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A high court challenge is likely to cause problems for the UK's plans to implement a cap on immigration into the country.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and a number of businesses that depend on skilled immigration to deal with skill shortages have brought a judicial review of the government's temporary cap on immigration. The cap was imposed on 28 June 2010.
According to a new study by the Conference Board of Canada (CBC), immigrants can help boost innovation in Canada, which is currently lagging behind other developed nations.
"Immigrants tend to be motivated individuals willing to take risks in search of greater opportunities, which should predispose them to be innovative," said Diana MacKay, Director, Education and Health. "At every level we examined—individual, organizational, national and global—immigrants were associated with increased innovation in Canada."
US H-1Bs are still available. It looks as if not all visas will be used for the current fiscal year. There are currently about 14,000 visas left for the regular H-1B visa and about 5,000 visas left under the H-1B masters exemption. In past years all visas have been used up in a single day. You can also start work as soon as your visa is approved. In the past because of lack of availability of visas many people had to wait for many months before being able to start work.
There may be delays at immigration control at UK airports and ports during a two day strike by the PCS Union on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 October. The strike by a minority of UK Border Agency staff will affect UK border controls. The UK Border Agency says that the disruption should be minimal. However, UKBA also says that they will not know for sure how much disruption will be caused by the strike until the strike actually starts.
There have been proposals that in future may result in adult dependents of skilled workers under say the Tier 1 visa and Tier 2 visa scheme not being able to apply for indefinite leave to remain. In most cases dependents over the age of eighteen can apply for indefinite leave to remain at the same time as their parents.