Articles Posted in Global Immigration Stories

UK Immigration Minister Damian Green spoke recently at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London about immigration. The Immigration Minister said that the Government wishes to “maximize” the benefits of immigration. This means that the unsustainable levels of net migration seen in recent years must be brought down. He added that we need to understand more clearly why a significant proportion of students are still here more than 5 years after their arrival. And we also need a system which can scrutinize effectively, and if necessary take action against, those whose long-term presence would be of little or no economic benefit.

UK Immigration has done research recently on immigration into the UK and has published a new report about immigration called “The migrant journey”. The immigration report looks at what has happened to immigrants who came into the UK in 2004. According to UK immigration the largest group of migrants were the 186,000 students on student visas. The immigration minister went onto say that more than twenty percent of migrants were still in the UK five years later.

Immigration Minister Damian Green also said that some Tier 1 highly skilled work route are not doing specialized jobs. I was also struck by some of the individual applications I saw under the [Tier 2] skilled worker category: people running takeaway restaurants and production-line workers on salaries in the low £20,000s. These are not the sort of jobs we talk about when we think of bringing in skilled immigrants who have talents not available among our own workforce or the unemployed.

The UK immigration minister also defended the controversial annual limit on immigration and said that we absolutely need sustainable immigration levels. This will relieve pressure on public services, and stop immigration being such a delicate political issue. UK immigration has provided enormous economic benefits to the UK economy. Many people have commented that recent changes which have made immigration to the UK more difficult and more expensive will caused harm in the long term to the UK economy.

According to a New Zealand consulate general official, NZ is currently experiencing good growth in tourist numbers from India. The rise in Indian tourists is expected to be between 10 to 15 per cent by 2011. India is currently the tenth largest source market for NZ.

As a direct effect of the increasing number of Indian tourists, New Zealand (NZ) has decided to open its second Visa Facilitation Office for India in Mumbai by January 2011. The existing office in New Delhi currently processes visa applications from across the country. The Mumbai office will have staff and added resources and will service around 20,000 applicants per year easing the burden the from the Delhi office. Visa application facilitation services are currently outsourced to TT Services that operate in nine cities across India.

Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is currently on a visit to various Countries in the World. Immigration Minister Kenney will be visiting Paris, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Hong Kong, Beijing and Manila. The Immigration Minister will be trying to reduce immigration fraud. There have been concerns about marriages of convenience and crooked immigration consultants.In Paris the Canadian immigration minister will meet with various European Ministers including the French immigration minister about illegal immigration, border security, human trafficking and smuggling, and the resettlement of refugees.

Immigration Minister Keeney in his visit to Chandigarh, India, will discuss progress on anti-fraud initiatives since his previous meeting in January 2009 with the Chief Minister of Punjab. The Immigration Minister said: “In 2009, our Chandigarh mission was seeing a large volume of fraudulent documents being submitted as part of immigration applications, including fake marriage licenses, fake death certificates, fake university admission letters, fake wedding photos, fake bank statements, fake visa counterfoils, fake newspaper articles, and fake letters of endorsement from Members of Parliament.”
“At the time, Punjab officials indicated they shared my concern with this illegal activity and committed to crack down on crooked consultants. Since then, there have been media reports of a number of arrests in Punjab of crooked immigration consultants. I look forward to discussing progress made to-date and our continued cooperation on this issue.”
On a positive note Immigration Minister Kenney will also give a talk in Punjab on the significant increases in the approval rate for temporary resident visas and the volume of applications since 2005. The Immigration Minister in his visits to New Delhi, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Manila will also look at the effects of increased skilled immigration to Canada. There will also be a joint announcement with the government of Manitoba and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges in Beijing and an announcement about international students.

Immigration Minister Kenney in his visit to Philippines will explain the new laws for live-in caregivers. Many live-in caregivers are from the Philippines; More and more of the immigrants to Canada are from the Philippines. In recent years it has become more difficult overall to gain immigration to Canada. If you on the occupation list or find a suitable job it is still possible to emigrate to Canada. Canada remains one of the most popular immigration destination Countries in the World.

