Europe Immigration News

The Italian Government is yet to approve the regional workpermit quotas for the year 2002, which are normally approved in the beginning ofthe year. This means that for the time being employers can obtain Italianwork permits only under very limited circumstances. If you wish to employhighly skilled employees who are being transferred to the Italian branch of thesame company this may still be possible.

The German Green Card scheme launched on 1st August 2000 has after a slow start turned into a great success. The 10,000th Green Card was issued in October 2001 meaning that half of the total allocation of 20,000 Green Cards have now been issued.

The scheme has attracted IT professionals from all over the globe. The country attracting the largest number of Green Card applicants (21%) was India, with applicants from the former Soviet Union representing many of the rest.

Germany’s interior minister, Otto Schily, today announced an overhaul of the German immigration regulations.

Designed to relax the rules for immigration for skilled staff, especially those in the IT and telecomms industries, and tighten regulations for unskilled workers, it also proposes to introduce tougher measures for asylum seekers and those under deportation orders.

1st August 2001 marks the first anniversary of the GermanGreen Card initiative. The programme, launched by Federal ChancellorSchroder, was designed to streamline and speed up the process of bringing innon-EEA nationals to work as ITech professionals in Germany, and thus help tomake up the shortfall of workers in this sector.

The German government have taken this anniversary as a chanceto reflect on the interim results of the special programme, and to remark on itssuccess.