Immigration newsletter 08 Sep 2010

Immigration Minister Damian Green has said that levels of student immigration under the Tier 4 student visa were "unsustainable". There have been rumours that the popular Tier 1 Post Study Work visa that enables graduate students to stay for an extra two years in the UK to work and perhaps gain a longer term highly skilled Tier 1 General visa or Tier 2 General visa will be discontinued.

The Immigration Minister has suggested that the UK is not attracting the best students as only half of the students will be attending University level courses. UK Home Office research suggests that one fifth of students are still in the UK after five years.

Recently 20 people from seven Countries including from Japan, the United Kingdom, India and Korea became Australian citizens in a special ceremony in Burnie, Tasmania to launch Australian Citizenship Day 2010. Thousands of people across Australia will become Australian citizens in Citizenship Day celebrations. 

A representative from the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) had the following to say:
“Australian Citizenship Day was introduced in 2001 as an opportunity for people to take pride in our citizenship and reflect on the meaning and importance of being Australian.”

Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is currently on a visit to various Countries in the World. Immigration Minister Kenney will be visiting Paris, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Hong Kong, Beijing and Manila. The Immigration Minister will be trying to reduce immigration fraud; There have been concerns about marriages of convenience and crooked immigration consultants.

In Paris the Canadian immigration minister will meet with various European Ministers including the French immigration minister about illegal immigration, border security, human trafficking and smuggling, and the resettlement of refugees.