UK Border Agency has published new versions of application forms yesterday, and a new version of the Tier 1 (General) policy guidance.

New versions of the following application forms were published:
* Tier 1 (General) form
* Tier 1 (Post-study Work) form
* Tier 2 form
* Tier 4 (General) form
* Tier 4 (Child) form
* PBS Dependent form
Last month UK authorities withdrew the facility to pay the application fee by cash at public inquiry offices, and the above application forms have been amended to remove all references to cash payments. They have also made the following additional changes to the Tier 1 (General) and Tier 2 application forms.

* Tier 1 (General) – we have corrected a question number (U2)
* Tier 2 – We have changed the help text about enrolling biometric information at a post office.

One should use the new forms from now on. However, in line with paragraph 34 (I) of the Immigration Rules, we will continue to accept applications made on the previous version of the application forms up to and including 27 September 2010. Any application submitted until 27 September 2010 will be considered under the new Immigration Rules, regardless of the version of the application form used.

The change to the Tier 1 (General) policy guidance relates to migrants who are currently in the UK as Innovators. The table in paragraph 46 has been amended to show that these migrants’ applications will be treated as applications to switch into Tier 2 (General), not as extension applications.

Visa applications from foreign students to study in Australian universities have dropped by 15,500, almost 12%, over the past 12 months, according to figures just released by the Department of Immigration.

As negotiations continue over whether the Labor or conservative parties will assume government following elections on 21 August, the National Tertiary Education Union has warned that the fall in applications threatens Australia’s A$18 billion (US$16.2 billion) education export earnings.

It also has the potential to undermine the financial viability of universities and other education providers that have become increasingly reliant on international student fee income, the union stated.

“This drop in international student visas applications clearly indicates Australia is becoming a less attractive study destination for international students,” said Matt McGowan, the union’s Victorian Division Secretary. He also added that the reasons for the fall are no doubt many and varied and include the damage caused to Australia’s reputation from the reporting of attacks on international students, stricter regulations to weed out less reputable providers and reductions to announced cuts in net immigration by both parties in the federal election.

McGowan said fees from international students were the second most important source of income for universities and, on average, accounted for 15% of their total earnings. For a number of universities, the fee income accounted for up to half their annual budgets. In other words, some of our universities and the jobs of our members at those universities are very vulnerable to any cuts in international student numbers.

The Czech government announced on Saturday that it would be closing its embassy in Costa Rica, as well as four other countries, Congo, Venezuela, Kenya and Yemen.

The closing is part of the Foreign Ministry’s budget saving plan. The Czech general consulate also said it would be closing its consulate in Mumbai, India and up to 10 missions.

The opposition Social Democrats have criticized the plans saying they would harm Czech exports.

Tourists will no longer get their visas on arrival in Sri Lanka September 30 onwards except Maldivians and Singaporeans. On Friday, Department of Immigration and Emigration of Sri Lanka announced that it was withdrawing the visa-on-arrival facility for tourists from 79 countries including India, UK, USA, China, Japan and host of European nations. It is from these and West Asian countries that Sri Lanka gets its chunk of tourists.

It means tourists going into Sri Lanka will now have to get their tourist visas stamped from Sri Lankan missions abroad. The decision comes a day after Economic Development Minister Basis Rajapaksa presided over a road show in New Delhi entitled “Sri Lanka as a destination for tourism and investment in its infrastructure” sponsored by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The function was to promote the Island nation as a tourism hub.

But the Lankan government quite clearly has one major problem in issuing visas on arrival – lack of reciprocity. Only citizens from Singapore and Maldives will continue to get their visas on arrival as our citizens are extended the same facility by them. Sarath Kumara said the government was mulling the decision to withdraw the facility as there was no “reciprocity” from 79 countries.

“It should be done on a reciprocal basis. I don’t think it is a big issue. Tourists who plan to come will come,” Sarath Kumara said.

