Immigration news

From today, 8 September 2004, individuals who intend to apply for migration to Australia under the Skilled Australian Sponsored visa category (subclass 136) will have to nominate an occupation on a special Skills Shortage List (SSL) IF their relative who is sponsoring resides in and around the Sydney area.

If your relative lives in a region defined as "Sydney and Selected Areas" then your nominated occupation must be on this special list [link to list - parsutisu driz]. "Sydney and Selected Areas" comprise the followed areas as defined by these post codes:

The Home Office has announced that fees for work permit and other leave to remain applications will be increased beginning April 2005 in order to save UK taxpayers approximately £100 million in 2005-06.

Information about cases currently under consideration by the UK Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate as of September 6th, 2004.

Category:Leave to Remain applications sent to ATOS Cannock before 15 July 2004The IND is currently working on cases received 27 May 2004Leave to Remain applications sent to ATOS Cannock after 15 July 2004The IND is currently working on cases received 28 July 2004Work Permit Applications, the IND is working on cases received 3 September2004 Highly Skilled Migrant Program, the IND is working on cases received 13 April 2004.

For the first time since the new skilled migrant programme was launched in December 2003, the New Zealand Immigration Service has lowered the pass mark to 100 points. This means that people who score at least 100 points under the points test [link] and have lodged an Expression of Interest will be selected from the pool and invited to make a formal application for migration to New Zealand.

The British Embassies in Bucharest, Romania and Sofia, Bulgaria have announced that visa applications under the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) will resume from 1 September 2004.

Following new procedures that resulted from the Sutton enquiry conducted after the ECAA visa scandal earlier this year, now all applicants will be asked to attend an interview at the relevant British Embassy, by appointment only.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it had received 40,000 H-1B applications toward the FY2005 cap as of 4 August 2004. Approximately 21,000 applications have been approved and 19,000 are currently being processed. If this trend continues, it is likely that H-1B cap of 65,000 for fiscal year 2005 will be filled near the end of fiscal year 2004 on 1 October. It is unlikely that the US Government will increase this cap especially during the current election season.

The US fiscal year for visa purposes fruns from 1 October to 30 September every year.