UK Immigration News

The Home Office recently published quarterly immigration statistics on immigration and asylum. The immigration statistics cover the number of asylum applications, total removals of people who have been in the UK illegally and migration from Eastern Europe over the period October to December 2009. According to UK Immigration the immigration statistics show the following:

On 22 February the changes to the UK Tier 4 student visa were implemented in full. The following are the major changes:

Visa letters no longer accepted

UK immigration recently announced full details of the UK student visa changes under Tier 4 of the points based system. The intention of the changes is to make it more difficult for bogus students from outside Europe to gain entry to the UK.

You will not be able to make any sponsor applications for any tier visa of the points based system from 1730 on Friday 19 February 2010 to 0800 on Saturday 20 February 2010 UK time. This is to enable the new IT system for student Tier 4 sponsors to be set up.

Students from North India, Bangladesh and Nepal wishing to study in a higher education course will from 1 March 2010 again be able to apply for an UK student visa. This will help thousands of students who have been unable to apply for a student visa since 1 February 2010.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has announced changes to student visas that will mean that students will need to have better English; Also, those on shorter courses will only be allowed to work a smaller number of hours in the UK. It is interesting to note that only a week ago UKBA announced a temporary ban on student visa applications from Northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The new requirements since 7 February 2009 are as follows: