Immigration news

New immigration statistics have revealed that Germany and Spain have a greater population of immigrants than the UK. According to provisional data, from the EU statistics office Eurostat, the UK has an estimated 4.5 million foreigners living in the country, about 7 percent of the population. Included in this figure is 2.33 million immigrants that emigrated to the UK from other EU countries.

Visit Britain, the UK's main tourism body, says the country is losing billions of pounds in tourist revenue due to its expensive and difficult to navigate visa system. Visit Britain believes that easing UK visitor visa rules "could deliver £2.8bn extra from tourism".Foreign tourism is worth £18bn a year to the UK economy and is the country's third largest generator of foreign income. Prime Minister David Cameron has urged tourism leaders to do more to attract foreign visitors.

Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen, has announced from 1 July 2012, new priority processing arrangements will be in place for certain skilled migration visas.

From 6 August 2012, the UK Border Agency's visa application centre in Seoul, South Korea, will accept Tier 5 Youth mobility scheme visa applications from South Korean nationals.The UK Border Agency announced last month that South Korean nationals would be added to the UK's Tier 5 youth mobility scheme visa. Under the scheme, 1,000 eligible South Koreans aged between 18 and 30 can live and work in the UK for up to 2 years.

Germany has announced that they will begin accepting EU Blue Card applications for assignments having an effective start date of 1 August 2012. Applicants must have a job offer and work contract prior to applying for the EU Blue Card. In May 2009, the European Union (EU) introduced the EU Blue Card, the EU's bid to attract highly skilled workers, competing against the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is an EU-wide work permit scheme allowing highly-skilled non-EU citizens the right to work and live in any EU country excluding Denmark, Ireland, and the UK.

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.