Topical:
UK immigration has announced a number of changes to the Tier 4 student visa category. There will be new accreditation criteria for sponsors and tougher English language requirements. An outline of the changes is included below:
21 April 2011 Changes:
New sponsors will need to meet new educational accreditation criteria in order to be issued a Tier 4 licence.
There will be interim limit on the number of students that can be sponsored unless the sponsor meets the following requirements:
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will start accepting H-1B petitions for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 on 1 April 2011. However, the earliest you can start work on an H-1B visa is October 2011. US firms use H-1B visas to recruit overseas workers in specialty occupations in fields in the sciences, engineering, and information technology.
In a little over one week the UK will stop accepting visa applications under the Tier 1 (General) Visa of the Government's points based immigration system. 5 April 2011 is the last day that you will be able to apply under the Tier 1 (General) Visa Scheme. The Tier 1 (General) Visa allows highly skilled individuals to immigrate to the UK without a job offer if they score enough points under various criteria such as age, past earnings, and qualifications.
Australia's population growth has declined due to tougher student immigration rules, which has reduced net immigration by over a third.
New rules introduced in recent years require students to have more money to fund their stay and makes it more difficult for students to live and work in Australia after finishing their studies.
The Canadian government has proposed a new rule which would require a person coming to stay in Canada with their partner to stay in the relationship for two years before being granted permanent residence.
The stricter requirement is an attempt by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to crack down on fraudulent marriages.
Under the new proposal, a spouse or partner from overseas who has been in a relationship with their Canadian partner for less than two years would only be granted conditional permanent residence.
Western Australia is continuing its efforts to recruit workers from abroad in an effort to head off labour shortages.
The Australian state expects to create 240,000 new jobs as AUD $225 million in resources and infrastructure projects get underway; It is estimated that Western Australia will see a shortfall of 150,000 workers.