Diplomats warn that Canada visa requirements deter applicants

Diplomats serving in Canada have warned that international visitors are avoiding Canada because the application for Canadian temporary resident visas is so complicated.


While visitors from the US, the UK and many EU countries do not need Canadian visas, citizens of most other countries do. There are fears that the over-complex visa forms are damaging Canadian trade by encouraging potential business investors and entrepreneurs to go elsewhere.


Robert Tripes of the Czech Republic said 'Canada is a beautiful country with excellent and friendly people and I can recommend it to every Czech tourist but the truth is the application process is really complicated. A lot of people prefer to choose another destination'.

Four sections, numerous questions

Applicants must fill in forms with four sections and numerous questions. They are required to give information about their marriages, previous marriages and about their partners and children, even if the children and partner are not intending to travel to Canada.


They are also asked to report on their affiliations to any political party that has ever advocated violence as the means to a political end. The Globe and Mail points out that many western democratic governments have advocated invasion of other countries for political purposes so applicants would have to record their membership of mainstream political parties.


Applicants are also asked to say if they have ever witnessed the ill-treatment of prisoners or civilians. Applicants from some countries must record any occasion on which they were employed by their own governments. They are also asked where their parents died. The new Mexican ambassador to Canada, Francisco Suarez Davila, told the Globe and Mail 'They're dead. Twenty Years Ago. Why do I have to give information?

'A lot of useless information that goes against common sense'

Mr Davila says that the application forms request 'a lot of useless information that goes against commons sense' and advised Canada to 'get rid of the useless information'. He says that Canada should also take steps to make its visa application more similar to the US process so that visitors could easily apply to visit both countries at once. He suggests that Canada should radically cut the number of questions.


Another Latin American diplomat told the paper that the forms are so complex that applicants often make errors and the forms are then returned with requests for further information. Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail says that many applicants are unsuccessful including many important South American industrial and banking figures. The paper expresses concern that this has the potential to damage Canada's economy.


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 benefitting from US immigration deadlock

The UK's tech sector has been growing fast in recent years. Industry insiders say that this is, at least in part, because US tech companies cannot get visas to bring skilled workers into the US.


London's growing tech industry, centred on 'Silicon roundabout' in the Old Street area of East London, has been growing particularly fast recently. The Financial Times recently reported that 15,720 new businesses were created in the EC1V (Old Street) postcode area alone in the year to March 31st 2013. Most of these were tech start-ups.


There have been some great start-up success stories such as Last.FM, moo.com and Mind Candy, the developer of Moshi Monsters.

US firms expanding in London

But another driver for the UK's tech boom has been the growth of large offices of US tech firms. These companies just cannot get skilled programmers into the US on H-1B or L-1 visas so they are expanding their operations in London.


Google, for example, is planning to build a new UK headquarters a mile or so down the road from Old Street in the newly redeveloped King's Cross area. Facebook has opened an office in trendy Covent Garden and Amazon and Cisco also have a presence in the city.


Michael Fertik, a US tech entrepreneur told the FT in June that the UK was profiting both because the UK has 'the world's most entrepreneur –friendly regulatory environment' and because the US immigration system is in such a mess.

'Huge boom for the London technology scene'

He said 'This is a huge boom for the London technology scene. It is just a nonsense to put [software] engineers anywhere apart from your home office. If you are doing that, it is because immigration [law] is getting in the way'.


Mr Fertik is the founder of the online reputation management service Reputation.com. He has recently bought a UK company in the same business, Reputation 24/7, to hasten his expansion into Europe. He has decided not to base his business in London but in Liverpool, a city in the north-west of the country.


But he says that, if the US does manage to pass immigration reform legislation, that could be bad news for Silicon Roundabout and the UK in general as US firms would, he believes, then expand their US operations.

