Newsletter archive

The United States will not accept any more H-1B visa petitions for this year. 65,000 H-1B visas were available for the 2008 fiscal year. 150,000 petitions were submitted on Monday April 2nd. H-1B visas will be awarded from randomly selected petitions received on Monday and Tuesday this week.

Anyone wishing to live permanently in the United Kingdom now needs to take the new version of the Life in the UK Test. The updated test became mandatory on Monday, April 2nd for persons applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain and for naturalization.

Last week Eurostat, the European Unions statistics authority, released a report showing the lowest unemployment rate since records began for the 13 countries using the euro. A 0.5% fall in unemployment in Germany, the eurozone's biggest economy, accounted for most of the change; France is also at a 24 year low. 

Inflation is currently at 1.9%, which is at the current EU target of just under 2%. Interest rates were raised by a quarter percentage point to 3.75% this month to try to keep inflation down. Interest are expected to go up again, perhaps as soon as in June.

We would like to remind our readers that there has been a major revision to the schedule of fees for most United Kingdom immigration-related services. The current, detailed schedule, effective from April 2nd, has been posted on our website.

The United Kingdom's Immigration Minister, Liam Byrne, has announced a firm timetable for the introduction of the new five-tiered immigration system for Britain.  The UK will use a points-based system for all immigration into the country by 2010.  The current 80 plus routes for immigration into the UK will be reduced.