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The Senate has approved legislation to allow countries whose citizens do not require visas to enter the United States to get an additional year to issue new tamperproof, biometric passports.
The bill also lets US ports of entry an extra year to install new software and equipment that are capable of reading entry and exit documents containing biometric features electronically.
As part of the major announcement by Home Secretary Blunkett on reforms to managed migration programmes in the UK yesterday, some positive measures were also introduced.
To take advantage of the skills of genuine foreign students to contribute to the UK economy, the Home Office announced that the Science and Engineering Graduate Scheme (SEGS) created earlier this year will finally be implemented in October 2004. The SEGS category will enable foreign nationals studying maths, science and engineering at a UK institution to work in the UK for twelve months following graduation.
The Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced stricter rules to stop temporary migrants in the UK switching into permanent employment to try to stop potential abuse of the system. These new rules are part of the UK government's reform of immigration in an attempt to tackle abuses of managed migration programmes.
The winners of the United States DV-2005 diversity lottery have already been notified by the Kentucky Consular Center. Approximately 100,000 people from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States have won the DV 2005 lottery and can now lodge an immigrant visa application. The U.S. Department of State estimates that about half the number of these winners will not pursue their cases and therefore the quota of 50,000 immigrant visas will be filled for fiscal year 2005.
The Home Office is likely to toughen up the Rules surrounding the UK Highly Skilled Migrant Programme to bring it back into line with its original objectives which were set out when the Scheme was first introduced back in January 2002.
The programme originally set out to target the top 10% of the global work force. Since the reduction of points from 75 to 65 in October 2003, HSMP applications have more than doubled.
The Home Office has announced that Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) visas are currently taking approximately four months at this time, until further notice.
Applications received by 15 March are currently being processed.
If you have a job offer, your application may be processed on an urgent basis but only if you have been waiting for at least six weeks. Requests for urgent treatment for reasons other than employment will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.
Please also see our article on Further Leave to Remain (FLR) applications.