Immigration newsletter 20 Nov 2012

We can help with UK Tier 2 Sponsorship Licenses. In order to sponsor applicants, an employer will need to have registered with the UK Border Agency as a Licensed Sponsor. If you are interested in applying for a Tier 2 Sponsorship License, please contact our workpermit.com London Office on 0344 991 9222.

Australia is currently undergoing its largest immigration drive in 40 years. The country is seeking skilled workers in many different fields. It plans to grant residency to 190,000 skilled migrants and members of their families in 2012-2013.

If you are highly skilled and believe that you have the required level of expertise and wish to emigrate to Australia please send your detailed CV/Resume toOzvisa@workpermit.com

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) is currently holding a consultation on whether to recommend raising the maximum age limit for skilled migrants who can apply for visas. The current age limit for applicants for skilled migrants under the SkillSelect scheme, formerly known as the General Skilled Migrant program, is 50 years. Fears have been raised that the current age restriction may be illegal because it clashes with Australia's Age Discrimination Act. However, there are also fears that, if Australia were to raise the age threshold, then older migrants would contribute less to Australia. They would be in work for less time before they retire and then become a burden on the Australian state.

Canada's immigration minister Jason Kenney announced further changes to Canadian immigration policy on 2nd November 2012. Mr Kenney said that the Canadian immigration system would be transformed by the end of 2013. 

His headline announcement was that, by the end of 2013, the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) backlog would be eliminated well ahead of schedule. Mr Kenney had previously announced that the backlog would be cleared by the end of 2017.

Thereafter, Federal Skilled Worker Program applications will be considered as they are received and should be processed in under a year. 55,300 people will be admitted under the FSWP in 2013, a slight reduction on the 2012 figure. At the same time, the Canadian Experience Class will be expanded to include 10,000 people, compared to only 6,000 in 2012. The overall immigration figure will remain unchanged at around 260,000.

President Obama has said that there is 'a window' of opportunity when the US can achieve comprehensive immigration reform. At his first press conference after the election he said 'My expectation is that we get a bill introduced and we begin the process in Congress very soon after my inauguration.' He said that his administration was considering the best way of going about it and said that he was 'very confident' that he would succeed. The President's inauguration will take place on 21st January 2013. At this ceremony, he will swear an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

President Obama promised to reform immigration in the 2008 presidential campaign too. He failed to do so. He has since said that this is because the global financial crisis engulfed the US economy and he spent all his time dealing with that.

A report prepared at a leading UK university addresses 'key questions surrounding migration and population growth in the UK'. The Report, Britain's '70 million' debate, has been prepared in the wake of a call to take 'all reasonable steps' to limit the UK's population to 70 million.

The Migration Observatory, which is part of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford, prepared the report to inform policy makers and to encourage a wider debate in the UK about immigration policy.

In September, Migrationwatch UK, a UK think tank opposed to mass migration, sponsored a debate in the House of Commons on a proposal that the government should 'take all reasonable steps to reduce immigration to stabilize the UK's population as close to present levels as possible' and certainly below 70 million. MPs voted in favour of the motion though the government later said that it did not intend to set a target figure for the UK's population.