Immigration news

Ahead of the new academic year in September, the UK Home Office has reopened visa priority services for international students. Amid ongoing delays processing UK visas, priority services enable international students to pay extra for a quicker decision on their UK student visa application. 

 

According to an analysis of US visa data by The Wall Street Journal, fewer US student visas are being issued to Chinese nationals. The WSJ claims that the US has granted 50% fewer visas to new Chinese students in the first six months of 2022 than before the COVID-19 pandemic. From January to June 2022, the US issued 31,055 student visas to Chinese nationals.

 

UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has signed a landmark UK immigration deal with Pakistan to return foreign criminals and immigration offenders. The agreement is the fifth such deal struck by the UK in 15 months, which the Home Office says, ‘delivers the government’s New Plan for Immigration for the British public’. 

 

Patel recently met with Pakistan’s Interior Secretary, Yousaf Naseem Khokhar and the Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK, Moazzam Ahmad Khan, to sign the reciprocal agreement.

Washington DC-based thinktank, the Cato Institute, claims that US visa processing delays have hit their worst point since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. An analysis of the latest US State Department data shows that wait times for US student visa interviews are averaging 49 days as of July 2022 – five times longer than average wait times pre-pandemic.

 

The new UK scale-up visa officially launches today. Aimed at foreign nationals who have been recruited by a UK sponsor, the scale-up visa has been created to attract talent from around the world to work in fast-growing businesses. With competition to attract top people from around the world growing more fierce, the UK is moving to win the race for talent.

 

The Home Office has extended the British National (Overseas) (BNO) visa route to include young Hong Kongers with one parent holding a BNO passport. Following the handover of Hong Kong to China, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that Hong Kongers born after 1997 who are over 18 and with at least one parent holding BNO status will be able to get a UK visa to live, work and study in Britain.