The new rule, however, could mean a drop of tourists coming to Sri Lanka which is just beginning to see an increase in arrival of tourists after decades of civil unrest. Countries like the UK and US only recently amended travel advisories. As for India, according to tourism department data, more than 83500 Indian tourists came to Sri Lanka in 2009 – the largest number from one country to come holidaying in Colombo.

The government will introduce simplified procedures for visa issuance for Hong Kong citizens in the near future, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan said Monday. During a meeting in Taipei to promote economic and cultural cooperation between Taiwan and Hong Kong, Lai said that over the past century, civilian exchanges between Taiwan and Hong Kong have been active, even more so since the beginning of the 21st century, which she said has helped lay the foundation for economic and trade relations between the two sides.

In the aspect of economy and trade, Hong Kong is Taiwan’s fourth-largest trade partner, and two-way trade and the number of travelers between the two sides are expected to reach US$38.8 billion and 3 million, respectively, Lai said. Meanwhile, the number of China-based Taiwanese businesses listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has reached 60, and some leading Taiwanese companies now consider Hong Kong as the main place for raising business capital, Lai added.

She noted that with the aim of promoting civilian exchanges between the two sides, the government last year relaxed employment restrictions on Hong Kong students, allowing them to enroll in graduate programs after graduating from local universities, and also began extending the duration of stay on visas for Hong Kong-based Chinese citizens visiting Taiwan.

The government is also seeking to further streamline visa application procedures for Hong Kong citizens, Lai added. Despite the booming exchanges between Taiwan and Hong Kong, there are still some key details related to the exercise of public power to be addressed between the two sides, Lai went on. The meeting was the first of its kind between the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council (ECCC) and its Hong Kong counterpart, the Hong Kong-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Co-operation and Promotion Council (ECCPC) , since they were set up earlier this year to improve and strengthen relations between the two sides.

Lai said she hopes the two sides will engage in talks on topics of mutual concern and enhance economic and trade exchanges and interaction through the forum. Also present at the meeting were Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang, ECCC Chairman Lin Chen-kuo and ECCPC Chairman Lee Yeh-kwong.

Amid increasing number of students coming to Britain, migration has risen by more than 20 percent last year in the country. Net long-term immigration was 196,000 last year, compared with 163,000 in 2008. The number of visas issued to students rose 35 percent to 362,015 in the year to June, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Increasing number of foreigners have been coming to the country for attending colleges and universities since a points-based system was introduced by the Labour government. But, campaign groups have claimed the system is a loophole, and said that many British students are giving up their plans to pursue further education because of unprecedented places.

Immigration Minister, Damian Green, has announced that there will be a thorough review of the rules. Many students enter Britain, with universities seeing them as a lucrative source of income at a time of cuts to higher education budgets. A recent research showed that a third of universities were preparing to increase the number of foreign undergraduates they admit from September.

Besides enrollment in traditional universities, tens of thousands of foreign students have been admitted to 600 ‘lower tier’ colleges, at which it is easier to gain a place but which are still accredited to hand out bachelor degrees. Last year, it emerged that some of these colleges offered qualifications in subjects such as circus skills, acupuncture and ancient medicine. Many of their students are given the right to work in Britain after graduating. The report said about 4,000 illegal immigrants are also thought to have taken advantage of bogus colleges to slip into the country.

A significantly lower number of people in the southeastern city of Mardin have applied to authorities this year to visit their relatives in Syria during the three day festival after the month of Ramadan, known as Eid al Fitr in Arabic. Officials say the decrease in numbers can be attributed to the mutual waiver of visas between Turkey and Syria in a deal struck earlier this year.

Every year, Turkey and Syria open the Hudut Gate at the Mardin border for visits between the two sides during religious holidays. The governor of the Nusaybin district, Murat Girgin, says 6,000 Turkish citizens are able to enter Syria during the holiday according to a protocol signed with Syria. However, only 2,030 people have applied this year. The application period has now expired.

Murat Girgin said that a total of 2,030 Turkish citizens will visit their Syrian relatives using their identification cards on the second day of the Ramadan holiday and will be able to stay there for 48 hours. Turkish citizens who spend the holiday with their relatives in Syria can bring back up to 300 euros worth of goods through customs.