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India and Nigeria have reacted angrily to a UK plan to introduce £3,000 ‘security bonds’ for visitors from six ‘high risk countries’.  A pilot scheme will begin in November. ‘High risk’ visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana will be asked to pay £3,000 which will only be repaid if visitors leave the UK before their visas expire.  

Comprehensive immigration reform in the US came a step closer on 28th June when the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform act. The Act still needs to be passed by the House of Representatives to become law.  The Act would create a 'pathway to citizenship' allowing many of the US’s 11.5m illegal immigrants to become citizens.

Republican members of the US House of Representatives met on 10th July to discuss the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate last month. Many Representatives spoke against the bill. 

To become law, the bill must gain 60% support in the House, which is controlled by the Republicans. Republicans oppose the bill because of its central provision; the creation of 'a pathway to citizenship' for many of the 11.5m immigrants living in the US illegally.

As predicted by workpermit.com in June, Canada’s Quebec Immigrant Investor Program is to reopen on 1st August 2013. It will be open until 16th August and accept 1,750 applications. 

The Province of Quebec in Canada has announced that the Quebec Skilled Worker Program will be reformed from August 1st 2013. The new QSWP will accept only 20,000 applications from people without Quebec job offers each year.