Immigration newsletter 17 Sep 2008

The United Kingdom's Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) has announced that it is removing several English language tests from its approved list. Applications received from 12 September 2008 will NOT receive points for these tests; applications received on or before September 11th are not affected.

Individuals who used English language tests that are no longer on the approved list will be contacted and given 10 weeks to undertake an alternative English language test. People will have only one chance to take the alternative test.

The United Kingdom will remove 1/3 of the occupations from the list of jobs considered to be in shortage. Hopeful immigrants sponsored for a Tier 2 visa need to score 70 points, 50 of which must be under Attributes. For an occupation on the Skills Shortages list, a Certificate of Sponsorship from an employer can be worth 50 points.

A Certificate of Sponsorship can be worth 30 points for occupations not on the list. A skilled worker would then need to earn an additional 20 points under Attributes. An additional, mandatory 20 points must be earned under Language and Maintenance for a total of 70 points

Australia is celebrating Australian Citizenship Day today, September 17th 2008. 1600 people received Australian citizenship in the days leading up to the event.

Australia's Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship gave a welcome speech for all new citizens and urged everyone who is thinking about becoming an Australian "to apply now." Australia is known for its liberal immigration policies. In particular, the General Skilled Migration program allows overseas workers to gain a permanent visa if they have skills in a wide variety of occupations.

A new report out by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) encourages its member nations to adapt their labor migration policies to meet likely future demand for workers in all areas of their economies. The OECD report stated that there should be more permanent immigration routes for entry of lower-skilled workers as well as those with higher skills.

The OECD Secretary-General said that building a migration policy on an assumption that labor migrants will stay for a short period is inefficient and "not the way to go." He also said that forcing employers to get rid of temporary workers and constantly re-hire and re-train new ones has a "substantial economic and political cost."

The Slovenian government's statistics agency is claiming that membership in the European Union has led to significant population increases since joining in 2004. According to Eurostat figures, Slovenia saw the third highest increase in immigration in the EU for 2007, behind the Czech Republic (first) and Denmark (second).

Immigration in 2007 was about 46% higher than for 2006. The vast majority of immigrants in 2007 (just over 85%) originated from the ex-Yugoslav republics, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. 82% of immigrants were men taking up employment.