The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry proposes the closing of 7 diplomatic missions abroad, Minister Nikolay Mladenov announced. For the very first time, Mladenov mentioned the names of the countries, in which the Bulgarian embassies will be proposed for closing to the Bulgarian Council of Ministers. They are: Sudan, Angola, Zimbabwe, Cambodia,…
Articles Posted in Global Immigration
Changes to the COA (certificate of approval) scheme – update on fee repayment for UK
From 31 July 2009, migrants who applied for a Certificate of Approval between 2005 and 2009 have been able to apply for their fee to be repaid. They were required to show that paying the fee caused them real financial hardship at the time of payment. The advertised repayment scheme…
U.K. May Relax Immigration Cap
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday his government would do everything possible to prevent a planned immigration cap from depriving U.K. companies of skilled workers from overseas. In a speech to the Confederation of British Industry on Monday, Mr. Cameron signaled the government was rethinking how the cap on…
New Changes brought by the Immigration Act 2009 of New Zealand
The Immigration Act 2009 comes into effect from 29 November 2010. Until then the Immigration Act 1987 applies. The key changes factsheet is a good place to start. It gives an overview of what’s happening, and gives an introduction to the other factsheets, which include: * New terminology and concepts…
Alternate Site Collection of Singapore Passport
Singaporeans who are successful in their application for a passport will have the option of collecting their passports from selected Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) outlets from October 15, 2010 onwards. Eligible passport applicants will be informed through the passport collection notification card or by email if they apply for a…
U.K. Nobel laureates protest UK immigration cap
UK is getting lot more protests from various quarters. In a rare intervention, eight British Nobel Laureates, including Russian-born Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov who share this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics, have warned that the Government’s plans to put an annual cap on immigration from outside the European Union…
UAE Work permits will be processed online soon
The UAE’s Ministry of Labor announced plans to use online filing system to speed up the application process for work permits across the country. In the existing system, a representative from the company must go to the ministry’s physical location to apply for a work permit, a process that unnecessarily…
Australian immigration and New Zealand agreement on border security
Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced recently a new agreement between Australia and New Zealand to improve identity checks and border security. Australia and New Zealand recently signed a memorandum of understanding [MoU] to share biometric data, an agreement that will further strengthen our nations’ border security. Biometrics is widely…
Recent changes to Canadian Citizenship Law and anti-fraud measures
Canadian Immigration Minister Kenney said that Canadian citizenship is more than a legal status, more than a passport. We expect citizens to have an ongoing commitment, connection and loyalty to Canada while introducing a new changes in Canadian Immigrant norms. The main motive behind these changes to prevent citizenship fraud.…
H1B Visas – How to make sure that your petition will be accepted for filing and not be counted against the cap?
Today is the first day that employers may file H1B petitions for FY 2011. We certainly released our cases on time yesterday, and are still open to new cases as long as the H1B cap will remain open. Under current law, an alien can be in H-1B status for a…