Articles Posted in Global Immigration Stories

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.

The number of visitors to Russia from European countries fell by up to 24 percent in the first quarter as tour operators blamed visa costs and red tape, an industry union said. It has fallen noticeably.

The number of tourists from neighboring Finland – recently linked to Saint Petersburg by high-speed train – fell by 24 percent in the first quarter, year on year, the union said, citing official statistics.

The numbers of German visitors fell by 10 percent in the same period and French and Spanish by 14 percent.

However the total number of tourists to Russia, which includes large groups such as the Chinese, rose by five percent.

The tour operators’ union said almost all the international tour operators it questioned blamed falling European visitor numbers on “the high cost of tourist visas and the complexity of the visa process for foreigners.”
In Spain, the introduction of visa centers to process applications has seen the cost of a tourist visa rise by 30 percent and the time taken from a maximum of 10 days to 21 days, it said.

People wishing to travel to Russia have to acquire an invitation from a hotel, an organization or a personal friend. Once in Russia, they are required to register with local police.

Russia has insistently called on the European Union to lift visa restrictions on its citizens and President Dmitry Medvedev recently hailed preliminary concessions at a Russia-EU summit.

While Russians can obtain long-term multi-entry tourist visas to Europe, Russia offers only single or double entry tourist visas that cannot stretch beyond booked travel dates.

Citing statistics that any simplification of visa rules increases tourism by up to 30 percent, the tourism union deputy president Yury Barzykin called for the Russian government to ensure its strategy was a “two-way street.”

In a major relief to Sri Lankans traveller, the Indian High Commission said recently that Lankans who apply for a visa to travel to India on a particular day, will receive it the next day, if it happens to be a working day. If a person submits a visa application form to the Indian High Commission, the visa will be issued on the next working day.

“Earlier, there was a delay in issuing visas due to the war situation in the country. Since there is no security threat, the Indian High Commission has taken a decision to accelerate the process of issuing visas,” sources said. Visa applicants were earlier referred to New Delhi and once the green light was given from New Delhi, visa was issued by the Colombo office.

A senior official of the Indian High Commission said that considering the normality in the country, the Indian government has relaxed rules on issuing visas to Sri Lankan applicants. He said that if the situation improves further, issuing of visas will be carried out over the counter.

Tourists will have to wait a little longer to visit the East African Community (EAC) using a single visa since partner states have not put all the requirements in place. According to the Minister of East African Community Affairs, Monique Mukaruliza, some member states, are yet to set up necessary infrastructure to facilitate tourists who intend to visit the five-member bloc to utilize the EAC tourist visa system.

“The process to have a single tourist visa is underway and regional immigration chiefs are working on it. So far, what has been agreed upon is to speed up the process. We have to implement the foreign policy coordination by July 1, and issuing the single visa will be part of this policy,” Mukaruliza said.

She added that Rwanda is ready but cannot go it alone. We have to ensure that other countries are ready to move together on this project. We have enough IT equipment but we have to wait for other countries to acquire them as well. According to Mukaruliza, countries also need to put in place the legal framework that will facilitate the initiative.

The single EAC visa system, if enacted, is expected to allow people to use one visa to enter any of the countries in the region without any hindrance. The move to have the single EAC visa followed an appeal by tourism boards of partner states requesting for a common visa to accelerate promotion of the region as a single tourist destination.

“Currently, we are at a level of assessing how partner States are ready to implement the single tourist visa but we need to have the required equipment that will allow partner States to exchange security data to ensure there are no fake visas,” Mukaruliza said.

She, however, noted that beating the July 1 deadline is impossible, adding that the EAC Secretariat had conducted a study on how ready the partner States were and what was missing to initiate the visa. The minister said that there is no deadline set yet but all countries are keen on speeding up the process.

Tourism is a vital sector for the East African trading bloc and, as a key foreign exchange earners, has contributed immensely to the development of the region. The head of Tourism and Conservation at RDB, Rica Rwigamba, and the single entry visa into EAC would enable tourists access the entire region easily.

