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workpermit.com is pleased to bring you our latest immigration newsletter. Click on the link in the box to view the video version. We also have an archive of all of our newsletters and video newsletters online for your convenience.

Canada is likely to introduce major changes to its immigration policy , including plans to take in as many as 300,000 new immigrants annually within the next five years. The country is on track to accept 245,000 immigrants this year. Canada?€™s Immigration Minister Joe Volpe wants to bring in more workers on temporary visas to fill positions in the trades - such as pipefitters and truck drivers. Canada issues about 95,000 such visas a year. Volpe says he plans to consult with the provinces, unions, businesses and immigrant-serving groups to better understand exactly what kinds of workers are needed. Volpe is also planning to...

workpermit.com is pleased to bring you our latest immigration newsletter. Click on the link in the box to view the video version. We also have an archive of all of our newsletters and video newsletters online for your convenience.

The US Senate voted to increase the number of available H-1B visas by 30,000 to 95,000 from next year . The H-1B visa is largely used in the IT industry to bring in skilled workers, and industry leaders have been lobbying for its increase in recent months. The Senate also voted to increase the number of legal immigrants as part of a broad budget deficit cutting bill that was passed on 3 Nov., by a margin of 52 to 47 votes. Family members have been removed from the limit on employment-based immigration visas. Visa fees have also increased.

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Almost 600 overseas students have obtained permission to stay in Scotland for a further two years since a new scheme, called the Scottish Executive's Fresh Talent initiative , was introduced in June. Under the scheme international students who have graduated from a Scottish University or College and who have lived in Scotland while studying, are eligible to apply to stay in Scotland to live and work for up to two years. Officials said that more than 10% of the overseas students eligible to apply for the visa had done so. The Working in Scotland scheme, open to non-European Union students, is a key part of the Fresh Talent initiative aimed at boosting Scotland's population and attracting qualified foreign workers. At the end of two years, applicants must leave Scotland, unless they are granted a work permit or allowed to remain because they have particular...

Earlier this year, thousands of IT workers were encouraged when the US Senate voted to increase the number of available H1B visas by 30,000. The US Congress this week, however, passed its own version of the same bill , without any increase in H1B visas. The Senate had also voted to increase the cost of the H1B visas, while the Congress voted to increase the cost of the L1 visa instead, which is is a non-immigrant visa that allows companies operating both in the US and abroad to transfer certain classes of employee from its foreign operations to the USA operations for up to seven years. The fate of the H1B visa increase will now depend on the common bill, which will have to be prepared before it can be sent to the US President for his approval. There is likely to...

Rural Australian fruit growers desperate for workers have been helped out by the large number of backpackers who took advantage of changes to the working holiday maker visa scheme . Three weeks after the Government allowed visitors to extend their visa to stay on and pick fruit in rural areas, the Immigration Department revealed that 500 working holidaymakers had already taken up the option . The changes to the scheme came after pleas from Coalition MPs in regional areas.

US President George W Bush has begun touring US states to rally support for his strategy to control immigration and to start a new guest worker visa. Mr Bush wants tighter security along the Mexican frontier, but he also plans to allow migrants with a job offer to stay in the US temporarily. Under his plan, undocumented aliens would be allowed to...