Immigration news

We at workpermit.com would like to extend our condolences to those who have lost family members, relatives and loved ones in the South East Asia earthquake.

There are still many thousands of people missing and the death toll is likely to reach more than 100,000. Many of the areas affected by the tsunami waves have been totally devastated with millions of people short of food and basic necessities.

If you wish to make a donation to help survivors in the regions affected by the earthquake, please go to one of the links below.

Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Dec. 27 that New Zealand isextending visa-free arrangements to six new European Union memberstates, whose citizens have until now required tourist visas to visitNew Zealand. The waiver of tourist visa requirements willapply to travelers from Poland, Cyprus, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia,and Estonia, as of 1 April 2005.

The lists that contain the occupations where there are immediate andlong-term shortages of skilled workers were released today by theDepartment of Labor (Workforce). The Long Term Skill Shortage List(formerly the Priority Occupations List (POL)) and the Immediate SkillShortage List (formerly the Occupational Shortages List (OSL)) are theresult of consultation with Government agencies, industry trainingorganizations (ITOs) and unions.

U.S. President George W. Bush told a press conference recently thatthe immigration system is not working and that he would push for atemporary guest worker program during his second term.

TheU.S. mainly has problems with its border to Mexico. There are severalcases every year with people being smuggled into the U.S. in trunks ofcars, sometimes suffocating.

Bush told the pressconference his plan, which failed to pass through Congress last yearJanuary, to grant some of the estimated eight million to 10 millionillegal immigrants work visas for at least six years would takepressure of the porous U.S. – Mexican border.

Processing times for work permits have not changed much over the last month. A work permit application in the UK takes up to 5 working days.

Applicants under the Highly Skilled Migrant Program (HSMP) can expect to wait the longest, maybe even as long as 26 weeks.

If you are in the UK already on a work permit or under HSMP, you will probably also have to submit a Leave to Remain application which could take up to 13 more weeks to process.

Following pressure from the UK Department of Health it is now easierto employ all salaried General Dental Practitioners, Salaried AssistantDentists and Vocational Dental Practitioners in the healthcare sectorunder the work permit scheme. There is no longer a requirement thatemployers advertise nationally to show a shortage of suitably qualifiedpeople to obtain a work permit as these occupations now meet theShortage Occupation Tier One criteria.