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In August 2018 President Trump signed the Knowledgeable Innovators and Worthy Investors KIWI Act. After the best part of a year, finally on Monday 10 June 2019 in a couple of days time, it will be implemented. This will allow New Zealand nationals to apply under the US E2 visa and E1 visa scheme. The New Zealand owned business (usually at least fifty percent ownership) first needs to be registered under the E2 visa or E1 visa scheme.
It seems that almost all US visa applicants will now have to provide account names of their social media accounts over the last five years.
Recently there have been concerns about the consequences of a no-deal Brexit on UK visa policy - Following a report from the Migration Advisory Committee it may become easier to bring in skilled workers on a Tier 2 visa - What will happen if Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister? Will it make much difference? - Is it actually possible to obtain an UK
Donald Trump and his views and actions on US visas are regularly in the news. It is difficult for US Presidents to make changes to the US immigration system. So actually the law has not changed that much.
However, in practice it is more difficult to obtain US visas under Trump. A recent development is that it seems that almost everyone applying for an US visa will now have to provide their social media details.
It is not certain exactly when changes to the Shortage Occupation List will occur. We think it is likely that UK Visa and Immigration will make changes. However, there is also some political pressure to maintain tough immigration controls. The anti-immigration Brexit Party did very well in the recent European Elections.
It was already very difficult to obtain US visas under Obama. Under Trump it is more difficult still. The refusal rate has increased substantially. It is inevitable in industrialised advanced Countries that there will be skills shortages. The great difficulties in obtaining US visas causes many problems and makes skills shortages even worse.