UK Immigration News

The UK's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has released a lengthy report about the impacts of low-skilled immigration into the UK.

The report has found that, overall, the UK's liberal immigration policy has 'served us well' but says that more resources should be put in place to ensure that the system is not abused.

The Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI) has reported that some applicants for UK visas in Russia have had to endure extremely long processing times for visas since Teleperformance Ltd, a new private sector partner, took over visa processing in March.

By Alex Owen

Nigel Farage, the leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) which won the greatest number of votes in the European Parliament election in the UK in May, has said that UKIP favours a points-based immigration system for the UK, similar to that of Australia.

On 8th July, Mr Farage told the London talk radio station LBC Radio 'The Aussies have a points system and they say to come to Australia you must be under 45 years of age, you must have a skill or a trade that will bring a benefit to our country'.

The UK's immigration minister James Brokenshire has published an announcement of changes to the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa. He released the document on 10th July 2014. The changes came into force on 11th July.

Mr Brokenshire said that the Home Office had uncovered evidence that the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa stream had been targeted by fraudsters, particularly since the closure of the Tier 1 (Post Study Work) visa was closed in 2012.

Following recent revelations about serious flaws in the Tier 4 (student) immigration system a former civil servant in the UK's Home Office has also questioned the reliability of the UK's immigration statistics.

On Tuesday 24th June, the UK's immigration minister, James Brokenshire, delivered a statement to the House of Commons about abuse of the system for testing the English of applicants for Tier 4 student visas.

UK immigration staff are expected to strike on July 10th. They will join members of several other trades unions in the public sector in staging a day of action.

On 1st July, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), which represents immigration service staff and other civil servants, announced that it will ask its members to join the strike which will involve teachers, civil servants and local government workers.