Articles Posted in Top Immigration Stories

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have signed yesterday an agreement allowing their nationals to use smart ID cards instead of passports to cross the joint borders. The deal will take force only one month after being signed by Kuwaiti Minister of Interior Lt-Gen (rtd) Sheikh Jaber Al-Khaled Al-Sabah and Saudi Arabia’s Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Prince Nayif Bin-Abdulaziz Al-Saud.

Sheikh Jaber said the agreement would give a strong impetus to the friendly exchanges between the two countries. Saudi Arabia is of strategic importance for Kuwait and constitutes a crucial link between Kuwait and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. The deal will greatly facilitate the movement of citizens of the two sister countries and it sets example for what the ties between neighbors should be.

It is only a step which will be followed by other steps on road of cooperation in all domains,” Sheikh Jaber affirmed. Meanwhile, Director-General of Saudi Passports Directorate Salem Bin-Mohammad Al-Belhid said the document materializes the political will of GCC leaders for facilitating the movement of the GCC nationals. Echoing Sheikh Jaber’s remarks, Al-Belhid said: “The GCC interior ministers are determined to adopt a range of measures to bolster up integration particularly in the security field. The Kuwaiti and Saudi nationals will be able to use smart cards to enter each other’s country through the official crossing points in line with the travel laws and their executive statutes.

Singapore is home to the largest proportion of high-earning expatriates compared to 24 other countries and cities, a new global survey shows. Nearly half the number of expats – 45 per cent – living and working here are earning more than US$200,000 (S$265,000) annually, compared to the worldwide average of 21 per cent, according to the Expat Explorer Survey conducted by HSBC Bank.

According to a paper on household income trends released by the Singapore Department of Statistics last month, the average annual income of the top 10 per cent of employed Singapore households from work was about $265,000. This means that less than 10 per cent of employed Singapore households earn $265,000 or more.

The HSBC figure puts expats in Singapore ahead of their counterparts in other countries and cities such as Russia, China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong. The bank said the annual poll – which interviewed more than 4,217 respondents – is the world’s largest survey of expatriates. Last year, in the same survey, Singapore was ranked fourth out of 26 countries and cities when it came to expat income.

On Sunday’s “Meet the Press”, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “illegal immigrants do essential work in the U.S. and that he has firsthand knowledge of that—because they fix his house.” Today, Colin Powell clarified his remarks by saying “I don’t hire illegal immigrants. On ‘Meet the Press’ yesterday, I referred to illegal immigrants working around my house. I was referring to the many service contractors who work in my neighborhood, using mostly immigrant workers, who do good work. Some may well be ‘illegal.’ There are 11 million illegal immigrants in this country and most are working somewhere in our economy.”
Colin Powell’s stance on immigration was further clarified in the interview when he stated, “We can’t be anti-immigration. Immigrants are fueling this country. Without immigrants, America would be like Europe or Japan with an aging population and no young people coming in to take care of it. We have to educate our immigrants. The DREAM Act is one way to do that.”
Powell also said Republicans should back immigration reform that would create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, as Bush urged during his presidency.

Powell reminded Americans that immigrants are hard workers: “They’re all over my house, doing things whenever I call for repairs, and I’m sure you’ve seen them at your house,” he said. “We’ve got to find a way to bring these people out of the darkness and give them some kind of status. ”
Colin Powell’s stance on immigration demonstrates how some moderate Republicans are seeking a way to change our immigration in a way that will have a positive impact on the U.S. As Gen. Powell noted above, the DREAM Act is one way that the American government can help alleviate the problems faced with illegal immigrants in America.

By embracing those who were brought here without even knowing they were here illegally, America is fulfilling its historical heritage by allowing them to become educated citizens and to contribute to our society through getting an education or joining the military. By nothing the differences between us and Europe or Japan, Gen. Powell emphasizes the importance it is to embrace our immigrants, be they legal or illegal, if they are here to help contribute to American society.

This is especially important right now, when the U.S. has been hit with a recession and is in need of an economic boost from the working population. Let us hope that there are more politicians like Colin Powell that will help move immigration reform forward.

On Monday in St. Petersburg Korea’s Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun reached a temporary agreement with his Russian counterpart which will ease immigration restrictions on Korean
entrepreneurs working in Russia. The agreement will reportedly shorten the number of days it takes for Russia to issue a working visa as well as change the current rule that requires even short-term visitors to register a home address.

The understanding was reached during the Korean minister’s 12-day five-country tour of G20 member countries to fine-tune Korea’s plans for the November G20 summit.

Bosnia is hopeful the EU will take a decision this December to exempt Bosnian citizens from needing a visa to enter the EU, the country’s deputy foreign minister has said. Speaking at Georgetown University in Washington DC, on 17 September, Ana Trisic-Babic said that while the formal decision by the European Parliament and EU Council of Ministers still had to be taken, she had learned informally that the visa waiver was likely to come soon. It will be a great relief to the country, which has fallen behind its Balkan neighbours in the race to join the EU due to disagreements between its constituent Bosniak, Serb and Croat communities over how the state should function. Trisic-Babic noted that only 700,000 out of Bosnia’s four million citizens relied solely on their Bosnian passports. Others manage to travel visa-free to the EU by using passports from Serbia, Croatia or other countries that are visa exempt.

