Immigration news

Amid the collapse of the Tory government, and news that UK Prime Minister Boris is set to resign after several high profile cabinet members quit, Home Secretary Priti Patel has agreed a new UK immigration deal with Nigeria. The agreement is aimed at cracking down on illegal migration and speeding up the removal of foreign criminals.

 

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is under pressure to issue 280,000 employment-based visas before the end of the fiscal year. A record surplus of green cards available this year means that immigration officials face a race against time to issue all available green cards.

 

Nationals of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will be exempt from UK visa requirements to visit Britain from 2023, the UK government has announced. Under the UK’s new Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme set to launch next year, citizens of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will no longer need to apply for a UK visa.

 

According to Mexico’s Interior Minister, Adan Augusto Lopez, the Biden administration is set to offer up to 300,000 US work visas to Mexicans and Central Americans. Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is due to visit Washington in July, and Lopez claims the US visa offer will be proposed.

 

During a speech while visiting the Mexican border town of Tijuana, where he met a group of business leaders, Lopez said: “Every day we’re talking with the American government.” 

Pilots of migrant boats crossing the Channel face life sentences under tough new UK immigration laws – previously, people smugglers could be sentenced to 14 years in prison. Meanwhile, anyone caught entering the UK illegally risks up to four years in prison under the new legislation. 

 

The strict new measures recently came into force as part of the Nationality and Borders Act.

The US has hit 511 Russian military officers operating in Zaporizhzhia and Mariupol with US visa sanctions, while also sanctioning the Mayor of Melitopol and the Federal Security Service, the US Department of State (DoS) has confirmed.