Immigration newsletter 28 Jan 2010

The Minister of State for Borders and Immigration, Phil Woolas, has put forward regulations in Parliament for the fees for immigration and nationality services. 
The fees for many services are higher than the normal administrative cost for the services.

In most cases the fees have not changed that much. The increase has been kept at less than ten percent. In some cases GBP50 per person is allocated to the Migration Impacts Fund to help communities affected by immigration.

It is interesting to note that for some dependent relative applications the fee has doubled or tripled in price. The Government feels that higher fees are justified to pay for the higher social and health care costs to look after elderly relatives.

On 26 January 2010 almost 16 500 people from 144 countries became Australian citizens as Australia celebrated it's national day: 
 

• More than 350 citizenship ceremonies were held across Australia.
• There was a mega-ceremony in Wanneroo, Western Australia where about 2600 people became Australian citizens which was the largest citizenship ceremony in Australian history.
• In Sydney Prime Minister Kevin Rudd conferred citizenship on 77 people from 23 countries.

There will be further changes to the UK Border Agency's sponsorship management system from Monday 22 February 2010. The sponsorship management system is an IT system that allows licensed sponsors to bring in overseas workers and students into the UK

Following consultation with sponsors and feedback from key stakeholders the following changes have been made:

Tier 2 sponsors:
An A-rated sponsor will be able to confirm that they will support an overseas worker; For the purposes of the application this is confirmation that the overseas worker will not claim public funds;

It should be noted that from 22 February 2010 those applying for UK student visas by post at an UK Public Enquiry Office under Tier 4 of the points based system will require a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) from their prospective sponsor.

From 22 February 2010 it will no longer be possible to use a visa letter to apply under the UK Tier 4 visa. You must have a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) from the prospective sponsor. This is the case even if the visa letter was issued before 22 February 2010.