Immigration newsletter 28 Jun 2011

There is likely to be a twenty-four hour strike by The Public and Commercial Services union starting in the evening of Wednesday 29 June until the evening of Thursday 30 June.   A number of UK Border Agency staff in the UK will not be working during this time.  

During this twenty-four hour period there may be additional delays at border control.  Individual ports, airports and international rail terminals will be affected.   UKBA says that they have plans in place to reduce the impact of the strikes.

Writers and artists are banding together to criticise changes to the UK points based immigration scheme which make it more difficult for writers, composers, and artists from outside the EU to come to Britain.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, 120 writers and artists called the points based system "inappropriate for short-term visits by artists".

Population levels in New South Wales (NSW) are dropping dramatically; Net migration has gone down fifty percent in the last two years, caused in part by the Australian government making it more difficult to obtain skilled migration visas and student visas.

The economic boom in Australia means more and more skilled labour shortages.

Singapore is becoming an increasingly popular destination for Indian professionals; Thanks to continued economic growth there are plenty of opportunities for Indians and others. For example there is increasing demand for overseas labour from the financial services and banking industries.

According to Prem Xavier Raj of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Singapore, the financial services industry in Singapore is one of the biggest employers of Indian talent.

Ireland will review its Business Permission visa policy requirements in an attempt to spur entreprenuership and boost the country's ailing economy.

Eoghan Murphy, a Fine Gael TD for Dublin South-East, proposed changes to the existing Business Permission visa scheme during a recent debate; Proposals include reducing the funding requirement for an applicant's startup company under the entrepreneur visa scheme from €300,000 to €200,000.

Germany is facing increased skills shortages. Germany is looking abroad for highly skilled immigrants to fill vacancies in skilled occupations.

New proposals endorsed by the German cabinet will exempt mechanical and electrical engineers, automobile builders, and medical professionals from rules which allow German firms to hire overseas workers from outside the EU only after they have gone to a great deal of trouble to show that they cannot find suitable candidates who already have the right to work in Germany.