Immigration news

More than 60,000 Afghan interpreters and other Afghan nationals who have applied for a US visa – including those who cooperated with US Armed Forces -  have been left stranded in Afghanistan, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Following the withdrawal of US troops back in August, thousands of Afghan citizens have sought to flee Afghanistan.

 

Many fear reprisals from the Taliban who have taken reign of Afghanistan. Dozens of countries arranged flights to evacuate their citizens, diplomatic missions personnel, and associated Afghans out of the country, but tens of thousands have been left behind.

The Home Office has agreed to include ‘ornamentals’ on the UK seasonal worker visa list. However, the government department has refused to budge on the 30,000 temporary visas made available each year, saying that the number will not be increased. The news was announced at a recent Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) hearing.

 

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is planning a new visa and immigration fee structure that will prevent legal US citizenship being limited to the ‘very wealthy’, according to a report published by Newsweek. 

 

In a recent interview, USCIS director Ur Jaddou said: “Number one, we believe the US immigration system should not be reserved to the wealthy.”

Interest in the UK Tier 1 investor visa is slowly starting to rise following a slump at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. According to a report published by Wealth Briefing, figures suggest that ‘post-Brexit and geo-political shifts’ mean that more Tier 1 visa applications are being made by applicants from France, Switzerland and the US.

 

Amid a shortage of nurses in the battle against COVID-19, many foreign healthcare workers have been waiting for their US visas to be granted in order to start work. However, senior health officials in the US say that they have seen ‘progress’ in efforts made to streamline the US visa process to allow more overseas health workers into the country.   

However, despite the progress, officials argue that more still needs to be done to make the US visa application process quicker.

The UK has lifted visit visa suspensions imposed on several countries placed on Britain’s red list amid the rising spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. In November, the UK government released a list of countries placed on the red list for which visit visa suspensions applied.   

At the time of the suspension being enforced, UK health secretary, Sajid Javid, announced that Omicron now makes up 20% of all UK COVID cases.