Immigration news

The New Zealand immigration minister Michael Woodhouse has announced that his department is to scrap the Long-Term Business Visa and introduce a new visa, the Entrepreneur Work Visa, to replace it. The new visa will assess applicants using a points-based test and require them to invest NZ$100,000.

Mr Woodhouse says that he hopes that the new scheme will 'encourage business-savvy migrants to invest, settle and create jobs across the country'. He said that he was scrapping the Long-Term Business Visa because it had 'attracted a large number of low-quality applications'.

Sir David Metcalfe, the head of the UK's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) gave evidence to the House of Commons' Home Affairs Committee last week. He told the Committee that no one he asked knew why the UK's Tier 1 (Investor) visa had been established.

Sir David has been asked by the government to review the Tier 1 (Investor) visa stream. He was summoned to give evidence to the Committee on 10th December 2013 and was asked by Liberal Democrat MP Dr Julian Huppert to explain his findings about the Investor visa.

A report prepared for the UK's Home Office has suggested the imposition of an annual 75,000 cap on immigration from the EU to the UK. The proposal would help the UK government move closer to achieving its goal of reducing annual net immigration to below 100,000 every year. The report was obtained by journalists on The Sunday Times newspaper and revealed on Sunday 15th December 2013.

The report contained suggestions for ways in which the UK could limit immigration to the UK from within the EU. Among those suggestions were

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) believes that Syrians will soon make up the largest refugee population on earth. Syrian refugees are expected to outnumber displaced Afghans within the next few months.

There are currently 2.3m Syrians who have left the country to avoid the civil war. About 100,000 more are leaving the country each month. It is believed that around 2.58 Afghans are currently living outside Afghanistan as refugees. This number is falling slowly from a highpoint of 6m in the 1990s.

UK Visas and Immigration has launched a new service for 'global business leaders' called 'The Great Club'. It is 'an invitation only service providing top business executives with bespoke support from UK visas and immigration'.

According to The website of the Home Office, the government department responsible for the UK's immigration and visa services, 'the club will start in the New Year as a 12 month pilot aimed at around 100 global business leaders who use the visa service and have strong links to the UK.

The Cypriot department of immigration has cut the cost of its Fast Track Citizenship program, also known as 'economic citizenship'. The main change was introduced to placate Russians who had lost money when the Cypriot government grabbed 40% of all deposits for themselves in two of Cyprus's largest banks.

There are now several different ways of qualifying for Cypriot citizenship by making investments in Cyprus. There is no requirement that you should be resident in Cyprus to qualify though you must have a property there.