Articles Posted in Global Immigration Stories

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is enhancing the filing process for select forms dealing with naturalization and citizenship (N-Forms). Beginning Oct. 30, 2011, the new process will allow individuals to file N-Forms at a secure Lockbox facility instead of our local offices. This change streamlines the way forms are processed, accelerates the collection and deposit of fees and improves the consistency of our intake process.

Individuals should begin submitting affected forms directly to the appropriate Lockbox beginning Oct. 30, 2011. Forms received by local USCIS offices during a transition period between Oct. 30 and Dec. 2, 2011, will be forwarded to the USCIS Lockbox facility for processing. Forms received at local USCIS offices after Dec. 2, 2011, will no longer be forwarded but will be returned to the individual with instructions on how to re-file at a designated USCIS Lockbox facility. USCIS will centralize intake of Forms N-336, N-600 and N-600K at the Phoenix Lockbox facility. The Dallas Lockbox facility will handle the Form N-300. Individuals filing Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, already file at a Lockbox facility.

Specialist jobs that are no longer required in the UK will be removed from a government-approved list that helps to ensure the UK only accepts migrant workers that the country needs.

The shortage occupation is part of the Tier 2 immigration route via the Points Based System. Highly skilled migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) seeking to work in the UK must apply for visas via this route. The government today accepted recommendations from the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) that will see the number of jobs covered by the list drop by 40,000, bringing the total down from 230,000 to 190,000. Only a minority of these jobs will be filled by migrant workers.

The MAC recommended the changes where evidence from a range of industries and sectors showed resident workers are available to fill the vacancies. Immigration Minister Damian Green said:
‘Alongside our limits on overseas workers we are also taking action to provide businesses with the skills they need from the British workforce and reduce their need for migrants. We want the brightest and the best people from outside the EU with the skills we can benefit from in the UK.’
Occupations that the MAC recommended be removed from the list include:
– secondary education biology teachers;
– speech and language therapists;
– pharmacists;
– orthoptists;
– veterinary surgeons; and,
– rank and file orchestral musicians.

Added to the list will be:
– actuaries;
– high integrity pipe welders;
– environmental scientists; and,
– geochemists
The government has accepted the MAC’s recommended list in full however, rank and file orchestral musicians will not be removed from the list immediately, until further discussions take place with the industry to discuss the resident labor market test.

The revised list will come into effect from 14 November 2011. This means that:
– For applications covered by the annual limit, the new list will apply to all applications by Tier 2 sponsors for restricted certificates of Sponsorship made on or after 14 November 2011.

– For applications outside the annual limit, the new list will apply to all unrestricted certificates of sponsorship assigned to migrants on or after 14 November 2011.

Employers can only bring someone into the UK under Tier 2 if the job is on the shortage occupation list or if they pass a resident labor market test (no suitable resident workers apply after advertising the job in the UK first for 4 weeks).

The Department of Immigration and Emigration of Sri Lanka is to introduce new system called “Electronic Travel Authorization – ETA” in order to grant prior approval for visa via online for the foreign nationals visit Sri Lanka.

This was revealed to the public at a press briefing held at Ceylon Intercontinental yesterday (28 Sep) organized by the Department of Immigration and Emigration.

The new system will be introduced on 30 September, and it will terminate the presently implemented ‘on arrival visa’ at the ports of entry, the Department said.

Accordingly, foreign nationals from 78 countries visiting Sri Lanka on purposes of tourism affairs, medical treatments, sports, cultural shows, business conferences and discussions, training programmes and seminars can apply for the Electronic Travel Authorization via www.eta.gov.lk, the dedicated official website of the Department for the purpose.

Only an administration fee has been suggested for this “Electronic Travel Authorization, the Department said.

The previous method of granting visas on arrival at the airport free of charge to the nationals from the Maldives and Singapore is still in effective as a reciprocal gesture, the Department further said.

Information is available in nine international languages allowing great continence to foreigners. However, applications should be forwarded only in English language and six methodologies have been introduced to facilitate the process.

According to this new visa granting system, since the air and ship crew are exempted from obtaining prior approval for the visa, the old system will be effective as before. The foreigners, who officially or diplomatically visit Sri Lanka should obtain prior approval for visa through a government institute of Sri Lanka and such approvals will be granted free of charge.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk says a local visa free zone between Poland and Russia will be established “in few weeks”. The zone, which will include more than four million people, will require a revision of the Schengen regulations.

Donald Tusk, who made a stop in the Warmia-Masuria Province as part of an election campaign tour, promised the regional population that it in “few weeks” will get a local visa-free zone with the Russian region of Kaliningrad. The cabinet leader maintained that the city of Gdansk and all of Kaliningrad Oblast will be included in the zone.

If established, the zone will be the second of its kind between Russia and a Schengen member. In November 2010, a similar agreement on local border traffic was signed by Russia and Norway, and a local zone of visa-free traveling is in the pipeline in the areas between the municipalities of Sør-Varanger and Pechenga.

Prime Minster David Cameron announced that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will be expanding its diplomatic presence in Canada by upgrading the UK Trade & Investment office in Calgary to a full Consulate-General next summer.

Speaking during his press conference in Ottawa, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said:
“Clearly in trade and investment, we are both massive investors in each other’s countries. The trade links are already very strong, but I always believe it’s with your best customers you can do even more business.”
Dr. Andrew Pocock, UK High Commissioner to Canada said:
“We are committed to refreshing and deepening our relationship with Canada, building on our existing close links. A clear indication of how highly we value the relationship is that we will be expanding our diplomatic presence there, upgrading the UKTI office in Calgary to a full Consulate-General. This will be our fourth Consulate-General in Canada – as well as the High Commission in Ottawa”.

Alberta is Canada’s third largest economy and has led Canadian growth for 20 years. Please note that consular services will continue to be provided for Alberta out of the Vancouver Consulate General.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, who is visiting New York to attend the 66th session of UN General Assembly, and his Colombian counterpart Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar have signed a package of bilateral agreements.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan informs that the package composes an agreement on the exchange of visa requirements for holders of diplomatic, official and service passports as well as the memorandum on the introduction of a mechanism of political consultations between Foreign Affairs Ministries of Azerbaijan and Colombia.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved an intergovernmental agreement between Ukraine and Serbia waiving mutual visa requirements for short-term stays in these countries.

The cabinet’s resolution is dated September 21, according to the government’s Web site.

The agreement between the governments of Ukraine and Serbia on visa-free travel for citizens of both countries was signed in Kyiv on May 31, 2011.

According to the document, citizens of Ukraine can stay in Serbia for up to 30 days without visas. The same applies to Serbs visiting Ukraine.

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.

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.