Immigration news

Mark Harper, the UK immigration minister announced a series of proposed changes to the UK immigration system on Thursday 14th March 2013. He told the House of Commons that the changes will be introduced on April 6th 2013. The most significant changes will be made to the Tier 2 visa scheme, the tier visa of the UK's five tier points-based immigration system that is for skilled workers with a job offer.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has issued a short statement about the Federal Skilled Worker Program. The program is currently suspended but is due to re-open for business in May 2013.

The CIC statement advises that if you intend to apply for the revamped FSWP in May that it intends to make three announcements in April about the program. This will affect the way in which you make your application.

A recent UK poll has shown that a majority of UK citizens believe that immigrants should have to pay tax in the UK before they can get social benefits in the UK or use the UK's free National Health Service.

The chief executives of some of the most famous companies in the world have written a public letter to President Obama to press him to support legislation that would allow more skilled immigration into the US. They urge the President to 'address the need for more qualified, highly-skilled professionals, domestic and foreign, and to enact immigration reform this year'. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Eric Schmidt of Google and Bradford Smith of Microsoft all signed the letter.

On 14th March 2013, The UK's immigration minister, Mark Harper, announced changes to the UK's Tier 4 student visa. He announced in the House of Commons that from 6 April 2013, all foreign PhD students with Tier 4 visas will be allowed to stay in the UK for a year after completing their course to work in a skilled occupation or to set up in business as an entrepreneur.

By Alex Owen

The US is famously a country of migrants. In olden days, they would arrive by ship at the port of New York. One of the most famous images of New York in about 1900 is of immigrants from Europe queuing on Ellis Island in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. There were no requirements that you should have a job or that you should invest in a US business. All that was required was that you had made it to New York. Once immigrants were processed, they were released to begin their new lives as equal citizens of the United States of America.