UK Immigration News

From 1 July 2012, the UK Border Agency will offer two new fast track services for Bangladeshi UK visitor visa and Tier 2 visa applicants under the Business Express Programme. The Business Express Programme is for Bangladeshi companies invited by UK Trade and Investment and the UK Border Agency to be members of the programme.The fast track processing is an optional service for visa applicants, under which the UKBA will process visas and return documents within three working days in Dhaka and five working days in Sylhet.

Immigrants wishing to gain Citizenship in the UK may now be required to learn part of the National Anthem; one of many proposed changes to the Citizenship Test.In 2011, David Cameron announced that he was planning to overhaul the citizenship test and now it appears as though the government is moving ahead with the planned changes; the Citizenship Test, which is currently 45 minutes long, has faced criticism in the past – it has been suggested that immigrants were not properly tested on the culture and history of Britain.

Following recent changes in UK Tier 4 student visas and other UK visa changes, the British Council will host several seminars for visa applicants in India. The British Council is a non-governmental organisation that specialises in building cultural and educational relationships between the UK and other countries.

The UK's former prime minister, Tony Blair, said he still believes the UK did the right thing by letting in Polish immigrants when they did saying the immigrants did "good work in our country"; He also said that "most sensible people" appreciated the contribution they made to the UK.

Leader of the UK Labour Party, the official opposition Party, Ed Miliband, outlined the party's new immigration policies saying the new measures will prevent British people being "locked out" of jobs by foreign workers.Under the new proposed measures, overseas-only employment agencies would be banned and a system would be implemented to highlight areas where locals are "dominated" by an influx of foreign workers. Companies would also be forced to declare if they employ high numbers of immigrants.

The head of Syria's National Olympic Committee, General Mowaffak Joumaa, was refused a UK visa to travel to attend next month's Olympic Games in London.Joumaa is reportedly regarded as a close friend of Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, whose regime has been widely criticised for its violent crackdown on protesters.The decision was made at a meeting of officials from the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and is expected to be approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).