Immigration news

The education levels of immigrants to the US are higher this decade than in the late 1990s, the newspaper USA Today reports.

According to US Census Bureau data released on February 21, of the 3.4 million immigrants aged 25 or older who arrived between 2000 and 2004, 30.7% did not complete high school, compared with 33.2% who did not complete high school out of the 3.5 million people who settled in the country from 1995 to 2000. Also, 34.3% of those who came to the US in the later period had college degrees compared with 32.5% percent in the earlier period.

Partners of Canadian citizens and permanent residents will now be able to stay in the country while their immigration applications are being considered, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Joe Volpe announced the new policy for most spouses and common-law partners of Canadians regardless of their status on February 18, and declared it would be effective immediately.

UK Universities may be suffering due to a higher rate of student visa refusals, the BBC reports.

According to the latest figures from the Universities and College Admissions Service (UCAS), the number of foreign students applying to British Universities has fallen significantly over the last year. To take one example there has been a drop of one quarter in the number of applications made from China. This follows an increase in the visa refusal rate for Chinese students from 26 percent in 2002-2003 to 31% in 2003-2004, the most recent year for which figures are available.

Immigration could help to solve the funding difficulties that America's strained social security system is likely to face in future, the website azcentral.com reports.

The UK's main opposition party the Conservative Party has promised it will introduce mandatory HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis testing for people entering the UK from outside the European Union if they win the General Election, United Press International reports.

There are no significant changes to waiting times for applicationsmade to Work Permits UK. Customers should allow for the followingperiods: