Articles Posted in Global Immigration Stories

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.

The UAE government is to implement new limits on the influx of unskilled workers in a move to balance the country’s demographic structure. The country’s Federal Cabinet Sunday said the “uncontrolled import of unskilled labourers should be limited and replaced by recruitment from within the UAE”.

The UAE will instead focus on bringing in highly skilled workers based on “accredited professional and educational certificates”, state news agency WAM said. However, the cabinet’s resolution said the chairman of the Federal Demographic Structure Council may exempt from this resolution domestic helpers or any other categories he specifies.

In a bid to lessen the unskilled workers in the construction sector, the largest employer of this kind of manpower, the Cabinet instructed agencies to define a set of guidelines to improve productivity and limit the number of unskilled workers needed.

The UAE’s handling of its demographic structure is one of government’s top priorities, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler said at the Cabinet meeting. Sheikh Mohammed, also Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, said empowering the UAE citizen and making him the key engine of development was one of its main aims.

He said the government was drawing up policies in a bid to strike a “demographic balance in parallel with the comprehensive development that benefits UAE citizen in all emirates of the country”. He was speaking during a Federal Cabinet meeting which issued a resolution to set specific percentage targets of UAE citizens over the next 20 years, without elaborating on the details. The Cabinet also ordered the setting up of a minimum required qualifications to occupy some jobs.

The entry to Panama of foreigners from countries with restricted visas must be approved by the National Council of Security, Public Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino said. He added that this new norm will be applied across the country and offices of the consulates of Panama all over the world have been instructed that the measures take immediate effect.

“The measure is being announced yesterday by Migration Director of Panama and at all the consulates in the world,” he said, adding that although the new measure has not been approved as law yet it was already being enforced.

He said the decision is under the administration of the Security Council rather than the National Migration Service which up until yesterday had handled such issues. Mulino said that citizens from such countries will have to submit a request to the Migration Service but that request will then be transferred to the Security Council. Mulino added that his office is working on the executive decree, which will be presented to Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli to be ratified and published.

The government will issue a visa exclusively for foreigners marrying Koreans, from as early as the latter half of this year, as part of efforts to boost its immigration efficiency and help foreign spouses better settle down here. The plan comes as the Ministry of Justice Friday unveiled changes in the nation’s immigration law, saying it will submit a revised bill to the National Assembly for approval in the near future with an aim of making the changes take effect in the second half of this year.

A new F-6 visa will be issued to foreigners who come here to marry Koreans in a bid to better help a growing number of migrant wives, mostly from China and Southeast Asian countries, adapt to the new living environment and deal with legal and other issues here. Currently, they receive an F-2 visa just as other foreigners who wish to stay here for longer than 90 days.

The country has seen a rapid increase in the number of foreigners coming to marry Koreans over the past few years. The number was estimated to exceed 140,000 nationwide as of the end of 2010. “It is difficult to implement policies specifically directed to “marriage immigrants” because there are many types of long-term foreign residents under the current F-2 visa regime. We expect the introduction of a separate visa for foreign spouses will help us provide timely and more tailored-made policy assistance,” a ministry official said.

Foreigners whose Korean husbands or wives have died or gone missing will also be eligible for the visa. Additionally, foreign retail investors bringing in more than $500,000 here will be given the F-2 visa, while those who invest over $300,000 and hire at least two Korean employees will also be given the same status. Currently, only foreigners employed by a company investing
over $500,000 here are given the right to stay for the long term.

In a bid to secure talented human resources, the government also plans to make foreigners holding Ph.D. degrees eligible for the F-2 visa. Now, only those who have Ph.D.s and are employed by domestic companies are issued with the visa.

A Russian visa center will open in Helsinki in the coming days and there will be three more – in Turku, Lappeenranta and Mariehamn – all scheduled to open next month.

The centers will make things easier for Finns applying for Russian visas. But they will only accept documents, while decision-making on visas will remain the prerogative of diplomatic missions.

The Executive Yuan passed a draft amendment Thursday that simplifies the process for foreigners seeking residency in Taiwan in an attempt to attract foreign talent into the country. A new article was added that stipulates that if a foreigner enters Taiwan on a “four-in-one” employment pass, which incorporates a visa, work permit, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit, he or she will not be required to apply for an ARC again with the National Immigration Agency (NIA) upon arrival in Taiwan.

The ARC is the identification card issued to foreign residents in Taiwan. Under current regulations, a foreign professional who wishes to work in Taiwan has to apply for a work permit from the Council of Labor Affairs and a resident visa from a Taiwan embassy or representative office overseas before applying for an ARC from the NIA within 15 days of arrival in the country.

As Taiwan is expected to enter a zero population growth era from 2022, an important issue for the government to consider when formulating its immigration policy in the future is how it can attract foreign talent to make up for a shortage of homegrown talent resulting from a decline in the country’s fertility rate, said Premier Wu Den-yih.

Wu said the most important job for the government at present is to allow more non-resident foreigners to enter the country, relax restrictions on the residence rights of overseas-born children of Taiwanese nationals, simplify the process for foreigners applying for residency, and strengthen the management of international marriage brokers.

According to the draft amendment, overseas-born children of Taiwanese nationals can now apply for residence or settlement in Taiwan at any age. Previous regulations stipulated that only those over the age of 20 are eligible to file for application.