Topical:
As workpermit.com predicted, demand for H-1B visas this year has been extremely strong. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received 124,000 applications for H-1B visas by 5th April 2013.
Every fiscal year, USCIS issues 65,000 H-1B visas to foreign graduates enabling them to travel to the US to work in a 'specialty occupation'. It also issues a further 20,000 H-1Bs to foreign graduates with advanced degrees such as master's degrees.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released its March bulletin setting out the 'cut-off priority dates' of the green cards being processed in April 2013. The bulletin shows that there are long waiting times in many immigration categories.
Informing the public of cut-off priority dates is USCIS's somewhat confusing way of letting people who have made their applications for US permanent resident status know how long they will have to wait before they can finally get their 'green card' or permanent resident visa.
The European Commissioner for Employment has strongly criticised UK Prime Minister David Cameron. On 25th March, Mr Cameron made a speech in which he stated that his government would prevent people who come to the UK from the European Union (and the European Economic Area) from claiming benefits, from being housed in social housing and from using the National Health Service until they have lived and worked in the UK for a considerable period.
The Australian immigration minister has released figures which show that there were 12% more Temporary Work (Skilled) (Subclass 457) visas granted in February 2013 than in the same month in 2012.
A senior UK MP has warned the leaders of the main UK political parties against getting involved in an 'arms race' in immigration policy. Keith Vaz MP, the chairman of the influential Home Affairs Committee, has said that the leaders should, instead cooperate to face 'one of the most challenging issues our nation faces'.
Mr Vaz expressed his views in the pages of the Sunday Express, a British newspaper which runs stories and comment pieces weekly about the perils of immigration.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has said that it is 'no wonder' that young Britons are being outcompeted for jobs by immigrants who come to the UK from eastern Europe. Mr Johnson says that eastern Europeans are better educated than Britons and more industrious.
Mr Johnson said that it was 'economically illiterate' to blame the immigrants for getting jobs or for 'getting up early and working hard and being polite and helpful'.