Immigration news

John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives has said that Republicans in the House (as the House of Representatives is known) are unlikely to support any bills reforming the US immigration system because they distrust President Obama.

Mr Boehner told journalists in Washington 'There's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws, and it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes'.

Mr Boehner said that immigration reform would be impossible until 'trust' was restored.

Jan Koum, a Ukrainian who settled in the US, has sold his WhatsApp mobile app to Facebook for $19bn. Mr Koum, 37, left Ukraine for the US when with his mother he was 16. His story is a classic 'rags-to-riches' American dream, immigrant tale.

Koum and his mother, both Jewish, left Ukraine in 1993 because of anti-Semitism. When they arrived in California in 1993, they were so poor that they relied on government hand-outs and 'food stamps' for survival. He taught himself computer programming using cheap, second-hand books.

Chris Alexander, Canada's immigration minister, has given an interview to a Chinese newspaper just days after scrapping the Immigrant Investor Program which was extremely popular with Chinese applicants.

He has said that Chinese citizens were still welcome in Canada and will be able to apply for Canadian visas under a new investor program which will open later this year.

Chinese nationals have lodged more than 90% of applications for the new Australian Significant Investor Visa since it opened in November 2012. The Significant Investor Visa allows wealthy foreign nationals to obtain Australian residence visas in return for a $5m investment. Of 545 applicants so far, nearly 500 are Chinese.

The Significant Investor Programme opened for business shortly after the Canadian Immigrant Investor Program (IIP), another visa for wealthy foreign nationals, was suspended in July 2012.

Are you a US employer? Are you finding it difficult to find highly skilled workers? You may wish to consider the H-1B temporary work visa for graduate level employees.

If you want to do so, you still have time but the 2014 H-1B season is nearly upon us. USCIS will begin accepting applications on 1st April 2014. So, if you want to employ a degree level foreign worker in a 'specialty occupation' you should start preparing now. It is almost certain that the H-1B non-immigrant visa quota will be reached within a few days of 1st April 2014.

A BBC investigation into the UK's Tier 4 student visa system has found 'systematic immigration fraud'. An investigation for the Panorama documentary programme found immigration consultants offering forged documents for use in Tier 4 visa applications and offering to help students cheat in government approved exams.