Immigration news

UK Immigration Minister Des Browne announced June 15 that the UK would soon revolutionize its immigration controls by rolling out hi-tech iris recognition systems to a number of key UK airports.

The state-of-the-art system will store and verify the iris patterns of specially selected groups of travelers, giving watertight confirmation of their identity when they arrive in the UK, according to a Home Office statement. This will substantially increase security as well as speed their process through immigration control.

Commencing 1 June 2004, Work Permits UK has placed a limit on the number of Sectors Based Scheme (SBS) work permits that can be issued to nationals of any one Country. This is to act as an interim measure before country-specific quotas on SBS work permits are introduced.

The IND has announced that Work Permits (UK) are currently unable to process Further Leave to Remain (IED - Immigration Employment Document) applications on an expedited basis.

If you are a client of ours and need your passports or other important documents to be returned to you urgently, while your leave to remain application is under consideration, then the application will have to be withdrawn in its entirety.

Furthermore, you will not be refunded the £121 fee if the application is withdrawn, according to the newly-published guidelines.

As of June 1, 2004, all categories of visa applications to Australia (permanent and temporary entry) from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must be lodged at the Australian Embassy in Berlin, Germany for assessment and not with the Australian Embassy in Warsaw, Poland.

The postal address for applications is:

Australian Embassy

Visa Services Section

Wallstrasse 76-79

10179 Berlin

Germany

On 20 May 2004, the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural (and Indigenous) Affairs placed the following Medical Practitioner occupations were added to the Skilled Occupations List (SOL):

The Home Office has announced today that applications made for further leave to remain immigration employment document applications are currently expected to take up to five (5) weeks to process.

If you would like your passport returned before the application has been considered, please note that the application will probably be considered withdrawn, as payment will not have been received. Usually Workpermits (UK) does not receive the application until the payment has been cleared, so if you require your passport back you will have to make a new application and re-submit payment.