Immigration news

More than 20,000 job-seekers visited the Working Abroad Expo in Dublin on 5 March. Future immigrants came to find what work opportunities were available abroad in countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.There was such a high level of interest in the Expo that organisers opened the doors an hour early and announced they would stay open as long as necessary to accommodate the crowds.

According to preliminary data just released by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), Canada continued to admit a high number of new immigrants into the country in 2011.According to the data, there were 248,660 new permanent residents in 2011. This consisted of 156,077 new economic immigrants, including those on the Canadian skilled worker visa, 56,419 new family class immigrants and others.

The Chief Registrar, Mr Registrar Baister, announced that any former UK Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) clients will be able to retrieve their files from the archives from now 27 February 2012 until 28 May 2012.This announcement was made on 28 February 2012 at the hearing of the Joint Administrators' application for directions as to what to do with the files that were in the IAS archive at the time when IAS closed down.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is finalizing its plan for a biometric data system to track when immigrants leave the US and immigrants who have overstayed their visas.Immigration officials have wanted to set up an exit system to track immigrants leaving the country even before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced the closure of the Pontville Immigration Detention Centre in Tasmania on March 6.Bowen said the last 12 detainees out of the original 113 people at the centre have now been released into the Australian community on permanent protection Australian visas, or placed in community detention or given bridging visas if they cleared health, identity and security requirements.

A new bill was brought forward in the Netherlands to require all non-EU nationals applying for residency and work visas to supply their fingerprints and photograph to the immigration department.