Immigration newsletter 19 Jul 2006

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A change in Australian tax law now exempts most visa holders working in Australia from having to declare their income from outside of Australia. Work permit holders will have to declare all income generated from work within Australia, but their foreign income no longer needs to appear on their Australian tax forms.

The Council of Australian Governments is considering revision to visa laws to allow guest workers to enter the country. The Federal Immigration Department is considering extending the 457 visa subclass to allow semi-skilled workers entry into Australia to perform jobs such as driving trucks and working on farms. The new skills category is being detailed in the new Standard Classification of Occupations, which is in its preliminary drafts.

The UK national identity card timetable is in serious question. Intended to be a high-tech document with details of the person's employment, residency, citizenship and rights to benefits, serious legislative debate has only just started on how it is to be launched and managed. A private sector contractor for the project has yet to be selected which will cause further delays.

UK ministers last week scrapped discussion regarding amnesty for illegal immigrants in Britain. Immigration Minister Liam Byrne issued a statement that policy will now be a "fair but tough" enforcement of existing rules, to be implemented "within a fortnight" (approximately mid-August).

Multi-lingual employees are in increasing demand in the United States. With the largest immigrant population in the world, businesses in the United States have a practical need for multiple languages in their workforce to remain competitive.

The U.S. Department of Labor released June economic and jobs data. The news is mixed, but generally does not change significantly from the past several months. Not as many jobs were added as expected. Workers may be in a stronger position to negotiate higher wages with an unemployment rate of 4.6%. Hourly wages rose at their fastest rate in five years, but have not entirely been keeping up with inflation.

The quarterly economic outlook for Canada is stable and strong, with growth slowing as expected. The employment-to-population ratio reached a record high in May 2006, and the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since the mid-1970s. Growth is projected to slow down slightly for 2007 and 2008. The summary is that Canada is experiencing a generally well-managed economy, with wage growth exceeding inflation by better than a two to one ratio.