Right-wing think tank calls for sale of UK visas to highest bidders

A group of right-wing Conservative MPs has issued a report which suggests that the UK government should raise money and diversify its economy away from its dependence on the European Union by selling visas to rich individuals and international companies.


The Free Enterprise Group is a recently formed group of 43 Conservative MPs. Its website says that 'Conservatives need to recast the argument about free enterprise for a new age or risk losing the debate to a tide of anti-market socialisation'.


The report, The Innovation Economy – Industrial Policy for the 21st Century, was written by George Freeman MP and Kwasi Kwarteng MP. Mr Kwarteng is the old Etonian son of Ghanaian parents who immigrated to the UK in the 1960s as students.


The report's premise is that the UK's economy has become increasingly 'unbalanced' in recent years because it is 'overly dependent on the City and cheap credit, unsustainable rises in public sector spending and trading with the sclerotic Eurozone'.


The report suggests three measures to help the UK economy prosper through innovation. It suggests

• Unleashing private sector enterprise
• Unlocking the economic value of the public sector and
• Diversifying trade away from the EU to the global economy

Three policies to jumpstart the UK economy

The report suggests three policies what will help to diversify the UK's trade away from the EU. These are

• Lowering corporation tax to 10%
• Developing new partnerships with emerging markets and
The introduction of 'market based immigration visas'

Kwarteng and Freeman note that the current UK government is committed to reducing UK immigration but say that 'highly skilled immigration is crucial for growth and business'.


They argue that 'selling visas to companies or individuals would be less bureaucratic than today's system, allow the government to control the flow through price changes and ensure that workers would only come if they added significant value to the economy'.


Freeman and Kwarteng have not given any details as to how their market-based system would work in practice but it is clear that they believe that less regulation will always produce better results. Mr Freeman told UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph 'We need to do more to unleash an entrepreneurial ethos both in the public and private sector. This requires bold new thinking like a pro-enterprise immigration policy and a new deal for business.'


Global Visa Support offer a variety of programs in United Kingdom. Please visit our UK page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/uk.html

Australian immigration minister introduces legislation to help win The Ashes

Australia has a new cricketing hero; Australian immigration minister Brendan O'Connor. The Australian team needed help and Mr O'Connor has leapt to the rescue. He will not, sadly, be playing himself but he is responsible for a new law being rushed through the Australian parliament that will allow a Pakistani-born refugee called Fawad Ahmed to play for the Australian national team a month sooner than is currently the case.


Australia's cricket team recently arrived in England to compete in the Champions' Trophy; a One Day International tournament contested by the eight best teams in the world; India, South Africa, Australia, England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand.


After the Champions' Trophy, the Australians will stay in England to play the England team in a series of five five-day test matches to decide the latest contest in one of the longest-lasting and most intense rivalries in world cricket; 'The Ashes'.

The Ashes of English cricket

The name The Ashes was coined in 1882 after Australia first beat England at cricket. An English sporting paper, The Sporting Times, published an obituary of English cricket saying that English cricket was dead. It said 'the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia'. The English media dubbed the next tour to Australia later that year as 'the quest to regain the Ashes'. This summer the 67th Ashes series will be held in England. So far, Australia has won 31 series, England has won 30 and five have been drawn.


For many years, Australia was dominant in the Ashes. They won eight series in a row between 1989 and 2005. However, since then, they have won only one of the four series played. This summer, the bookmakers say that they are going to lose again.


The pundits say that England's test team is superior to the Australians in every area of the game. England has five batsmen ranked in the top 30 test players in the world while Australia has only one. England has four bowlers in the top twenty whereas Australia has only two.

Australians need a spinner

Nowhere is the English superiority more pronounced than in the field of spin bowling. Graham Swann, England's top spin bowler is rated by the International Cricket Conference (ICC) as the 6th best bowler in the world. Australia's current best, Nathan Lyon, does not even make the top 50. In fact, he is rated number 560 in the world.


But thanks to Mr O'Connor, the Australians may have a saviour in the shape of Fawad. He is a refugee from Pakistan and a talented cricketer. He played ten first class matches in Pakistan and first visited Australia in 2010 on a short stay visa to play cricket. When he arrived, he immediately applied for asylum claiming that he had been threatened by fundamentalists after working with an NGO educating women near the border with Afghanistan.


His initial application for asylum was refused as groundless but, after strong lobbying from Cricket Australia, the then immigration minister overruled the initial decision.

Fawad only currently eligible for last test match

Fawad has since applied for Australian citizenship and would, under normal circumstances, have become eligible to play for Australia on 18th August 2013. Unfortunately for the Australians, that would leave Fawad eligible to play only in the final match of the series, by when, if the bookmakers are right, Australia will have lost the series. The first test match of the Ashes series begins on 10th July 2013.


