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A spokesman for the UK's Home Office has announced that it will not send out any more vans pulling advertising billboards which advise those in the country illegally to 'go home or face arrest'. On Tuesday 22nd October 2013, the spokesman said 'the Home Secretary has seen an interim evaluation and has not been convinced by the results. As such there will be no further rollout'.
The bitter rows between Republicans and Democrats over the US federal government budget and the debt ceiling have ended any hope of comprehensive immigration reform this year, according to a leading Republican member of the House of Representatives.
Representative Raul Labrador, a Republican from Idaho, told US journalists 'after the way the President acted over the last two or three weeks where he would refuse to talk to the speaker of the House [of Representatives], they're not going to get immigration reform. That's done'.
We remind you that this year's Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, better known as the Green Card Lottery, will close on November 2nd 2013 so, if you want to enter, you must apply by then. Every year, 50,000 US green cards, or permanent resident visas, are issued to successful applicants under the green card lottery. Applications must be made online. There is no fee.
Mark Harper, the UK's immigration minister, has said that he may commission a nationwide campaign of adverts telling illegal immigrants to 'go home or face arrest'. Mr Harper told the BBC's Question Time programme that he didn't 'see any problem with saying to people who have no right to be in the United Kingdom that they can't be here anymore'.
Question Time is a televised debate in which representatives of the major political parties answer questions raised by members of the public. On 17th October 2013, the programme was broadcast from the town of Basingstoke, Hampshire.
The new Canadian immigration minister Chris Alexander has announced a new stream of the Start-Up visa program. A Start-Up visa allows an entrepreneur to apply for a Canadian permanent resident visa if he can raise backing for his business scheme from Canadian venture capitalists.
The new 'Business Incubator Stream' will open on Monday 26th October 2013. It will, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), 'attract early stage and high growth businesses and entrepreneurs who can contribute to a culture of innovation and commercialization in Canada'.
A senior minister in the UK government has announced measures to 'simplify' the procedure of applying for a UK visa for people from China. George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was speaking during a trade mission to China.
The main innovation will be to allow Chinese nationals who have received visas for the EU Schengen area to come to the UK without applying for a separate visa, provided that they book their travel to the UK through certain approved travel agents.