Immigration news

UK companies are being warned to prepare for imminent changes to the Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer Visa. The amendments, which were first announced in March 2016 with a view to being introduced this autumn, are likely to make it more difficult for multinational companies to transfer foreign personnel to the UK.

Changes to the Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) Visa were sanctioned amid allegations that the programme was being abused by multinationals, with the IT industry cited as a major culprit.

Australia’s Health Department wants to see 41 medical jobs removed from the country’s Skilled Occupations List (SOL) which would mean that many foreign doctors would no longer be able to obtain Australian work visas. Among the roles the department wants taken off the list are general practitioners, resident medical officers, surgeons and anaesthetists.

Despite shrugging of pre-election anti immigration remarks by Donald Trump and others concerning US work visas, the chief of India’s software trade lobby group the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), R Chandrashekhar, is growing increasingly concerned over what he calls ‘discriminatory plans’ to hike US H-1B and L-1 visa fees.

According to a report published by the Irish Times, more than 100 foreign nationals queued outside the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (Inis) in Dublin on Thursday, 11 August, hoping to secure an Irish work permit or study visa. The queue for the Inis office on Burgh Quay stretched around the block as people waited for doors to open at 8am. 

According to a report submitted to US Congress by Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, Maria Odom, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing a high number of requests for evidence (RFEs), especially for L-1A and L-1B visas. The CIS report states that ‘USCIS continues to frustrate employers with a series of processing delays.’

A joint survey conducted by the London Chamber of Commerce and ComRes, a leading research consultancy, has revealed that less than a quarter of London business executives think they would be able to afford a new, Tier 2 UK immigration fee due to come into effect in April 2017. The findings have prompted fears of a skills gap in Britain’s capital city.