UK Immigration News

UK immigration officers busted a 'sham' marriage ceremony last week, after receiving a tip-off that the bride and groom were not a genuine couple.

Five people were arrested in total, including the bride a 27-year-old Hungarian national, and the Pakistani groom, 33. Three wedding guests were also arrested at the wedding ceremony which was taking place at Hull Registry Office. It is reported that a large sum of cash was also seized.

The British and Irish governments have announced a new joint short-stay visa, which will allow visitors from outside the EU to visit both the UK and Republic of Ireland on a single travel visa.

At the moment the scheme only applies to visitors from China and India, but will hopefully be rolled out to all non-EU countries by the end of 2015.

The agreement was approved by UK Home Secretary Theresa May, and Irish Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, who proclaimed it as a 'landmark scheme.'

A UK politician was criticised last week for commenting that people with HIV should be banned from migrating to the UK.

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) praised some aspects of Australia's immigration system, and suggested that some of their policies should be adopted in the UK.

A new immigration check of prospective tenants in the UK is being trialled in the West Midlands, and if successful will be rolled out across the rest of Britain.

From 1st December, landlords under the pilot scheme will be required to check the legal immigration status of potential new tenants, before renting out property. This is to ensure that tenants are legally in the UK.

If landlords fail to undertake these checks then they could end up with a fine of up to £3000 fine, as laid out in new changes to the Immigration Act.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Leader of the Conservative Party says he wants to to restrict immigration from the EU. However, there is uncertainty on how this could be done. Free movement of Labour is an important principle of the EU.

The proposed changes are a reaction to the UKIP victory in a recent by-election, where Douglas Carswell, a former Conservative MP, became the first UKIP MP elected to Parliament. The Conservative Party now worries that more voters could swing to UKIP in the upcoming general election, which will be held in May 2015.

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) has called for separate immigration queues for UK citizens at airports and border control points. The announcement was made by Steven Wolfe at the UKIP conference last month.

Under the current system there are two separate queues, one for EU and EEA citizens (including British citizens), and one for the rest of the world. However UKIP would change this so that EU and EEA citizens would have to join the 'rest of the world' queue, and UK citizens would have priority entry.