Immigration news

A decision by the United States government to cease US visa processing at its embassy in Cuba’s capital city, Havana, has left Cuban citizens ‘heartbroken and enraged.’ Cuban nationals argue that the decision will ‘further tear at the seams of families already divided by the Florida Straits.’  

The US announced that it was reducing its diplomatic presence in Cuba by more than half amid a series of mysterious attacks targeting embassy personnel. As a result, its regular US visa processing operations will be halted.

From January 2018, banks and building societies in Britain will carry out UK Visa status checks on more than 70 million current accounts. The controversial plans, announced by UK Prime Minister Theresa May, will target UK visa overstayers, failed asylum seekers and foreign national offenders facing deportation, by freezing their bank accounts.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has received the most US L1 visa approvals for intra company transfers in the last two years, according to recently published figures.

A new report claims that the UK tech sector won’t be as hard hit by access to overseas talent as originally feared, despite Brexit. The in-depth study, which analysed the makeup of Britain’s 1.7 million strong digital workforce, found that most overseas workers across the country’s tech sector are non-EU citizens, hired via the Tier 2 visa system by employers with Tier 2 Sponsorship Licences.

The Trump administration is escalating its scrutiny of applications made for US L1B visa extensions for specialized knowledge professionals, to the same level used to assess new applications. The move comes as part of wider efforts to affirm President Trump’s ‘Buy American, Hire American’ policy. The new scrutiny level for L1B visa extension applications comes into force immediately.

New research warns that up to 95 percent of UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), hiring non-EU migrants on Tier 2 Visas, run the risk of losing their Tier 5 or Tier 2 visa sponsorship licence and face closure by the Home Office. As Brexit looms, it’s understood that less than 25 percent of SME companies are aware of the serious sanctions they face for failing to comply with sponsor licence regulations.