Immigration news

Compete America, a body which lobbies on behalf of high-tech industries in the US, has called on the US Congress to pass legislation to increase the number of H-1B visas available to US industry.

Scott Corley, the chief executive of Compete America, has written an opinion piece for the Washington political newspaper Roll Call to raise awareness of 'the H-1B visa crisis'. Mr Corley says that the US economy would have been creating an additional new job every 43 seconds if the H-1B system had been reformed.

Two senior officials in the Obama administration have announced proposals to allow the spouses of some H-1B visa holders to work while in the US. Currently, spouses of H-1B visa holders are only allowed to work if they qualify for a work visa, such as an H-1B or L-1 visa, themselves.

The change would not apply to spouses of all H-1B visa holders but only to spouses of those H-1B visa holders who are skilled in one of the STEM subjects; science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has announced new caps for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), the Federal Skilled Trades Programme (FSTP) and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

The new caps will be operational from 1st May 2014 and will be available for visa applicants until the introduction of the new Express Entry skilled immigration system in 2015.

In addition, there will be a new list of eligible occupations for the FSWP. The number of occupations on the list will be increased from 24 to 50.

Full details will be released shortly.

The Canadian employment minister Jason Kenney has barred Canadian restaurants from employing workers who wish to come to Canada under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) after numerous claims that the system was being abused.

Mr Kenney released a statement reading 'I am announcing an immediate moratorium on the food services sector's access to the temporary foreign worker program'. He added 'This moratorium will remain in effect until the completion of the ongoing review of the temporary foreign worker program'.

Net immigration to New Zealand rose to 31,900 in the year to March 2014, the highest figure for eleven years and the second highest level ever. The highest number of immigrants were from the People's Republic of China followed by India and the UK.

Many of the Chinese migrants are wealthy businesspeople who were issued with investor visas. Around 3,000 Chinese applicants were issued with one of New Zealand's investor visas, the Investor Visa and the Investor Visa Plus during the year in question.

The UK would 'fall apart' if all immigrants currently living in the country decided to leave tomorrow, according to a well-respected London think-tank.

Tim Finch, associate director of migration at the Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-of-centre London think tank, told internet magazine Vice that 'there'd be large gaps in the workforce' which would be 'disastrous'.