Immigration newsletter 23 Jan 2008

The United Kingdom will phase out low-skilled migration coming from outside of the European Union as part of sweeping changes to its immigration laws. Low-skilled migration is intended to be regulated under Tier 3 of the new points system, but plans to implement Tier 3 have been "indefinitely suspended."

Agriculture interests and related sectors maintain that it will be difficult - if not impossible - to meet their labor needs only from within the 27-member bloc. The National Farmers Union feels that workers from the EU will not want low-skilled jobs any more than people already in the UK. The Home Office said that a full or partial return of low-skilled migration might be possible, if there is a "need."

National City Brokers, an investment bank in Ireland, has published a report that finds that people immigrating to Ireland most often intend to return to their home country or are traveling between countries. The study also found that the growing immigrant community in Ireland is adding to the productivity of the economy. The research compared migration statistics between the original EU 15 nations and people who have come from the East European states that joined the EU in 2004. Similar patterns were observed for migrant workers from the UK and the United States.

Effective from December 23rd, 2007, new legislation in Canada allows children adopted abroad by Canadian citizens to obtain their Canadian citizenship without first having to become permanent residents in Canada. Citizenship may be granted to adopted children if an application for citizenship is submitted and certain legislative requirements are met. These include requirements specific to the province in Canada that the child will live in and adoption requirements in the child's home country.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is dealing with an enormous backlog of U.S. immigration applications and petitions. A steep increase in immigration-related fees announced at the end of July 2007 is being blamed for the surge. It is now expected that the processing time for applications will take longer than usual through 2010. An average processing time of seven months for citizenship may increase up to 18 months, and adjustment of status applications for family-based immigration may increase from six-months to about one year.

Australia's new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is considering making changes to the nation's migration program to help offset skills shortages currently affecting the economy. He said that his government wanted to make sure that Australia had proper skills planning as part of a strong foundation for the future of the Australian economy.

A 'Skills Australia' program would create a roadmap of the skills Australia will need in the coming years. The effort would emphasize greater investment in skills and training, and "calibrating the migration program, as appropriate," both for the current economy and the "next economy."

The rapidly expanding economy of Western Australia continues to cause skills shortages in the area which, in turn, are driving up demand for labor from overseas. In 1996, the majority of temporary foreign labor originated either from New Zealand or the United Kingdom. However, during the following decade, the proportion of immigrants fell dramatically from those countries. Most of the shortfall has been made up from the nearby Asian nations of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Senator Chris Evans, the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship for Australia, has announced that he would not appeal the decision to restore Dr. Mohamed Haneef's visa. The previous minister, Kevin Andrews, revoked Dr. Haneef's visa on "character grounds" after he was implicated in connection with failed terrorist bombing attempts in the UK in June 2007. Charges were later dropped and an Australian Federal Court restored Dr. Haneef's 457 visa late last December.