Australia and New Zealand Immigration News

Business travel to Vietnam is about to become easier following a recent announcement that Vietnam will shortly join sixteen other participating Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economies in the APEC Business Travel Card program.

Vietnam expects to commence its APEC Business Travel Card operation early in 2006.

The APEC Card is credit-card size, contains personal identity details, substitutes for a visa, and is valid for up to three years for multiple short-term business visits.

Foreign investors wanting to live in New Zealand will have to hand over more than $2 million to the Government under new rules announced 15 June. In other changes to the category, applicants would have to be younger than 54 and have at least five years' business experience.

Australian Immigration officials picked up 20,000 people who had overstayed their visas or breached their visa conditions in 2003-04, new figures reveal.

The figures were part of a report released by Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone, who said compliance officers had located 20,000 people who overstayed, worked illegally or otherwise abused the terms of their entry.

New Zealand's unemployment rate could rise as much as 0.5 percentage points in the next couple of years due to an expected decrease in new immigrants, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The New Zealand Immigration Service is worsening the country's IT skills shortage by refusing to acknowledge industry qualifications, according to the Information Technology Association. Jim O'Neill, the association's executive director, says he gets "two to three people a day inquiring from all over the world" having difficulty immigrating because their industry qualifications aren't recognised.

He says many skilled IT workers face significant difficulties gaining enough points to qualify for the skilled migrant pool.

Although the New Zealand government denies claims that Iraqi citizens are being denied re-entry visas, it does warn that processing is taking longer. The government says that anyone holding New Zealand residency should apply early for re-entry visas, as immigration procedures are tightened.Iraqi New Zealanders claim they are being refused re-entry visas, as a result of Winston Peters naming people in Parliament that he claims were supporters of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.