Immigration news

Amid an ongoing tit-for-tat spat between China and the US, Beijing has responded to US visa sanctions imposed on members of the Chinese Communist Party by Washington. China has said that it is removing visa exemption rights for US diplomatic passport holders visiting Hong Kong and Macau.

 

UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, met with Hong Kong activists at Westminster recently ahead of the launch of the new British National (Overseas) visa scheme. 

 

Patel held a one-hour session with former lawmaker Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Beatrice Li, whose brother Andy Li was one of 12 people detained by Shenzhen authorities while attempting to flee Hong Kong for Taiwan in August.

Announcements circulating on social media claim that a migrant caravan is heading for the US southern border. Following two massive hurricanes causing devastation across Central America, it’s understood that thousands of migrants from Chile, Cuba, Guyana, Honduras, Paraguay and other Central American nations ravaged by storms are headed for the USA.

 

A report published by Bloomberg claims that one group of migrants is set to leave Honduras’ second-largest city, San Pedro Sula ‘in the next few days’, with rumours that a second group will follow in January.

According to data compiled by job search site, Indeed, interest in working in the UK among non-EU workers has surged by 20%, driven by the UK’s visa offer to Hong Kong nationals.

Workpermit.com recently reported that a US court had ordered the Trump administration to reopen the DACA program to new applicants. Following that ruling, US immigration officials have now restored the program and have now started accepting applications from first-time applicants.

 

Complying with the court’s order, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that it would return the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to the format in which it was launched by the Obama administration in 2012. 

The US Temporary Protected Status (TPS) immigration route has been extended for people coming to America from disaster-struck countries. Citizens of El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, Honduras and Nepal will still have permissions to enter/remain in America under the TPS US immigration scheme until October 2021 at least.  

The TPS program enables some citizens of countries hit by a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary events to remain in America and apply for US work permits.