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You should note that many UK visa application fees will change from Tuesday 6 April 2010. Therefore, it is important for you to make sure that you are paying the correct fee when making an UK visa application. As mentioned in a previous news report some visa fees for dependent applications will double or triple in price.

If you wish to apply for Canadian skilled immigration you should bear in mind that there will be changes to the procedure for assessing English and French language ability from 10 April 2010. You can still either submit a written submission but now only once or an independent third party test (IELTS). A written submission should normally only be done if you are a native English or French speaker. If you do not meet the language requirements the first time then normally your application will be refused.

The UK Prime Minister...

On 6 April 2010 it was announced that the next UK General Election will take place on 6 May 2010. According to recent opinion polls it seems likely that after the General Election there will be a new Conservative Government so ending 13 years of a Labour Government. A new Conservative Government if elected intends to put numerical limits on the number of immigrants coming into the UK. Presumably this is likely to mean that there will be numerical limits on people coming into the UK on Tier 1 and Tier 2 visas and in other visa categories.

UK Immigration has said that they will be reviewing the salary multipliers used to convert past earnings from overseas to the equivalent UK earnings to calculate points for UK Tier 1 visas. The review had not been completed by 6 April 2010 which was the date that the latest changes came...

In the last week opinion polls have shown an increase in support for the Liberal Democrats in the UK who probably have more liberal policies on immigration than the Conservative or Labour Party. For example the Liberal Democrats would like an amnesty for people who have been in the UK illegally for ten years. A recent estimate by the London School of Economics for the number of illegal immigrants in the UK is 618,000.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has said the following about travellers whose visas have expired and who have been unable to travel due to volcanic ash ending up in the atmosphere after the eruption beneath the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in south-western Iceland;"... We appreciate that this is due to exceptional circumstances beyond your control..." UKBA has also said that if your UK visa has already expired you should keep documentation confirming your travel plans showing that...

With the UK General Election on 6 May 2010 little more than a week away there is continuing talk of a possible “Hung Parliament” in the UK. This is a parliament where no single political party has enough seats to form a Government. Leaders of the two largest political parties in the UK David Cameron for the Conservatives and Gordon Brown for the Labour Party have both said that voting for the Liberal Democrats is more likely to lead to a Hung Parliament which they say will result in political uncertainty. This could mean further changes to the UK Tier 1 and Tier 2 visas as well as to other UK visa categories. A recent opinion poll shows the following:

The eruption of an Icelandic volcano on Thursday 15 April 2010 resulted in a Europe wide...