Immigration newsletter 20 Oct 2011

One immigration option for the EU that most people have not thought of, but may be worth considering is the EU Blue Card scheme.  A number of EU Countries now allow skilled immigration under the EU Blue Card scheme.

55,000 US immigrant visas are available under the Green Card Lottery.    You only have a few more weeks to apply.  The entry period ends at 12 pm Eastern Time on 5 November.  Selection is made randomly by computer under the Green Card Lottery.  If you are one of the lucky winners this is a relatively easy way of gaining immigration to the US.  

There will be further changes to the UK shortage occupation list. This will make it more difficult for some people to work in the UK under the Tier 2 visa skilled immigration route.  

The UK Government has accepted changes suggested by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to reduce the number of available jobs for migrants.  The number of jobs in the UK under the shortage occupation list will be reduced from 230,000 to 190,000.  In practice only a relatively small percentage, anyway, of these jobs would have been filled by skilled immigrants.

Under the popular Canadian immigration skilled worker category there are only a maximum of 10,000 visas a year available from 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012 and only twenty nine eligible occupations.   It is already the case that the visa cap has been reached for the following two occupations “Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management” and “professional nurses”.  You should also note that there are only 500 federal skilled worker visas available per occupation. 

If you have arranged employment from a Canadian employer with a positive labor market opinion from Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) you will not have to come under the above limit on the number of visas available.

Canadians this week are celebrating Canadian Citizenship week at special events throughout the Country.   4,700 people will become citizens, taking the Oath at more than 60 special citizenship ceremonies throughout the country.  

On 17 October 2011 Immigration Minister Kenney in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, awarded heraldic badges to citizenship judges.   He also participated in a game show style event “Are You Smarter than a Tenth Grader.”