Immigration newsletter 25 Oct 2006

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The US DV-2008 (Greencard) Lottery - apply by 3rd December 2006

The British Home Secretary announced measures this week to restrict immigration from Romania and Bulgaria. The UK is developing a more cautious approach toward all future European Union expansion. The proposed measures are subject to cabinet approval, and it is intended that the policy toward Bulgaria and Romania will be reviewed annually.

An Australian citizenship test appears to be gaining ground, according to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Immigration Minister. The proposal is to strengthen the laws, with several new requirements to gain Australian citizenship which will be incorporated in a formal test. One of the new requirements is an English proficiency test. The public comment period ends on November 17th.

A new UN report demonstrates that the economic role of immigrant women has been overlooked. Even though they typically receive significantly less pay for the same jobs, women tend to remit larger proportions of their available resources to their home country than men do. Worldwide, growing attention is being focused on the importance of remittance flows to developing countries and the positive impact this has on poverty and development.

A recent study by the Immigration Policy Center at the University of California argues that the theory that immigrants decrease wages is wrong. U.S. immigration appears to have a positive effect on wages. No clear evidence was found showing that immigrants take jobs away from U.S. citizens. 150 years of immigration from all parts of the world, the study notes, demonstrate that the United States benefits from immigration.

In an often over-looked executive order signed by George Bush in July 2002, immigrants with green cards can become United States citizens as soon as they are sworn into military service. 65,000 in three years have done so or are currently eligible. The U.S. immigration agency has started to conduct the first overseas military naturalization ceremonies since the Korean War for foreign-born soldiers to become citizens while serving outside the U.S.

We are pleased to announce that workpermit.com is the world's most popular immigration advice site. According to Ranking.com and Alexa.com, no other private sector immigration consultancy or immigration law firm in the World receive as many visitors as workpermit.com. 

We are also consistently in the top search engine hits across a wide variety of immigration and visa-related terms.