Topical:
Two of the most famous businessmen in the world, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, have called on the US Congress to pass an immigration reform bill.
The two men were joined by a third US businessman, Sheldon Adelson, as signatories of an opinion piece in the New York Times in which they called on all parties, but particularly Republican members of the House of Representatives, to 'break the immigration impasse'.
The UK's passport service is in 'total crisis' according to an anonymous whistle blower who works for the service.
There have been concerns about the service since June this year when the BBC carried reports of delays in processing of applications causing some people to miss travel dates.
The UK Passport and Visa Service aims to process a first-time passport application within six weeks and a replacement passport application within three weeks.
The UK's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has released a lengthy report about the impacts of low-skilled immigration into the UK.
The report has found that, overall, the UK's liberal immigration policy has 'served us well' but says that more resources should be put in place to ensure that the system is not abused.
The Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI) has reported that some applicants for UK visas in Russia have had to endure extremely long processing times for visas since Teleperformance Ltd, a new private sector partner, took over visa processing in March.
The RUTI says that some applicants are having to wait as long as 12 weeks for their visas to be processed. As the UK does not allow applicants to apply for visas until 12 weeks before the intended date of travel, this means that some applicants are unable to travel to the UK as planned as they have not received the visa in time for their trip.
By Alex Owen
Nigel Farage, the leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) which won the greatest number of votes in the European Parliament election in the UK in May, has said that UKIP favours a points-based immigration system for the UK, similar to that of Australia.
On 8th July, Mr Farage told the London talk radio station LBC Radio 'The Aussies have a points system and they say to come to Australia you must be under 45 years of age, you must have a skill or a trade that will bring a benefit to our country'.
The UK's immigration minister James Brokenshire has published an announcement of changes to the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa. He released the document on 10th July 2014. The changes came into force on 11th July.
Mr Brokenshire said that the Home Office had uncovered evidence that the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa stream had been targeted by fraudsters, particularly since the closure of the Tier 1 (Post Study Work) visa was closed in 2012.