Now thanks to their new sporting hero, Brendan O'Connor, Fawad may be on the pitch for that game. Mr O'Connor has introduced a bill in the Australian parliament that will allow him to rush Australian citizenship applications through in certain circumstances.


Mr O'Connor has said that the circumstances he has in mind include 'international cricket competitions'. If the bill becomes law, Fawad's citizenship application could be rushed through by July 10th and allow him to play for Australia in the entire series.

Warne supports Fawad's inclusion

The move is controversial but has been approved by former Australian spin bowler Shane Warne who told the BBC that Fawad deserved to be in the Australian team.


If he is picked, Fawad will not be the only Pakistani-born player in the Australian squad; batsman Usman Khawaja first played for Australia in 2010. He emigrated with his parents from Pakistan to Australia when he was a child. That the Australian cricket team should include two Muslims from Pakistan illustrates the fact that international migration is changing the world.


Thanks to Mr O'Connor, that time will probably arrive forty days and four test matches sooner than expected.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in Australia. Please visit our Australian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/australia.html

Latest figures show UK immigration missing visa processing targets

The latest figures released by the UK government show that the UK immigration authorities managed to process only 51% of employment based UK visas within their Service Standard period (four weeks for postal applications) in the year 2012-13.


They were only able to process 25% of student visa applications within the service standard. Their service standard target was to deal with 65% of employment visas and 85% of student visas within the service standard period of four weeks.


The figures show that this performance was markedly worse than in the year 2011-12 when UK immigration dealt with 81% of employment visa applications and 78% of study visa applications in a timely manner. There is, as yet, no explanation for this woeful performance.


The total number of visas that were made was more or less the same in both years so there was no added pressure on the service. Throughout the period in question, senior staff at the UK Border Agency (UKBA) had been assuring UK politicians that the performance of the UKBA was improving.

UK's five tier points based visa system

Most UK employment visas are awarded under the UK's five tier points-based visa system. The system divides work visa applicants into three tiers:

• Tier 1 is for 'high value migrants'. These include
  • Entrepreneurs who must usually invest around £200,000 in the UK in a business they intend to run in the UK (though this can be as low as £50,000 in some circumstances).
  • Investors must have £1m in disposable capital to invest in the UK. They must invest £750,000 by way of government bonds, shares, or loan capital, in active, trading UK companies (other than property companies) and the remainder may be spent on 'assets' (perhaps property) or placed in a deposit account.
  • Those with 'Exceptional Talent' who have a globally recognised talent in the arts or sciences.
• Tier 2 is for ' skilled workers' and includes
  • Tier 2 (General) visas for 'foreign nationals who have been offered a skilled job to fill a gap in the workforce that cannot be filled by a settled worker' and
  • Tier 2 (Intra Company Transfer) visas for the employees of multinational companies which want to transfer staff from their operations overseas to work in the UK.
• Tier 5 is for temporary workers who intend to stay in the UK for a limited period only, usually under two years.

Most higher education students come to the UK with Tier 4 student visas.

Only non-EEA nationals need apply

Only immigrants from outside the European Economic Area need to apply for a UK visa. European citizens require only their passports. Most EU citizens are allowed to work in the UK without a visa or work permit. They do not need to apply for a residence permit either but if they have a dependent family member who is not an EU citizen, then it is advisable for them to do so. Also, if a European citizen wished to apply for UK citizenship, it might be easier to do so if he had first become a resident and then, after five years, a permanent resident.


The figures are

	2011/12	2012/13
Employment visas	81% (81,593 out of 100,84)	51% (51,876 out of 102,276)
Study visas	78% (89,351 out of 114,219)	25% (27,200 out of 107,209)

There was some good news. The performance for permanent residence and citizenship applications actually improved slightly. From 2008 until March this year, the UK's visa applications were dealt with by the UKBA which was established by the then Labour government as an independent agency answerable to the UK's Home Office. Labour hoped that the UKBA's independence would enable it to function efficiently, without constant ministerial interference.

UKBA abolished for being 'not good enough'

However, the UKBA was abolished this year by the UK's current Home Secretary Theresa May in March. Mrs May said that the UKBA was simply 'not good enough' and said that, far from promoting efficiency, the UKBA's independence had, instead, created a 'secretive and defensive culture' in which the UKBA continued to hide its inefficiency from the UK's independent immigration inspector.


The spur for the foundation of the UKBA was the discovery that the former immigration authority, the Immigration Directorate, was responsible for almost unimaginable levels of incompetence. A hidden backlog of 450,000 asylum cases was discovered in 2006 causing the then Home Secretary Dr John Reid to declare that the Home Office was 'not fit for purpose'.


The UKBA never managed to deal with the problems it inherited and, at the time it was abolished, there was still a backlog of over 310,000 cases waiting to be decided.

Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in United Kingdom. Please visit our UK page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/uk.html

Quebec Immigrant Investor Program may reopen on August 1st

The Quebec Immigrant Investor Program (QIIP) is tentatively scheduled to reopen on 1st August 2013. If it does, then Quebec will accept 'a limited number of applications' before closing the program again so, if you are interested, it would be well to begin to prepare your application now.


The QIIP was last reopened on 21st March 2012. At that time, the Quebecois government announced that it would accept 2700 applications before closing the program again. These 2,700 applications were received within one month. So if past experience is anything to go by, investors will need to apply quickly in order to beat the rush.


To qualify for the QIIP, applicants must have net assets of at least CAN$1,600,000 which must have been lawfully acquired. Any money donated to the applicant in the six months before the application is made will be discounted.


They must also have worked in management for at least two years in the last five years in one of the following fields

• Farming
• Commercial business
• Industry
• Professional business
• International agency
• A government, a government department or agency

Investors must invest $800,000 for five years

The applicant must also agree to invest at least CAN$800,000 over 5 years through a financial investment approved by Quebec's immigration authority, La Ministère d'Immigration et des Communautés Culturelles and its investment regulator Investissement Quebec.


Please note that applicants are required to sign a declaration that they intend to settle in Quebec and may not reside in other parts of Canada. Indeed, Canadian Immigration minister Jason Kenney told the press in March 2013 that successful applicants under the QIIP who settle in Toronto or Vancouver are committing fraud.


He told journalists at a Toronto press conference 'If you are sitting somewhere today hoping to apply for the Quebec investor program but you expect to go and live in Vancouver or Toronto that is fraud. It's misrepresentation under the Immigration Act.'


Mr Kenney said that 90% of those people who enter Canada under the QIIP actually settle outside Quebec. He announced that the Canadian federal government was to begin a crackdown on abuse.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in Canada. Please visit our Canadian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/canada.html

UK's 'Speaker' abandons neutrality to speak in favour of immigration

The Speaker of the UK's House of Commons, John Bercow, has angered Conservative MPs by giving a speech in Romania in which he said that the UK had benefited because of immigration from the European Union. The Conservatives say that the speaker, whose job it is to control debates in the House of Commons, should always remain neutral and never offer his opinions on any subject for fear of seeming to favour one party's position over another.


Mr Bercow travelled to Romania in the last week of May 2013 having been invited by the Romanian parliament. The trip was supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As well as being the speaker, Mr Bercow is the grandson of Jewish refugees who fled Romania and settled in London. While in Bucharest, he made a speech in which he said that eastern European migrants who have settled in the UK over the last decade have made an important contribution to life in the UK.


While in Bucharest, Mr Bercow said 'I believe things should be controlled and monitored when it comes to migration and any state that wants to protect its own people should do this but there are also great advantages. I want to underline the fact that there has been an important wave of immigrants that came to Great Britain from new member states and in many cases they came with aptitudes and a commitment, an involvement, we haven't always seem in our labour force'.


Mr Bercow then gave a press conference at which he said that the UK press in which he said that he was 'someone who sees the benefits of immigration' and criticised the UK's press for its negative coverage of immigration stories.

The speaker needs to be seen to be neutral

Some Conservative critics say that he went too far by offering his views as to the benefits of immigration. Some UK commentators suggest that he also insulted British workers. Rob Wilson, the Conservative MP for Reading East, said, 'immigration is an incredibly important and sensitive matter that generates very strong opinions. The Speaker needs not only to be neutral in his handling of debates on the issue, but he needs to be seen to be neutral'.


In 2008, there were rumours that Mr Bercow might defect from the Conservatives to the Labour Party. This might explain why he was voted in as the speaker of the House in 2009 largely because of support from Labour members of parliament. It is said that many Conservatives believe that Mr Bercow favours the Labour Party in debates in the House and see him as a traitor.


Mr Bercow was also criticised by the leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage. He said 'It is outrageous that Mr Bercow is happy to overthrow the wisdom of ages and think it acceptable to comment on matters that are both highly political and deeply contentious. He is a disgrace to the office of speaker'.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in United Kingdom. Please visit our UK page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/uk.html

Australian parliament introduces law allowing immigrants to be 'processed offshore'

The Australian Senate has voted for an amendment which would allow the authorities to take asylum seekers who land on the Australian mainland and hold them in offshore processing camps on Nauru and the Papua New Guinean island of Manus. Until now, only those asylum seekers who were intercepted at sea or who landed on Australian offshore territories like Christmas Island could be held in the camps.


The Migration Amendment (Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals and Other Measures) Bill 2012 was approved by the Australian Senate on 16th May 2013. The opposition Coalition supported the measure. It will have to be approved by the lower house of the parliament as well to become law.


