Immigration newsletter 17 September 2010

UK Immigration is trying to reduce levels of overall immigration into the UK. Recently the UK Immigration Minister Damian Green has been expressing concerns about the number of students on student visas in the UK.

It seems quite likely that in future it will either become more difficult to come under the Tier 1 PSW visa or it will end altogether. This will mean that far fewer people on Tier 4 student visas will be able to stay in the UK in the longer term.

UK Immigration has announced that there will be further immigration fees increases. Some of the fee increases will occur in 1 October 2010 which covers UK visa fees that are “below cost”.   The majority of the increases if approved by Parliament will occur in November 2010.  These further fee increases are somewhat controversial coming on top of some large increases in fees on 6 April 2010.   If you are a national of a non-EU Country and you wish to visit, study, work or gain entry to the UK for some other reason it is likely that you will have to pay higher UK visa fees.

This is another attempt by the UK Government to raise funds.  You cannot justify these fee increases to simply cover the costs of dealing with immigration applications.  The fees are set considerably higher than the fees required to pay for the cost of processing immigration applications.  The Government has in fact said in the past that increased fees also help pay for other costs that they say are a result of immigration to the UK.   There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that especially during the boom years increased immigration was of enormous benefit to the UK and that helped to fuel the economic boom in the UK.

UK Immigration Minister Damian Green spoke recently at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London about immigration.  The Immigration Minister said that the Government wishes to “maximise” the benefits of immigration.  The contents of the immigration minister’s speech had already been widely reported in the news ahead of the actual speech.

The UK immigration minister went on to say that the UK has benefitted from immigration but 'will only continue to do so if it is properly controlled'. He also said:

'This means that the unsustainable levels of net migration seen in recent years must be brought down.'

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has said recently in Delhi, India that links between the two Countries should be strengthened further. The Immigration Minister had the following to say:

“The government has expanded and deepened the commercial, diplomatic and cultural ties between our two countries.”

“Our economies complement each other in so many ways. That’s reflected in our growing trade network in India, which is one of our most extensive anywhere in the world.”

The Immigration Minister also mentioned steps that Canada had taken to improve links with India.  Three new Canadian trade offices have opened in India since 2009. There are now a total of eight trade offices in India including one in Ahmedabad in Gujarat State.

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