No immediate likelihood of US immigration reform

However, perhaps London need not get too worried just yet, even though there is an immigration reform bill currently on its way through Congress. The law would, if it became law:

• Increase the number of H-1B visas for bachelor's degree holders from the current level of 65,000 to 130,000 with the capacity to rise to 180,000
• Remove the cap, which currently stands at 20,000, on the number of H-1B visas that can be issued to holders of advanced degrees
• Allow all advanced graduates of US universities to apply for US permanent resident visas (green cards)

The proposed law is called the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act 2013. It was passed by 68 votes to 32 by the US Senate in June but needs to be passed with at least 261 votes in favour by the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, too if it is to become law.


But the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republicans who are, on the whole, opposed to the Act because of its central provision which is the establishment of a 'pathway to citizenship' for the estimated 11.5m people currently living illegally in the US. Republicans say that to do this would be to reward criminal behaviour.

UK visa options

Skilled workers coming to the UK to work for tech firms will usually come with a Tier 2 (General) visa, for skilled workers 'who have been offered a job to fill a gap in the workforce that cannot be filled by a settled worker'. There is a cap of 20,700 annually on these visas though this has not yet ever been reached.


Workers who already work for international companies can come to the UK on Tier 2 (Intra Company Transfer) visas. There is no cap on these visas. This makes it easier for countries such as Google to set up and staff offices in London.


Entrepreneurs who have money, or can raise money, to invest in UK start-ups can also come with Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visas. You must have access to either

• at least £200,000 of investment capital or
• at least £50,000 from either
  • a registered venture capital firm,
  • a UK government endorsed seed funding competition or
  • a UK government or regional government department.

You must also be able to speak English to the required standard and have sufficient maintenance funds to meet the UK requirements.

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 to reopen on 1st August 2013

As predicted, Quebec's Immigrant Investor Program (QIIP) is to reopen on 1st August 2013.


The QIIP will accept only 1,750 applications before it closes again. Applications will only be accepted between 1st August and 16th August 2013 by post. A maximum of 1,200 applications can come from any one country. In the event that more than 2,000 applications are received, there will be a ballot to decide which applications will be accepted for consideration.

Requirements of the QIIP

The main requirements are as follows.

1. Applicants must invest CAN$800,000 for five years with a financial service provider approved by the Quebec government
2. Applicants must have assets worth at least CAN$1,600,000. These assets must have been lawfully acquired and held for over six months.
3. Applicants must have had over two years' management level experience in one of the following fields within the last five years
   • Farming
   • Commercial business
   • Industry
   • Professional business
   • International agency
   • A government, a government department or agency
4. You must intend to settle in Quebec

Further requirements

When assessing your application, The Quebec immigration authorities will also assess

• Your French language skills
• Your age
• The quality of your management level work experience

You should be aware that in March 2013, Canadian federal immigration minister Jason Kenney warned people who gain Canadian permanent resident status through the QIIP that they are committing immigration fraud if they live anywhere else in Canada other than Quebec.


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

Government advisory body says UK needs more skilled immigration

The UK's Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) has advised the government that the country requires high levels of immigration to help grow the economy. It says that young migrants who come to the UK as skilled workers will have the greatest beneficial effect on the national accounts.


The OBR published its Fiscal Sustainability Report 2013, published on 17th July 2013. This report looks at the economic outlook for the UK in the medium to long term. It looks at all the factors that will affect the economy, from natural resource production to employment rates to immigration. The purpose of the exercise is to see whether the UK's fiscal position is sustainable in the long term.


The report finds that immigration, or a lack of immigration, will greatly affect the UK's economic performance and debt levels over the next fifty years.

UK has ageing population

The UK underwent a 'baby boom' between about 1945 and 1970. There is now an ageing population. Without immigration, there will be a shortage of labour to fill the available positions. The country is also experiencing a decline in revenues from the exploitation of North Sea oil and gas.


The country was also very badly hit by the economic crisis of 2007. The UK's economy is very dependent upon the financial services sector and the government was forced to spend many billions bailing out UK banks. In addition, the government has been spending more than it takes in in tax receipts for many years. As a result, the national debt currently stands at 90% of GDP.


