Immigration news

New Zealand has made what can arguably be considered the most dramatic changes to its immigration policy in a decade when the New Zealand Immigration Service increased requirements that immigrants coming to New Zealand for economic/employment reasons have a clear prospect of employment. The aim of this is to avoid having highly qualified immigrants in low-level, low-paid jobs. Approximately 24,000 potential immigrants arrive in New Zealand annually under the general skills category, and 20,000 applications are pending.

A report on immigration to Australia figures has been published in Australia showing that Immigration has been rising in comparison to previous years. Net migration was 136,000 in 2000-01, and 134,000 in 2001-02. Net migration included, for 2000-2001, 80,600 settler immigrants and 13,800 refugees, plus 93,000 longer-terms arrivals, including those on work visas of one year or more.

The Honourable Denis Coderre, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canadaannounces that with immediateeffect the points requirement under the skilled worker category goes down to67 points. The new passmark of67 points will cover all applicants who filed an application on or after 1January 2002 and who have not as yet received a selection decision. The previous pass mark from 28 June 2002 to 17September 2003 was 75 points.

Full details of the US Green Card Lottery DV 2005 have just beenannounced. The Lottery is designed to increase the diversity ofimmigrants to the US by only allowing entrants for the Lottery from"natives" of "under represented" Countries. Your Country of birthwill normally be the deciding factor whenconsidering which Country you will be a native of. If you are froma Country that has sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the US in the lastfive years then your Country will be excludedfrom the Lottery.

Key Facts:

If you make an application to the Home Office then in most cases from 1 August 2003 you will have to pay a Government fee. The UK Government has decided that they wish to recover some of the expense of dealing with applications at the Home Office. The following is our guide to the new charging system:

The German Government decided on 9 July 2003 that the German Green card program will continue beyond the original expiry date of 31 July 2003 until the end of 2004.