UK Immigration News

UK immigration has announced that students who worked as interns in the UK last summer and wish to return to a graduate job with the same company this summer are now temporarily exempt from Tier 2 cooling off rules. The cooling off rules, introduced to Tier 2 (General) this past February, required Tier 2 migrants to wait at least 12 months from the expiration of their previous visa before they may apply for a further Tier 2 visa.

According to new figures, migration to the UK still remains at more than double the government's target; The intention was to reduce migration numbers to "tens of thousands" by 2015. In the year to last September, net migration, meaning the number of immigrants arriving in the UK to stay for more than a year minus those emigrating from the UK, was 252,000. This is only a decrease of 3,000 from the previous year.

The UK Home Office announced that immigrants from countries with a high incidence of tuberculosis (TB) will soon be required to be screened for the disease before being approved for a UK visa.

Earlier this month, the UK Border Agency's computer system crashed and led to the cancellation of 500 visa appointments, and officials warn that it could happen again.UKBA chief executive Rob Whiteman said that the computer systems are "prone to falling over", and that the issue was "a constant frustration" and may not be quick to fix. Whiteman explained that the problem was caused by a network error and if it happened again it would affect several UK visa applications and appointments.

UK Immigration Minister Damian Green announced that the UK Border Force will be recruiting an additional 70 staff at Heathrow Airport to deal with long queues. He said the staff would be brought in following the Olympics to to cover for immigration officers taking leave after the end of Olympics and to handle the expected surge when tens of thousands of students arrive in the UK for the new academic year.

Under new immigration rules, the UK Border Agency is planning to remove the full right of appeal for all immigrants applying to enter the UK on a family visitor visa in July 2012. However, due to interim measures the change will not affect immediate family members who will retain the full right of appeal until 2014. In all refused visa cases, applicants will still be able to appeal on limited grounds such as human rights or race discrimination grounds.