UK Immigration News

The UK's Home Office has warned that there is likely to be disruption to the UK's immigration system at some point between 16th and 19th April 2013. The disruption will be caused by industrial action taken by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU).

The PCSU says that it has asked its members who work in the Home Office, which has responsibility for immigration matters as well as policing and security, to strike in a series of strikes between 16th and 19th April 2013. The strikes will be held on the following dates

The UK's Home Office has issued a new Tier 4 sponsorship licence to London Metropolitan University (LMU). The Home Office made the announcement on 9th April 2013 and said the licence would be effective immediately. LMU's previous Tier 4 sponsorship licence was revoked on 29th August 2012.

A Tier 4 sponsorship licence allows a UK educational institution to sponsor potential students from outside the European Economic Area to apply for a UK Tier 4 student visa. You cannot obtain a Tier 4 visa unless you are sponsored by a licenced UK educational establishment.

As workpermit.com predicted, demand for H-1B visas this year has been extremely strong. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received 124,000 applications for H-1B visas by 5th April 2013.

Every fiscal year, USCIS issues 65,000 H-1B visas to foreign graduates enabling them to travel to the US to work in a 'specialty occupation'. It also issues a further 20,000 H-1Bs to foreign graduates with advanced degrees such as master's degrees.

The European Commissioner for Employment has strongly criticised UK Prime Minister David Cameron. On 25th March, Mr Cameron made a speech in which he stated that his government would prevent people who come to the UK from the European Union (and the European Economic Area) from claiming benefits, from being housed in social housing and from using the National Health Service until they have lived and worked in the UK for a considerable period.

A senior UK MP has warned the leaders of the main UK political parties against getting involved in an 'arms race' in immigration policy. Keith Vaz MP, the chairman of the influential Home Affairs Committee, has said that the leaders should, instead cooperate to face 'one of the most challenging issues our nation faces'.

Mr Vaz expressed his views in the pages of the Sunday Express, a British newspaper which runs stories and comment pieces weekly about the perils of immigration.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has said that it is 'no wonder' that young Britons are being outcompeted for jobs by immigrants who come to the UK from eastern Europe. Mr Johnson says that eastern Europeans are better educated than Britons and more industrious.

Mr Johnson said that it was 'economically illiterate' to blame the immigrants for getting jobs or for 'getting up early and working hard and being polite and helpful'.