Applicants for Australian visas will be able to put their medical data online, the first time this technology has been used anywhere in the World, Australia's Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) announced January 14.
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Canada's Immigration Minister Judy Sgro resigned January 13 after allegedly offering to help an asylum seeker stay in Canada, Reuters reports.
Ms. Sgro was forced to quit after Toronto pizza shop owner Harjit Singh said in a sworn statement to Canada's Federal Court that the minister had offered to help him stay in Canada if he delivered pizza and garlic bread to her campaign office and provided workers for her campaign. Mr. Singh, whose shop is near the minister's constituency said he did this, but that Ms. Sgro reneged on her commitments to him after the deal became publicly known.
The United States is to change procedures at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to improve the security and immigration process, according to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
New rules in Germany effective from January 1 will make entering andstaying in Germany easier for skilled migrants, while keeping tightrestrictions on unskilled immigration, the broadcaster Deutsche Welle(DE) reports
The European Commission is looking at a range of immigration reforms to deal with Europe's severe shortage of workers the Financial Times newspaper reports.
An ideas paper published by the European Commission on January 11 proposes measures ranging from fast-track immigration to deal with short-term labor shortages, to a longer-term solution for attracting workers similar to the American green card.
With over 111,000 people arriving and settling, 2003-2004 saw the highest number of migrants and refugees coming to Australia in ten years, according to Australia's Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA).