Immigration news

The British government has announced that, from July, immigrants from the EU will not be able to claim child benefit for their first three months in the country. In addition, unemployed EU immigrants who do not speak English will be forced to take language classes or face losing their unemployment benefits.

This announcement comes on top of previous changes to the rules which are aimed at reducing the 'pull factors' which bring EU migrants to the UK. The government barred EU migrants from claiming Job Seekers Allowance (unemployment benefit) for their first three months in the UK in December.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it will hold two ballots to allocate this year's quota of H-1B temporary work visas.

In a brief statement issued on 7th April 2014 US immigration had the following to say 'USCIS announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2015. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U. S. advanced degree exemption'.

In June 2013, the US Senate passed an immigration reform bill; the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act 2013. The bill contained proposals for comprehensive reform of the US's immigration system which is commonly said to be 'broken'.

If it ever becomes law, the Act will

The UK's Home Office is under pressure to reduce the net immigration total but the figure is rising. To help reverse the trend, the Home Secretary Theresa May is rumoured to be considering a small change to the Tier 2 (Intra Company Transfer) (Short Term) visa which will, on paper, reduce the number of immigrants in the country by 19,000. But, in reality, there will be the same number of migrants as before.

A report by a UK parliamentary committee has warned that the UK's Coalition government is harming the UK's standing in the world because of the changes it has made to the visa system.

A report from the Select Committee on Soft Power says that changes to the Tier 4 student visa in particular are damaging the UK's reputation. The tone of the UK's debate on immigration too, diminishes the country in the eyes of people around the world. The government should also do its best to ensure that visa applicants receive a good service.

More than 80% of EB-5 visas are now issued to Chinese nationals, figures from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) show. The EB-5 investor visa allows entry of businesspeople to invest and start up businesses in the US.

Foreign nationals who invest from $500,000 and create (or preserve) 10 US jobs, can apply for a US permanent residence visa (or 'green card'). The spouse and dependent children under 21 can also gain residence in the US.