Published by Mark Johnstone on July 1st, 2009 in Australian Immigration, Canadian Immigration, EU immigration and Blue Card, Expats, Global Immigration, Global Visas, Immigration Tips, Move to Australia, South African Immigration, Studying abroad, UK immigration
We at Global Visas offer you some handy hints as to how to most efficiently secure your all important work visa:
1. Patience is paramount in the visa process.
We all know someone who thinks the rules don’t apply to them. But Immigration laws apply to everyone equally and the process takes time. In only very exceptional cases, fast tracking visas is possible, but in most cases, the visa process must run its set course. Make sure you plan well head, allowing plenty of time for the visa(s) to be granted.
2. Don’t book a flight until the visa has been issued.
This may sound like obvious advice, but even the most straightforward cases can be delayed. Recently we had a client who booked a flight thinking the case visa would be issued in ample time. Unfortunately the employee’s passport was expiring within six months and this prevented a visa being granted. The visa would have taken 24 hours to secure. His passport took six weeks to renew.
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Published by Gareth McConnell Global Visas on June 9th, 2009 in EU immigration and Blue Card, UK immigration
Chinese Premier Wen on UK visa visit in January 2009
With the UK government on life-support and the five tier UK immigration system writhing to the agony of as many recent defeats, it seems premature to be getting excited about removing the urinary catheter and intravenous drips just yet, especially following anti-immigration sentiment growing across the UK and EU.
But news in the Telegraph has enlightened my Monday afternoon, to the tune of a good old fashioned fight involving the UK visa system against the EU counterpart of France, Germany, Italy and Spain – the Schengen visa zone.
Might this be a story that will have UK citizens reminiscing back to the good old days of Rule Britannia and 1997 when things could only get better?
Latest government figures show the number of visitors to the UK fell from 7.19m to 6.28m in the first three months of 2009, a fall of 13per cent.
To combat this significant fall in money entering the economy, the UK immigration system wants to introduce a new UK visa aimed at capitalizing on the half a million more Chinese tourists France gets in comparison to the UK.
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Published by Gareth McConnell Global Visas on May 26th, 2009 in EU immigration and Blue Card
The European Union has launched the Blue Card visa scheme, a new policy intended to attract highly skilled workers to EU countries to fill gaps in the labour market and compete with USA immigration.
The EU Blue Card scheme will enable skilled migrants from non-EU countries to move freely around the continent filling labour market gaps.
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Published by Gareth McConnell Global Visas on January 9th, 2009 in EU immigration and Blue Card, Global Immigration, UK immigration
Canada is a huge draw for the thousands leaving the UK
With the falling value of the pound and a country well and truly in the grips of a recession, Polish and British workers are choosing to pack up and emigrate to Australia, Canada and the USA.
In the last quarter alone Global Visas has reported a 40% jump on enquiries from British nationals on the same time last year. Enquiries from Polish immigrants working in the UK have seen a massive 70% climb.
With UK earnings now significantly lower than the same time last year, cash sent home to families in Eastern Europe doesn’t go as far as it once did. Coupled with the potential to earn much more outside the EU, Polish and British migrants now consider a move to Australia, USA or working in Canada as realistic alternatives. Read the rest of this entry »
Published by Gareth McConnell Global Visas on October 23rd, 2008 in EU immigration and Blue Card, UK immigration
Wendy Richard aka Pauline Fowler from Eastenders, gone but not forgotten 1943-2009
A Polish soap resembling East Enders could soon be coming to British tv.
Londynczycy, translated ‘Londoners’ depicts life in the city from the perspective of Polish immigrants.
With 1.2 million Polish immigrants currently living in the UK and roughly 200,000 in London, some of the plot lines have been drawn from real life stories told to writers by Poles living in Finchley.
The series features a history teacher who follows his wife and son to England but struggles to get a job and ends up drinking and sleeping rough on park benches.
A Polish builder who lives in Ealing being worked to the bone by his demanding boss and a blonde 25 year old who arrives in the capital with two ambitions: become a star and marry a rich (I like her already).
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Published by Gareth McConnell Global Visas on October 15th, 2008 in EU immigration and Blue Card
Euros to be made on EU Blue Card
Loosely based on the United States ‘green card’, the single EU work visa is to be known as a ‘Blue Card’ after the colour of the flag, offering permanent residency anywhere in Europe after five years’ work.
The European Commission President announced plans to target qualified immigrants who will be able to bring their families after a 90-day application period. This is to meet an estimated short-fall of 20 million skilled and non-skilled workers by 2030.
Ministers said that Britain was likely to opt out of the scheme but would not be able to block most of the other 26 EU nations from agreeing to the scheme at their next summit in November. It will be decided by qualified majority voting with the Irish Republic and Austria other possible objectors.
The idea of a visa giving full employment and social security rights to migrants has long been a dream of the European Commission to meet projected shortages of engineers, doctors and IT specialists as Europe’s population ages.
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Published by Global Visas on July 21st, 2008 in EU immigration and Blue Card
A windmill, or in Dutch windmolen
According to Dutch law an immigrant needs to pass a Dutch language test in order to get a visa. However a loophole in this law has allowed an illiterate Moroccan woman join her husband in the Netherlands to the delight of rights activists.
The Netherlands is a country filled with immigrants, with an estimated 10% of the total 16.6 million population are believed to be of non-Western origin.
But politicians have sought to stop immigrants from non-western countries coming into Holland.
This law which requires a language and culture test to be passed came into place in 2005. However it was mistakenly left out of the clause relating to family reunification, therefore this case took place and this Moroccan woman can now legally come to Holland to live.
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Published by Global Visas on June 18th, 2008 in EU immigration and Blue Card
Basic Level of Capability, a dangerous move?
Today the European Parliament approved a contentious new rule to expel illegal immigrants from the bloc (Basic Level of Capability). The new rules come after anti-immigrant sentiments from wealthy blocs such as Italy, who are blaming foreigners for spiking violent crimes in the country.
France is also one of the countries that pushed for this new law that has had human rights activists protesting against. The last few years has seen France grappling with tensions in its “immigrant-heavy suburbs”. The EU joins bloc member (UK) in the latest drastic immigration rules implementation.
With the US credit crash affecting economies, governments are struggling and the old trusted scapegoat of immigrants (legal or not) comes into place as introduced heavily by the UK and Europe.
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