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The House of Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee has said that the UK Tier 2 Visa system is 'not fit for purpose'. The following comments were made by Keith Vaz MP Chairman of the Committee, in a scathing report published by the Committee, on the government's Tier 2 Visa cap on recruiting skilled workers from outside the European Union (EU).
… "The government's immigration cap does not fit, it may even be counter-productive…
The additional fees for H-1B and L-1 visas which mainly affected Indian owned companies in the US ended on 1 October 2015 only to be brought back on 19 December 2015. ,The US government has increased the fee for an H-1B visa from $2,000 to $4,000, while the L-1 visa fee was raised from $2,250 to $4,500. On December 19, the bill was signed into law by US President Barack Obama, which will fund a 9/11 healthcare act.
A report published by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has criticised possible changes to UK working visas - such as to the Tier 2 Visa scheme - describing them as discriminatory and harmful to UK-Australia relations. The Australian government warned that new UK working visa rules, which, many expect to come into effect in 2016, will cause 'structural damage to formal relations between the two countries.' It seems that Theresa May the UK Home Secretary is in favour of these changes. It is widely known that she favours tougher immigration rules.
Over 3 million foreign nationals were issued with US work permits, working visas [including L-1A and L-1B visas and H-1B visas] and green cards [including EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3] according to the most recent data available, published by the Congressional Research Service for 2013.
The statement of changes to UK immigration rules published in 29 October 2015, specifically paragraph K2 of page 43, states that the occupation 'cyber-security specialist' will be added to the official skills shortage list from November 19 2015. However, despite the addition of this occupation and a few other IT related occupations to the list, it seems that many companies will not meet the "qualifying company" requirements to obtain tier 2 visas under the new scheme. The chronic shortage of cyber security skills professionals in the UK is likely to continue.
Due to concerns over terrorism and rogue terrorist cells possibly operating in the USA, the US House of Representatives and US Government is attempting to add new restrictions to the US visit visa waiver program. It may no longer be possible in future for certain groups of people from around the World to come under the visa waiver program. The Visa Waiver Program Improvement Act of 2015's purpose is to make certain categories of people no longer eligible to apply under the ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) system for the visa waiver scheme in place since 2008.