The government is attempting to reduce this figure but the OBR warns that, if net immigration fell to zero in 2016, then by 2066, public debt would have risen to 174% of GDP. If immigration remained at the 2010 level of 260,000 then the public debt would have fallen to 75% of GDP.

Younger migrants better for the economy

The effect would be more favourable for the country if more of these migrants were young, working age migrants who would be economically active and would contribute very much more to the economy than they would take out, the OBR says.


The report says that 'the fiscal impact of immigration tends to be small in most countries' but says that there is 'clear evidence that, since migrants tend to be more concentrated in the working-age group, relatively to the rest of the population, immigration has a positive effect on the public sector's debt dynamics'.


The UK government is committed to a policy of reducing net immigration to below 100,000 annually by 2015. This puts it in disagreement with its own budgetary advisor.


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

UK immigration criticised for 'no hiding place' tweet

The UK's Home Office has been criticised for a tweet that was posted on a social networking website. The Home Office Twitter feed featured a tweet which promised that 'there will be no hiding place for illegal immigrants'.


The tweet was posted on 3rd July 2013 along with pictures of immigration enforcement officers placing several men of Asian appearance in a Home Office van. An attached video clip showed Immigration Minister Mark Harper talking about proposed changes to immigration law while standing at the scene of an immigration raid. Two people were arrested during the raid.


The Home Office posting caused a stir on Twitter. One tweeter responded 'You'd fit right in in Germany circa 1936'. Another suggested 'you might want to consider how you're approaching this whole social media thing really'.

Boot stamping on a human face stuff

Another said that the Home Office tweet was in 'the long noble tradition of making humans live in fear of 'the knock on the door'. Another said 'Truly chilling tweets from @ukhomeoffice on #immigrationbill. Orwellian is overused but this is pure 'Boot stamping on a human face' stuff.'


The Home Office did not respond to journalists' requests for comments.


The Home Office has been criticised for its tweets about immigration enforcement before. In August 2012, civil rights campaigners complained about the Home Office placing pictures of immigration raids on Twitter.

Home Office hoped to recover credibility after fiascos

After one immigration raid in Atlantic Road, Brixton, South London, Dr Nando Sigona, an academic working in immigration at Oxford University said that the raid, and others like it, were 'mainly a PR exercise…carried out in the hope to recover some credibility after a number of migration and border management fiascos'.


Dr Sigona went on to warn that the raids 'may turn out not to be the media success that they hope for' and 'can potentially exacerbate tensions in local communities. He said that the Home Office's campaign featured images of non-white males in places like Brixton. He said that this was 'a very partial and convenient representation of the population of undocumented migrants in London'.


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

Republicans intend to block US immigration reform

After a meeting of Republican Congressmen and women on Wednesday 10th July 2013, the prospects for the comprehensive immigration reform bill initially passed by the Senate last month look poor. To become law, the bill must also be passed by the Republican controlled House of Representatives (The House). At a meeting on Wednesday 10th July, many House Republicans spoke out against it.


The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Bill 2013 (the bill) was passed by the upper house of Congress, the Senate, with 68 votes in favour on 28th June. To become law, it must obtain 60% support in both the Senate and the House.


While the Senate is controlled by the Democrats, the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republicans. A sizeable number of Republican Representatives are vehemently opposed to the bill mainly because of its central provision; the creation of 'a pathway to citizenship' for many of the 11.5m immigrants currently living in the US illegally.

Few House Republicans support reform

While some House Republicans, such as the former Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan, support the bill, the meeting of Representatives on 10th July seems to show that they are not the majority.
Former Republican presidential hopeful Michelle Bachman told journalists on Tuesday that she was opposed to the bill. She said 'Until they can certify that the border is secure, I don't think we should take up any bill whatsoever.


She told journalists on Thursday 11th July that Republicans were very split on the issue and that all shades of opinion were to be found among representatives.


