Immigration newsletter 15 Oct 2008

Phil Woolas, the new Immigration Minister for the United Kingdom, has begun his tenure by advocating a new quota policy for immigrants. He claims that immigration policy 'needs to provide confidence' to the native population that migration is "under control."

The announcement comes about 4 weeks after the former Immigration Minister, Liam Byrne, rejected demands for a cap on non-EU immigrants allowed to remain in the UK. In recent years there has been a push from anti-immigration groups within Parliament to provide a "balanced migration" policy that would set a quota on the number of immigrants who are allowed to remain in Britain permanently after they satisfy the 5-year residence requirement.

The United States' Diversity Visa Lottery for 2010 is now open and will close on 01 December 2008. The number of immigrant visas that will be granted under the Green Card Lottery is limited to 55,000. A significant change this year is that people born in Russia are eligible again, after being left out for several years.

In last year's DV-2009 Green Card Lottery, over 9.1 million qualified entries were received; of these, 99,000 qualified applicants were selected last year for a U.S. Green Card. Africa accounted for 53% of invitations issued, while Europe took 28% and Asia took 14%.

The Parliament of the European Union will hold a crucial vote in the Civil Liberties Committee in early November to determine the fate of the EU Blue Card. Described as a kind of "Schengen visa for employment," if the Blue Card scheme is approved, it will allow highly skilled immigrants from outside of the EU to work for up to 2 years in any EU country. The visa is intended to be renewable but, by itself, it will not provide permanent residency for a worker. A person may be able to apply for permanent residency in the country they are residing in after 5 years, if the proposal becomes a reality.

A new study by the Montreal think tank, The Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), shows that most children of Canadian immigrants are better educated and earn more than their native-born counterparts. The report advises that there should be changes to long-term immigration strategy to make it easier for some second-generation Canadians to integrate into society; One of the recommendations is that policy changes to increase the flow of less-educated workers are not considered to meet a "longer-term, cross-generational goal of integration," according to the author, Miles Corak.

Effective on January 1st, 2009, Argentina will implement new fees and new immigration rules for foreign visitors. It is designed to provide "Equal requirements for all, regardless of country of origin," according to Florencio Randazzo, Argentina's Interior Minister.

Entry fees for visitors will be "reciprocal;" meaning that the fees charged of Argentines to enter another country will be the same fees applied to citizens of those countries who wish to enter Argentina. The fees will cover re-entry for up to ten years.

The quota under the Working Holiday visa agreement between New Zealand and Chile has been filled for the current year for Chileans coming into New Zealand. The agreement allows educated young people between the ages of 18 and 30 years of age to stay and work in New Zealand for up to 12 months. 1000 Working Holiday visas will become available again on 01 October 2009.