“The visa will attract people who are already visiting in the region to easily move to other countries,” said Rwigamba. She added that Rwanda is currently at the forefront of promoting the single tourist visa. Rwanda collected about $ 200 million as tourism revenues last year.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced Thursday that beginning July 1, all first-time passport applicants, regardless of age, will be required to complete their applications in person at designated MOFA offices.

The policy, now in a trial stage, was introduced to prevent fraud and lift Taiwan’s passport security credentials in the international society, said Thomas Chen, director-general of the ministry’s Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA).

Passport applicants who are unable to apply in person at one of the four MOFA offices in Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, or Hualien can confirm their identity at their household registration office before having a travel agent handle their applications, he said.

In such cases, applicants under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult relative since citizens of that age do not yet have national identity (ID) cards, he said. He added, applicants who qualify for an ID card should obtain one before applying for a passport.

The identity confirmation process at the household registration offices should take less than 10 minutes, Chen said. The procedure includes filling out a form, confirming the identity of the applicant and matching photograph, and scanning documents.

In the trial period for the procedure, which began in March, 2,566 applicants went to household registration offices for identity confirmation, according to BOCA statistics.

Ukraine has established a single rate for visa processing, and reduced the number of visa types. This is stated in Cabinet of Ministers’ decision of June 1 on the rules of drawing visas for entry to Ukraine and transit through its territory which will come into force on September 10, 2011.

According to Foreign Ministry’s press secretary Oleksandr Dykusarov, the main purpose of the adoption of this resolution is to bring the legal framework of Ukraine in the visa field in conformity with modern requirements and EU legislation, as well as to improve the efficiency of state bodies of Ukraine in the sphere of combating illegal migration. The decree also regulates the issue of long-term residence and employment in the territory of Ukraine by representatives of foreign non-governmental organizations, foreign business entities, foreign banks, providing for registration by the specified categories of aliens of long-term visas and temporary residences.

Australia has welcomed highly skilled human resource from India and those with outstanding abilities to the country through its new reformed immigration policies, aimed at boosting its economy. This will enable highly skilled human resource from India with Indian degrees in the fields of health care, IT, engineering to apply for immigration to Australia under its Global Non-discriminatory Immigration programme, Peter Speldewinde, Assistant Secretary, Labour Market Branch of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Government of Australia told reporters in Mumbai today.

“We have brought in a fundamental shift in the immigration process, focusing on medium and long-term skill needs for Australia and the age limit for immigration of such human resource has been increased to 50 (from 45 yrs),” he said.

Those who apply from July 1 this year will come under the new point system for a direct visa application. While the proposed system of skilled migrant selection model will be based on an Expression of Interest (EOI) and will be launched from July 1, 2012, he said.

For the 2011 application, once the threshold English language requirement is met with, the applicant can claim points under a range of different factors (Indian degrees are now recognised by Australia) and must meet the pass mark of 65 points to be eligible for a points tested visa, he said adding that the highest points were for PhDs.

The EOI is an on-line application form for skilled migration to Australia and once selected under the merit list the candidate will be invited to apply for visa, he said.

To protect Canadian children against child abduction and to further enhance the security of the Canadian passport program, Passport Canada will soon require that travel document applications for children under 16 years of age be accompanied by proof of parentage documentation. Effective December 1, 2011, along with standard application requirements, parents or legal guardians must provide with their child’s travel document application, either:
– A detailed birth certificate indicating the name of the parent(s) issued by a Canadian provincial or territorial vital statistics agency if the child was born in Canada. This document will serve as both proof of parentage and proof of citizenship;
– A certified copy of birth registration (original only) is also accepted for a child born in Ontario; and
– A Copy of an act of birth (original only) issued after January 1, 1994, by the Directeur de l’état civil of Quebec is also accepted for a child born in Quebec;
– An order of adoption indicating the name of the adoptive parent(s); or
– A foreign birth certificate indicating the name of the parent(s) (documents in a language other than English or French must be translated to either English or French) if the child was born outside of Canada.