Immigration newsletter 12 Jul 2012

Australia is a very popular immigration destination for skilled tradespeople and professionals from the UK.  There are over one million immigrants in Australia from Britain which is the largest immigrant source Country. If you are interested in Australian immigration you can apply for a skilled migration visa if sponsored by an employer or territory or if you are nominated in an occupation on the Skilled Occupation List. You should contact us now atozvisa@workpermit.com to discuss your various Australian visa options.

We are pleased to announce that Canadian work visas are available for a range of different occupations in Canada:

Truck Drivers,  Welders, Heavy Duty Mechanics, Crane Operators and other occupations

Contact the workpermit.com Indian Office now for further details indiaoffices@workpermit.com

In order to attract more Indian tourists, the US has announced that eligible visa applicants will be able to apply for a US visa without being interviewed in person. Under the Interview Waiver Programme, it will become easier for Indians to visit the US for tourism and business trips. Consular officers will retain the authority to interview any applicant who they determine requires a personal appearance.

UK Immigration Minister Damian Green announced that a targeted interview system for Tier 4 student visa applicants will be introduced 30 July and will focus on high-risk applicants. It is not clear yet how UK Immigration will determine who is a high-risk applicant.

Following a successful pilot programme, the new interview system will ask students a number of questions about their immigration and education history, study and post-study plans, and financial circumstances. The UKBA says they expect to interview up to 14,000 students in the next 12 months and will refuse visas if they are not satisfied that you are a genuine student.

The US has announced that a record number of US visit visas were issued to Ghanaians in 2011. According to the US Embassy in Ghana, over 12,000 Ghanaians were issued with visas to travel to the US in 2011. US Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Donald Teitelbaum, said the number of visas issued was at a record high since diplomatic relations between the US and Ghana began in 1957 following Ghanaian independence from Britain.

The British High Commission has announced that the UK Border Agency visa centre in Manila in the Philippines will process Tier 4 visa applications for Malaysian applicants. Previously, Tier 4 applications from Malaysians were processed in the High Commission's visa outsource centre in Jalan Ampang, Malaysia. Under the new process, applications will continue to be collected in Jalan Ampang by the British Government's visa outsource centre run by VFS Global a global outsourcing company. They will then be sent to Manila in the Philippines for processing. 

The Canadian government has announced they will pay some failed refugee claimants up to CAD$2,000 to leave the country and will also pay for a one-way plane ticket. The new pilot project, run by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), was launched last week in the Greater Toronto Area. The IOM has been in charge of implementing similar projects in other countries.

Following the release of a recent report claiming that UK Immigration doesn't know where 150,000 illegal migrants are located, the UKBA insists that they have a clear strategy to identify and remove people who fail to leave the UK when their visas expire. The damning report, released by John Vine, chief inspector of the UKBA, claimed that there is no Home Office plan to find out how many visa overstayers are still in the UK illegally. He claimed that tracking overstayers down and removing them from the country is not seen as a priority for the agency.

As the 2012 London Olympics are fast approaching, the UK Border Force is under fire again for failing to reach some of its immigration queue targets at Heathrow airport last month. The UK Border Force was instructed to get non-EU passport holders through immigration at Heathrow within 45 minutes for 95 percent of the time. However, figures show that they failed to meet that target at three of the four terminals in June at the west London airport. Now the concern is that later this month when London airports will need to handle thousands of extra passengers visiting the UK for the Olympic games, they won't be prepared.

The number of illegal immigrants detained at ports linking Northern Ireland and Scotland has increased by nearly 75 percent, according to the Organised Crime Task Force (OCTF) annual report. UK immigration announced they are working to improve detection of immigration offenders attempting to use the Belfast, Ireland to Stranraer, Scotland ferry. The domestic ferry route is not subject to international border controls. As part of the new working practice it was agreed to publish a review of the arrangements after a full year of operations - today's report covers 2011.