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The White House has announced a proposal to allow some spouses of foreign workers in the US with H-1B temporary work visas to work in the US. The announcement is designed as part of President Obama's plan to make life easier for highly skilled workers and entrepreneurs in the US.
In his State of the Union address on January 28th 2014, the President said 'Let's do more to help the entrepreneurs and small business owners who create most new jobs in America'.
Chris Alexander, Canada's immigration minister says that Canada will announce details of an 'immigration investor venture capital pilot' scheme in 'a couple more months'. The visa will allow foreign nationals to gain Canadian permanent residence visas if they start up businesses in Canada.
Mr Alexander said that applicants would need to invest 'more than twice the amount' that was required under the previous Immigrant Investor Program (IIP). He also said the investment would need to be made for a longer period than under the IIP.
The debate in the UK about Scottish independence continues ahead of a referendum that will be held on Thursday 18th September 2014. The latest Westminster politician to intervene is Labour's Yvette Cooper who has said that the Scottish National Party (SNP) must 'come clean' on its immigration policy.
All three major political parties at the Westminster parliament; the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, oppose Scottish independence. Only the SNP, which is currently the party in power in Scotland supports independence.
The UK Independence Party has launched its campaign for the elections to the European Parliament in May. The party has launched a poster campaign which has been funded by a millionaire businessman, Paul Sykes, who is a vocal opponent of the EU.
One of the posters features a finger pointing out from the poster at the viewer below which is printed '26million people in Europe are looking for work. And whose jobs are they after?'
Artur Debski, a Polish MP from the opposition Your Movement party, has spent two weeks living in London experiencing the life of a Polish migrant looking for work. Mr Debski intended to raise awareness of the issue of emigration from Poland. He says that many young Poles leave to live and work elsewhere which is a problem for the Polish economy and may even affect national security because fewer people will be left at home to defend the country.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has revealed that it received 172,000 applications for H-1B visas in the first five working days of April this year, 40% more than over the same period last year. It has since held ballots to allocate the H-1B visa quota. It will now notify all the chosen applicants whose applications can be considered further for an H-1B visa.