Immigration news

Please note, beginning 12 December 2011, all UK visa applications under the points-based immigration system will need to be made online. This includes all UK Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 4, and Tier 5 visa applications. The UK Border Agency will no longer accept paper based visa applications under the points-based immigration system.

Chicago officials launched a new municipal department last week called the Office of New Americans which will focus on helping immigrant business owners. Chicago will join other cities such as New York City and Los Angeles who also have dedicated departments to help immigrant business owners.

Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced last week that Canadian Immigration is proposing changes in the way they process refugee immigrant applications in order to help reduce backlogs and improve processing times.In order to reduce delays, the changes to the Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) Program would require that both the sponsorship application form and the permanent resident application be submitted together to CIC. If both forms are not submitted, CIC will return incomplete applications.

UK Immigration has announced that the Ministry of Justice will be introducing fee charges for some asylum and immigration appeals beginning 19 December 2011.Immigrants or asylum seekers who want to appeal against a decision notice dated 19 December 2011 or later will need to pay a fee. The appeal fee will apply to most categories of UK visas and decisions. This will not affect any decision notices that are dated before 19 December.

Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman announced a significant government investment in Immigration New Zealand's IT system will help attract more skilled immigrants and boost security.Coleman said the New Zealand government would be contributing NZ$75 million towards the new IT system.

More than three decades after the US embassy in Tehran was closed, the US has officially opened a virtual embassy for Iran to encourage dialogue with the Iranian people and to help Iranians with their US visa applications.