Immigration newsletter 30 Jul 2014

Do you have a professional level contract in the UK paying at least £180 per day? If so, we can help you find a sponsor and obtain a UK Tier 2 (General) skilled worker visa. It is easier to switch if you already have a Tier 1 PSW visa or Tier 4 student visa or Tier 2 Visa. The UK Tier 1 Entrepreneur scheme may also be an option. Why not contact the London office for further details.

UK Immigration Solicitor needed - Call the UK office on 0344 991 9222

UK immigration wasted £350m on useless IT system says report

The UK’s immigration authorities have wasted £350m on an IT system designed to manage immigration and asylum applications, according to a recent report.

The Immigration Case Work system was never fully operational and did not interact with other government IT networks. It was abandoned last August. The government has since commissioned an alternative system which will cost a further £200m+ by 2017.

Gates and Buffett call for US immigration reform

Two of the most famous and richest businessmen in the world, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, have called on the US Congress to pass an immigration reform bill. The two men have written a New York Times article in which they call on Republican members of Congress to 'break the immigration impasse'.

Gates and Buffett, two of the world’s richest men, said that the US people were being ‘short-changed’ by Congress’s failure to pass immigration reform.

Gates and Buffett want Congress to allow foreign born graduates of US universities to apply for permanent residence visas and to allow illegal residents in the US to legalise their status.

EU population growth driven by immigration

Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, reports that the population of the Union grew by 1.7m in 2013 to 507.4m. Much of this growth was due to immigration.

Natural population growth, caused by a greater birth rate than death rate only increased the population by 76,000 over the year whereas immigration increased the population by 653,000, nearly ten times as much.

The rest of the rise was due to the Italian government revising its estimate of Italy’s population upwards by 1 million.

Australia Immigration Opportunities

Australia has some of the best skilled immigration programs in the World. We can ensure that your Australian visa applications are dealt with competently and efficiently so maximising your chances of success. We can help with Skilled Independent and State sponsored visas and a number of other Australian visa categories.

Immigration Report: UK workers not displaced by immigrants

The UK's Migration Advisory Committee has issued a report which says that the UK's liberal immigration policy has been good for the UK’s economy. But it has found that immigration does cause some problems.

MAC recommends that more effort should be made to ensure that employers do not pay foreign workers wages less than the UK's national minimum wage.

MAC also says that the government should help local authorities in areas of high immigration by increasing funding for amenities such as schools, hospitals and housing.

UK immigration: 175,000 migrants still missing after eight years

A report by the UK’s National Audit Office says that, eight years after a backlog of 450,000 ‘lost’ immigration files was discovered, UK immigration still does not know the whereabouts of 175,000 people who have been refused the right to remain in the UK.

The report says that, in March 2014, UK immigration had 301,000 open immigration and asylum cases. Of these, 85,000 were ‘normal work in progress’ and the rest, 216,000 cases, were made up of backlogs, on hold cases and other outstanding work.

UK immigration is processing around 3,500 cases per week but new cases are being opened at a similar rate.

Cleaner of UK's ex-immigration minister arrested as illegal immigrant

On 18th July, the former cleaner of the UK’s former immigration minister was arrested and detained as an illegal immigrant. Isabella Acevado, a Colombian, was arrested in London at her daughter’s wedding.

In February this year, Mark Harper resigned as immigration minister after discovering that he had been employing Mrs Acevado, an illegal immigrant, as his cleaner for seven years.

After being arrested Mrs Acevado was held at the Yarl’s Wood immigrant detention centre.