“There is no alternative to us than joining the EU,” she stressed. Noting how preoccupied the EU has been with internal, constitutional issues, such as forging a common foreign policy, she suggested “we have been left behind a little” and was looking to the US once more for its support. She claimed “the EU is not a carrot anymore for us to do reforms because it is so far away”. Failure to reform its ethnically-based police force has been a notable obstacle hindering Bosnia’s path to the EU. Commenting on Turkey’s new involvement in Bosnia, she said Bosnians were split on this, with Muslim Bosniaks interested but Christian communities irritated. On Kosovo, she said Bosnia would not recognise its independence “for a long time” and would follow whatever Serbia and Kosovo agreed.

The Southern Island province of Hainan is now the most accessible Island in China, thanks to new regulations introduced by the Chinese government. The newly introduced visa exemptions, will grant passport holders from 27 countries including Australia and New Zealand unparalleled access to Hainan.

The first exemption is a ‘Free Landing Visa,’ targeted mainly at groups, which is the first in China to allow travellers free access in and out of Hainan Island without a visa. The second exemption is a special Landing visa perfect for individuals or couples and can be acquired on arrival of any airport of Hainan. The free Landing Visa entitles travellers to stay in Hainan for up to 15 days free, provided that they enter in and out of Haikou or Sanya international airports.

The Special Landing Visa policy has also been seen as a landmark for all travellers as it provides travellers with the easiest method of obtaining a visa in China. On arrival at any airport in Hainan, travellers must simply go to the visa station before customs to process, it normally takes 10 minutes and costs just RMB200(Approx $30AUD), compared to the $80 and a trip to the Chinese Consulate. This visa is also valid for 15 days, but can be extended at any of police station in China for up to a two-month period.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved an agreement with the government of Israel on waiver of visa requirements for persons using the passport of citizen or official passports of Ukraine and Israel.

Thus, this intergovernmental agreement, signed on July 21, took effect in Ukraine. The instrument stipulates that citizens of Ukraine and Israel may stay in another country without obtaining a visa up to 90 days.

The Norwegian-Russian agreement on visa-free travel for people living in the border area will be signed when Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visits Oslo on November 2nd. Speaking at the joint press-conferance with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in Murmansk today, Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the deal will be signed soon, but he did however not confirm the date.

Norway share a 196 km long border with Russia, and the negotiation regarding visa-freedom for the people lining in a 30 km zone on each side of the border has been under way since Sergey Lavrov visited northern Norway in the spring 2008. The agreement was first supposed to be signed during Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s visit to Oslo in April, but the last few obstacles were then not solved. One of the problematic issues was regarding non-Norwegian citizens living within the Norwegian part of the border zone. The Russian position was first that only Norwegian citizens should be allowed to get the right to travel without visa. But, the Schengen-agreement says all Schengen-citizens should have the same rights. This issue is now solved and other Schengen-citizens that have lived longer than three years in Kirkenes will be included for visa-free border travel.

Britain is handing out passports to more foreign nationals than any other EU country. In one year, the number of citizenship applications rubber-stamped by the last government was almost a quarter of those issued across all 27 EU member states. From 2002 to 2008, the latest period for which full figures are available, the total number of approvals by Home Office officials was 1,008,500.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistics authority, said this figure outstripped even Germany and France, which have larger populations. Once granted citizenship, people have full access to housing, benefits and the jobs market.

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ‘These statistics show why we must tighten our immigration system and look to be more selective about who we give British citizenship to.

While it is important that we attract the brightest and the best to ensure strong economic growth, uncontrolled permanent migration places unacceptable pressure on public services.

In addition to issuing the highest cumulative number of passports, Britain topped the league table in three individual years. In 2007, the 164,500 passport approvals was the equivalent on 23 per cent of the EU total. Over the entire seven-year period, they accounted for 20 per cent of those given out.

Labour repeatedly promised to make the citizenship rules tougher, but by the time it left government, the numbers were rising sharply. The Eurostat report stops at 2008. But, in the following year, Home Office figures show the government granted 203,790 passports.

Britain has the third largest number of foreign citizens living here – behind only Germany and Spain. The total of 4,020,800 consists of 1,614,800 people from inside the EU who – because of free movement directives – do not require a visa to live in the UK.

During the election campaign, Labour claimed there were equal numbers of workers entering and leaving the UK.

In reality, Eurostat says there were just 287,600 UK nationals filling jobs elsewhere in the European Union by autumn 2008. Yet there were 1,020,000 citizens from other Euro countries taking posts in the economy here. Earlier this week, Mr Green said that – as part of his plan to halve net migration – he wanted to make it harder for non-EU nationals to settle permanently in the UK.

The UAE plans to open an embassy in Azerbaijan this year. The UAE is the first country that recognized Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991.

Diplomatic ties between the two countries were established in 1992. Azerbaijan opened an embassy in Abu Dhabi in 2001 and a consulate in Dubai in 2006.