This seems to make it even less likely that the bill will be passed. The leader of the Republicans in the House, John Boehner, has said that he will not allow a vote on the issue in the House unless a majority of Republicans support it.


This makes the mathematical chances of the bill passing even smaller. To gain 60% support in the House, the bill requires 261 votes out of the 435 available. The Democrats hold 201 seats. If all Democrats voted for the bill, 60 Republicans would need to support it to see it become law.

Bill must get support from 117 Republicans to proceed to vote

But Representative Boehner's promise to block a vote unless half of Republicans support it means that it will need support from 117 Republicans at least. Washington commentators say that this won't be forthcoming any time soon.


The House was expected to vote for the bill before the summer recess but Representatives are now saying that there is unlikely to be a vote until after they return to Washington in September. One, John Fleming from Louisiana said there was no chance of a vote in July. 'We are going to go back to our districts and talk to our constituents' he said, 'that is what August is for'.


Another Representative, Darrell Issa of California sought to blame the President for the failure of Republican representatives to support reform. He said that Mr Obama should spend 'more time working with Congress instead of trying to undermine it'.

Congress increasingly split along party lines

Washington commentators have noted that, over recent years, there has been increasingly little cooperation between Democrats and Republicans in Washington. The Republican Party has moved to the right under the influence of the grass roots Tea Party movement and finds it almost impossible to agree with Democrats on any issue. Republicans claim that Mr Obama's Democrats have moved further to the left.


On the issue of immigration, Republicans say that to grant a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants would be to reward criminality and would be unfair on genuine, lawful immigrants who apply in the normal way.


They are also concerned that most illegal immigrants in the US are believed to come from Latin America and most Latin Americans currently vote Democrat. So Republicans fear that granting citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants would harm their party's electoral prospects.

Republicans losing support among Latino voters

Others warn the party that because Latino voters support the pathway to citizenship, the Republicans are losing support among current Latino voters by opposing reform.


At present, in the House at least, it seems that the Republicans are set against the bill.


House leader John Boehner says that, if the bill does not pass, he will work on a series of piecemeal reforms which would increase the number of H-1B visas available for graduate workers in a 'specialty occupation' and the number of work-related green cards for foreign graduates of US universities.


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

UK immigration minister says 'UK visa process is good and getting better'

Mark Harper, the UK Immigration Minister, has said that it is 'a misconception' that Chinese visitors to the UK 'have a hard time getting a UK visa and it's time to stop knocking the system'.


Writing in UK travel magazine Travel Weekly, Mr Harper wrote 'I believe we are running a good visa service – and our customers disagree' though he conceded that 'we should do more'. He conceded that there had been 'reports' that the UK was not running a good visa service in China but said that they were false. 'The facts speak for themselves', he wrote 'almost 300,000 visas were issued in 2012 with the vast majority processed in 15 days and around half in just five days'.


He continued 'Our customers in China are happy, with 99% of those surveyed saying they were satisfied with the service and telling us that it compares well with their experiences with other visa services'.


However, Jason Yap, a travel agent who helps Chinese tourists and businesspeople to travel to the west disagrees. He says 'the reality is that the UK visa application process remains far more complicated than in neighbouring EU countries such as France'.

Chinese passport applicants find EU visa process easier and quicker

Mr Yap says that

• Applicants for UK passports have to attend an embassy in person to get a visa so that their thump print can be taken
• The application must be filled out in English. French visa forms come in Chinese
• UK visas take, on average 15 days whereas French visas take ten.
• UK visas are 50% more expensive than French visas and French visas allow their holders to visit the 25 other nations in the EU's borderless Schengen Area.

Mr Yap says that this explains why, in 2012, 1.15m Chinese people visited France whereas only 180,000 visited the UK.


Mr Yap says that the number of applicants for French visas has risen by 49% in the last year. He says that the UK is missing out on the opportunity to attract a great deal of tourist revenue.


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