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You should note that many UK visa application fees will change from this Tuesday 6 April 2010. Therefore, it is important for you to make sure that you are paying the correct fee when making an UK visa application. As mentioned in a previous news report some visa fees for dependent applications will double or triple in price.
The UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said recently that the UK immigration system is now based on a "controlled and fair" points-based system. Home Secretary Alan Johnson was also present during the speech delivered in Shoreditch, East London.
From Tuesday 6 April 2010 you can use the new UKBA super premium service for certain types of visa applications. For a fee of GBP15,000 an UKBA officer will visit you at a location of your choice to process your visa application in the UK. You will then provide your biometric information which consists of your fingerprints and photograph. This is probably the highest fee ever charged by UK immigration for one of their services.
UK Immigration has announced that following a visa waiver test for seven Countries in the Eastern Caribbean there may in future be a visit visa requirement for nationals of Dominica and St Lucia.
There are likely to be changes to the shortage occupation list for Tier 2 Visas following recommendations by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) in their latest report. This is following MAC's third partial review of the shortage occupation lists for the UK in general and for Scotland:
This is a reminder that the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will start accepting H-1B visa applications again from 1 April 2010 for the Fiscal Year 2011 (FY2011) quota.