Friday 26 August 2011

UK net migration up 21%

Net migration rose by 21% last year, with 239,000 more people arriving in the UK than those leaving, the Office for National Statistics has revealed.

In 2009, the total for net migration had stood at 198,000.

The government has pledged to reduce net migration to the "tens of thousands" by 2015. As part of that drive, the number of skilled workers from outside the European Economic Area who are allowed into the UK each year is being capped. This is evident primarily in the Tier 2 (General) visa category.

ONS estimates put long-term immigration in 2010 at 575,000, up slightly from 567,000 the year before.

But the long-term emigration figure saw a sizeable drop from 371,000 two years ago to 336,000 - the lowest level for six years.

"It's emigration that is, in a sense, the problem for the government at the moment," said BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw.

"Work is the main reason why people leave the UK, and the numbers of people leaving the UK for work reasons is down considerably.

"So what it would seem is that the economy in the rest of the world [and the] lack of opportunities for jobs elsewhere is actually making people not want to leave Britain."

for more information on UK migration, please visit our website;

www.commonwealthimmigration.com

Thursday 11 August 2011

USA Green Card Lottery to end ?

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee in late July moved to abolish the Diversity Visa Program (Green Card Lottery) by approving the Security and Fairness Enhancement (SAFE) for America Act in a 19-11 vote.

The bill now moves to the full U.S. House of Representatives. According to Lamar Smith, the Green Card Lottery is open to fraud and gives opportunity to terrorists, thus compromising national U.S. security.

Bob Goodlatte, Republican from Virginia who introduced the bill, agrees that the visa program is a threat to national security, and says the U.S. Immigration system should be based on the county’s needs rather than on pure luck on behalf of a small number of applicants.

John Conyers, Democrat from Michigan, is one of the bill’s opponents and says that scrapping the Green Card Lottery would make it nearly impossible for Africans to immigrate legally to the U.S., and it would make it harder for all prospective immigrants to obtain lawful permanent residence in the United States. Conyers says he wants to improve the Diversity Visa Program rather than abolishing it, and ads that the U.S. immigration system would look very different if it didn’t have the visa lottery, “and not in a good way.”

The first Diversity Visa green cards were issued in 1995, and since that time more than 785,000 visas have been awarded to applicants who won the lottery. The Diversity Visa Program was created in 1990 to make the immigrant population in the U.S. more diverse.

for advice on US Immigrant Visas, please click on the USA page on our website;

http://www.commonwealthimmigration.com/united_states_usa.htm

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Australia - new work experience requirement

Now that the new Australian points system has been in place for a few weeks, we are starting to see how this is impacting on the pre-application skills assessment process.

Perhaps the most significant change is the new role taken on by many skills assessment bodies in relation to assessing work experience.

Previously, the main role of such skills assessment bodies was to review the entry requirements (i.e. qualifications) of the applicant to that particular occupation.

So, for instance, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC) would assess the qualifications and professional registration of an overseas nurse to make sure he / she met the Australian standard to be a Nurse.

This role of the ANMC (and indeed of many other skills assessment bodies) has now been expanded to also review relevant work experience. This includes work experience for the purpose of claiming points in a residence visa application.

So, now it seems that the Department of Immigration will defer to the skills assessment bodies evaluation of the applicant’s work experience, when deciding whether to allocate points or not. This was previously a major function of the Department of Immigration during the residence visa application.

Consequently, applicants need to fully understand the importance of submitting a comprehensive application AT THE SKILLS ASSESSMENT STAGE, to be sure of claiming work experience points. This is now vital to a successful overall application.

For more information on applying for a skills assessment in migrating to Australia, please visit our website;

www.commonwealthimmigration.com

Wednesday 3 August 2011

London “Olympics” visa

Even the officials at the UK Border Agency are getting in on all the excitement with the London Olympics less than 12 months away.

A new “Olympics” visa is being launched for all participants, coaches and national Olympics officials. The official name is the “Olympic/ Paralympic Games Visit Visa”.

This was recently announced and heavily promoted by the UK Border Agency and UK Embassies around the world. A major drive to tie in tourism with the Olympics is all part of the overall plan for 2012.

Although, here at Commonwealth Immigration we won’t really be getting involved in visit visas or Olympics visas, we can of course assist with other types of UK visas for work, joining family, setting up businesses etc....

If you are interested in using any of our services, then please click on our website and see the countries we assist with;

http://www.commonwealthimmigration.com/visas_countries.html