The change to the law has been triggered by a sharp increase in the number of people arriving in Australia by boat in an effort to claim asylum. Over 6,000 asylum seekers have arrived by boat on the Australian mainland in 2013. Most of these were Sri Lankans.


The Conservative government of John Howard tried to introduce the measure in 2006 but failed because of opposition from the Australian Labor Party. On 16th May, the Labor Party was in power. The Australian Green Party, which opposed the measure, has said that the amendment is 'a stain on the national character'.

UNHCR condemns amendment

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has condemned the change to the law. It issued a statement saying 'UNHCR's position has always been for all asylum seekers arriving into Australian territory by whatever means and wherever to be given access to a full and efficient refugee status determination process in Australia .This would be consistent with general practice and in line with international refugee law. If asylum seekers are transferred to another country, the legal responsibility for those asylum seekers may, in some circumstances be shared with that country'.


The UNHCR has already stated that it considers that the camps on Nauru and Manus are less than satisfactory. Earlier in 2013, there was a mass hunger strike on Nauru with many inmates having to be hospitalised.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in Australia. Please visit our Australian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/australia.html

Cabinet minister seems to support removal of students from UK immigration statistics

The UK's Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has told an international educational conference that the inclusion of international students in the UK's immigration statistics and negative anti-immigration remarks in the UK has led to bad publicity in India. In recent years more Indian students have decided to study in countries other than the UK.


Mr Cable was speaking days after UK immigration statistics showed that 56,000 fewer international students began their studies at UK educational institutions in 2012 than in 2011. Much of this fall was caused by a fall in the numbers of students coming from South Asian Countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The number of students at UK universities actually rose by 1% but there was a sharp fall in the number of students attending other educational institutions such as further education colleges.


Mr Cable told the Global Universities Summit in London that some Indian papers were reporting that the UK government did not welcome international students. He said that the Indian press had read press reports in the UK press, which had been negative about immigration, and confused these with government policy on overseas students. Mr Cable said that 'in some of the Indian provincial newspapers the message has gone out that the British no longer want Indian students, which is wrong'.

No cap on the number of international students – Cable

Mr Cable said that the UK government was very much in favour of attracting as many international students to the UK as it could; 'I just want to make it absolutely clear' he told the audience, 'as far as the government is concerned we have no cap on the number of overseas students [and] we don't intend to introduce one'.


He added that students had got caught up in the UK debate about immigration because of 'a statistical anomaly'. He said it was because the UN had ordained that, for statistical purposes, students should be classed as migrants that they had got caught up in the UK's debate on immigration. Mr Cable said 'the UN, in its wisdom, has classified overseas students as immigrants, which they are not'.


He said that when students are included in the immigration statistics as 'immigrants', which they are at present, a rise in the number of international students studying at UK universities can look, at first glance, like a rise in the level of permanent immigration into the country.

British public do not see students as immigrants - Cable

Mr Cable said 'all the evidence suggests that the British public do not see [students] as immigrants but, nonetheless, they have got caught up in this very torrid and emotional debate in the UK'.


Conversely, when the number of international students at UK universities falls, this leads to a fall in the headline immigration figure which, Mr Cable said is interpreted as 'a great triumph for immigration control, which is quite absurd'. Mr Cable said 'we need to find a cleverer way to present the data'.


Mr Cable's words seem to suggest that he favours removing students from the official immigration figures. This would put him at odds with the UK's Home Secretary Theresa May and the Immigration Minister Mark Harper, who say that students must be treated as immigrants in the statistics because to remove them would be a statistical trick and contrary to UN guidelines. It is believed that David Willetts, the Universities Minister and George Osborne the Chancellor of the Exchequer also favour removing students from the statistics.


Last week, the official statistics suggested that net immigration in the year to September 2012 had fallen by nearly 90,000 on the previous year to 153,000. This was welcomed by Mr Harper as evidence that the government's measures to cut immigration were having the desired effect and were leading to reduced levels of immigration to the UK. However, critics pointed out that much of this fall was caused by a reduction in the number of students coming to study in the UK with Tier 4 student visas.

56,000 fall in number of student visas in 2012

In the year to September 2012 there were only 190,000 Tier 4 visas issued compared to 246,000 in the year to September 2011. It also remains to be seen if the Government ever manages to reduce net immigration to the "tens of thousands" as promised by the Conservative Party, the main Coalition Partner in the Government, at the last General Election.


David Cameron, the UK's Prime Minister, told India's Sunrise TV, 'there is no limit on the number of students who can come from India to study at British universities, no limit at all. All you need is a basic English qualification and a place at a British university. And, what's more, after you've left a British university, if you can get a graduate-level job, there is no limit to the amount of people who can stay and work, or the time that they can stay at work'.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in United Kingdom. Please visit our UK page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/uk.html