Immigration newsletter 05 Aug 2009

It is expected that a two day strike amongst UK immigration and customs staff will begin on Wednesday 5 August. Unless agreement is reached before Wednesday, this is likely to cause delays for holidaymakers and immigrants wishing to gain entry to the UK.

Alex Flynn of the PCS Union said that 78% of immigration and customs staff had voted to walk out over plans to merge the duties of immigration and customs staff. This means changes to the working practices and shift patterns for immigration and customs staff. The PCS says that this will also mean that immigration staff will have to do Customs Officers duties that they are not trained for. For example doing strip searches. The Union also says that proposed changes to shift patterns will result in reduced take home pay.

The UK Border Agency said it was "very disappointed that one union branch has taken this action". They also said that they had plans in place to minimise disruption.

On 22 July 2009 the Border Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 went into force. Customs and Immigration officers now work together and have the power to ask questions relating to both immigration and customs matters. Many passengers will now only need to deal with one checkpoint. On 5 August 2009 4,500 HM Revenue and Customs staff will formally become part of the UK Border Agency.

Following creation of the UK Border Agency in April 2008 more than 3,500 officers have been trained to deal with both immigration and customs checks. According to the Government announcement UKBA has been responsible for:
 

• Stopping over 30,000 individual attempts by illegal migrants to gain entry to the UK via France and Belgium; 
• Stopping the illegal use of 12,900 dangerous weapons, including firearms, stun guns and knives; 
• Seizing over 379 million GBP worth of illegal drugs;
• Seizing in excess of 923 million cigarettes – The Government would normally expect about 174 million GBP in tax revenue from the sale of this quantity of cigarettes.

It should be noted that illegal drugs are still widely available in the UK and indeed many other Countries around the World. Also, “black market” cigarettes are widely available in the UK.

In a recent press release, Australia's immigration minister said that while the number of foreign workers has decreased due to the slow economy, there is still a demand for overseas labor in certain sectors. 

In the mining and health care industries -- both traditional hot-spots for skilled immigrants -- demand for workers from abroad continues to rise. Many Australian employers utilize the government's temporary skilled migration program to bring in badly needed skilled labor.

Evans said the temporary visa continues to aid Australian employers in this regard, supplementing other more permanent residency programs such as the General Skilled Migration program.

On 9 July 170 people from more than 40 countries became Australian citizens in ceremonies across the country.

"On the occasion that marks Australia's creation as a nation, it is fitting to celebrate citizenship, the glue that holds our culturally diverse population together," Department of Immigration and Citizenship Secretary Andrew Metcalfe said.

"Constitution Day ceremonies will give the newest citizens of our nation an opportunity to acknowledge that they understand and respect what it means to be an Australian citizen.

"Constitution Day is an initiative of the National Archives of Australia. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship is delighted to work in partnership with the Archives to promote this special day for the third time."

In the last sixty years more than four million people have chosen to become Australian citizens.

There is currently a huge shortage of nurses in the US; About 116,000 unfilled registered nurse vacancies at U.S. hospitals and nearly 100,000 nurse vacancies at Nursing homes.

On February 11, 2009, a new Nurse Relief Act was introduced in the House - HR 1001. This would introduce a new non-immigrant W visa category for nurses with an annual cap of 50,000. Currently it is difficult for nurses to gain entry to the US:
 

• Preference is given to nurses under the third preference employment based immigrant category. Nurses and physiotherapists come under Schedule A and do not require labor certification. However, at the present time visas are unavailable under this category. We will have to wait until October to see if any more visas become available.
• The H-3 non-immigrant visa allows temporary entry for the purposes of training in the US. You are expected to leave at the end of the training period.
• In a limited number of cases where you are employing very senior level nurses the H-1B non-immigrant visa may be possible. However, this is difficult.
• Similarly, in a limited number of cases it may be possible for nurses to gain entry under the J-1 exchange visitor scheme.

On 14 July 2009 the UKBA announced that the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill is being considered by Parliament. The Government in the bill intends to make a number of changes to British nationality law.

One change is to amend the British Nationality Act 1981 so that a person born in the United Kingdom to a parent in the armed forces will be a British citizen. This currently happens anyway; The change will clarify the situation further.

The Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill will insert a new section 4D into the British Nationality Act 1981.