012. Canada’s ePassport will contain a “proximity contactless chip” that can only be read if it’s held within 10 centimetres of a reader and the machine-readable zone on page two has been…
The Fiji Immigration Department approved 857 applications for dual citizenship between July 2009 and July this year. The dual citizenship status was granted under the Citizenship Decree which came into effect in April 2009. Government says many of those that have been granted dual citizenship have invested in property, farming…
There is continuing disagreement in the UK Coalition Government between the more pro-immigration Liberal Democrat Government Ministers and Conservative Party Government Ministers. The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable has said that the interim immigration cap is doing “huge damage” to business. Mr Cable is concerned that some companies may…