Immigration news

Concerns over US immigrant screening continues to grow following a spate of terror attacks that hit the US in the space of 12 hours in September 2016. Attacks in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota on September 17 – 18 have fuelled speculation that US immigration authorities are failing to identify threats to national security.

As news broke that suspected New York bomber, Ahmad Khan Rahami, was born in Afghanistan, obtained a green card and then became a US citizen, Republicans quickly moved to slam the US government’s immigrant screening process.

Applications for the 2018 Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery (DV-2018) started to be accepted from October 4, 2016, as announced by the US Department of State.  This year people from Ecuador can apply under the green card lottery scheme. Applicants must submit their entries electronically between noon on October 4, 2016 and noon on November 7, 2016, Eastern Standard Time.   Only a few days left.

Recently, Alexander Downer, the Australian High Commissioner to the UK, stated that Britain’s vote to ‘Brexit’ could potentially make Tier 2 immigration easier for Australians.

New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, says the country’s policy of bringing in immigrants to fill vacancies, even in low-skilled roles like fruit farming, is justified because of the poor work ethic among domestic workers. According to recent figures, 69,000 foreign nationals settled in New Zealand in the year to July.

Michael Woodhouse, New Zealand’s Minister for Immigration, recently revealed that the government plans to review the number of foreign workers entering the country within the next month or so. However, he added that the government is unlikely to change immigration policy.

A points-based immigration system has been rejected by UK Prime Minister, Theresa May. Mrs May has promised a ‘better way of imposing some control over arrivals to Britain’, following accusations that she had reneged on promises made by the Vote Leave campaign during June’s Brexit Vote.

US employment-based green cards are becoming more readily available for many immigrants coming to the United States on EB employment based immigrant category visas, from October 1, 2016. As announced in the October edition of the Visa Bulletin, the US Department of State will be processing applications under the EB-1 immigrant visa category for all countries of birth as of October 1.