Articles Posted in Top Immigration Stories

The number of Chinese people living in South Korea topped 600,000 for the first time last month, accounting for nearly half of all foreigners in the country, the Justice Ministry said Wednesday.

As of the end of November, 606,408 Chinese nationals, including illegal immigrants and those on short- and long-term stays, were living here, making up 48 percent of some 1.25 million foreign residents, the ministry said.

The tally at the end of October was about 597,000. Chinese nationals of Korean descent accounted for two thirds of the total, numbering 404,000 last month. The majority of the Chinese residents, or 87 percent, had legal justification to live here, while the rest were illegal immigrants.

The Chinese also took up large portions of marriage immigrants and visitors to South Korea. Of some 140,000 marriage immigrants in the country, 66,000, or 47 percent, were Chinese, including about 31,000 of Korean descent. The number of Chinese visitors rose sharply this year, helped by an easing of visa regulations, and hovered around 1.62 million as of the end of November, marking a 44 percent increase from the same period last year.

Chinese students also accounted for three quarters of all foreign students in the country, numbering 67,000. The second-largest foreign community was that of U.S. citizens, with 128,000 residents, while Vietnamese, Filipinos and the Japanese rounded out the other top five nationalities.

The Sweden Government has today decided to close Sweden’s Embassies in Buenos Aires, Brussels, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur and Luanda.

“This painful decision is a consequence of the recent decision of the Riksdag to cut funding to the Government Offices by SEK 300 million,” says Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt.

The five embassies will be closed during 2011.

THE consular staff of the Indonesia Embassy in Brunei will be visiting Kuala Belait from December 25-26, to provide consular services for Indonesians living in the area.

In a statement made available to The Brunei Times yesterday the embassy will also brief expatriates residing in the Belait District on the regulation on employment order and immigration act stipulated in the country for those working here.

The consular services will take place at Syarikat Asoh Raya (Driving School) No: 456, Lot 1600 Kampung Mumong, Jalan Singa Mentiri, Kuala Belait. The two-day event will be conducted from 2pm to 5pm on Sunday, while on Sunday it will be opened from 8am to 4.30pm. “Considering the importance of this activity, the embassy hopes that the Indonesian community or the Indonesian migrant workers living in Belait District are able to take this opportunity at its best,” the statement said.

The Indonesian community who need assistance in consultation related to labour regulation, passport renewal, paper work legalisation, and reporting their domicile in the country are encouraged to come to the gathering. Referring to the Indonesia Foreign Ministerial Regulation on Citizen Service, an integrated system has been provided for the protection of Indonesian citizens, including expatriates working abroad.

According to a data provided by the embassy, there are currently a total of 50,839 Indonesia’s expatriates working in the Sultanate. Out of the total number, 27,401 are working in the informal sector such as domestic helpers, while the remaining 17,700 are those working at the formal sector such as in the oil and gas industry, constructions, medical, agriculture, and service sector.

The UK Border Agency has announced that it will stop accepting Tier 1 (General) applications made overseas from 00:01 on 23 December 2010. This is to ensure that we do not exceed the limit set by the government for issued Tier 1 (General) applications between 19 July 2010 and April 2011.

Tier 1 (General) overseas will not reopen for applications. Tier 1 (General) in the UK will remain open until 5 April 2011. There will be transitional arrangements beyond 6 April 2011 for some applicants who are already in the UK, and we will announce details of these in due course.

Following a court judgement on Friday, the government has also set a limit until 5 April 2011 on the number of certificates of sponsorship that are available to licensed Tier 2 sponsors under Tier 2 (General). The level of the limit will be 10,832, and the changes will take place immediately.

Immigration Minister Damian Green said:
The recent Court ruling is about process, not policy – the policy of having a limit has not been found to be unlawful. The court’s ruling rests on a technicality, which we have set right today to ensure that from now on the interim limit is back up and running. This judgment does not affect the annual cap in any way. The interim limit was a temporary measure introduced specifically to tackle a rush of applications ahead of the introduction of the annual limit. As a result of the volume of applications received since the interim limit was introduced last July, no more Tier 1 visa applications from overseas will be accepted after 22 December. The government remains firmly committed to reducing net migration to the tens of thousands.

A worker with an expired contract in the UAE can now obtain a new work permit and shift to another employer without a consent of his sponsor, a move that will also benefit the Indian workers in the country.

According to a new resolution issued by the UAE Labour Minister Saqr Gobash, the new regulations on conditions and criteria of issuing new work permit for a worker after the expiry of his service contract and transfer of sponsorship will take effect as of first of January 2011 in implementation of a cabinet resolution regarding internal work permit at the ministry.

The resolution says that the new employment permit will only be granted to the worker after the end of his work relationship with his employer without consideration of the legitimate six month period which is usually calculated after the cancellation of the worker”s labor card, but stipulates two must-do conditions.

The UAE has 1.75 million Indian population, which is the largest expatriate community in this country. Once operational, the new regulations will replace the current formalities of transfer of sponsorship for expatriate workers.

Gobash said the new measures aim to infuse broader flexibility in the labour market and strike a balance in the contractual relationship between the employer and worker.The conditions mean that the two contracting parties should end their work relationship cordially and the worker should have worked with his employer for at least two years.

The resolution defines two cases where the worker can obtain the new work permit after the end of the contractual relationship without the agreement of the two contracting parties. The resolution also defines three cases where the worker shall have the right to get a work permit without fulfilling the condition of working two years at least with the employer.

The Consular Section of the US embassy in Bangkok will be in Phuket tomorrow (December 17) to provide consular outreach services.

The “consular clinic” will be at the Metropole Hotel on Montri Road in Phuket Town from 8am to midday. Consular staff will be available to provide services on:
• Passport renewal applications ($110 or 3,300 baht for adult passports, and US$105 or 3,150 baht for a child’s passport).

• Notarial services and certified copies ($50 or 1,500 baht). This includes income affidavits for retirees in Thailand.

• Extra visa pages (US$82 or 2,460 baht). However, the embassy notes, “We can accept applications, but the passports will have to be brought back to the embassy for final processing the next working day.

“As of this writing, Thailand Post has approved our request to use prepaid envelopes to return passports. We will bring prepaid envelopes on outreaches that you can buy from us (at cost) if you wish us have us mail your passport back to you. “Alternatively, one can pick up their passport at the embassy. One can also have a friend pick up your passport by giving them written authorization to present to us,” said the consular release.

Consular Reports of Birth cannot be processed during consular outreach trips.

The next two outreaches planned for Phuket will be on March 16 and June 16, 2011.

For more information on US consular outreach services, email acsbkk@state.gov or call the American Citizen Services Unit at 02-205 4049.

UK Border Agency have today published new versions of our application forms and policy guidance under the following categories of the points-based system:
* Tier 1 (General)
* Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)
* Tier 1 (Investor)
* Tier 1 (Post-study work)
* Tier 2 – all categories (application form only – no change to policy guidance)
* Tier 5 (Temporary worker) – all sub-categories
* PBS Dependant
These new versions reflect the new requirement for Tier 1 and Tier 5 applicants to obtain biometric residence permits, and other minor changes. One should use the new forms with immediate effect. However, and in line with paragraph 34 (I) of the Immigration Rules, we will continue to accept applications made on the previous version of the application forms until (and including) 4 January 2011. We will consider all applications under the current Immigration Rules, regardless of which version of the application form you send. For details visit http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/pbs/tables-changes-1210.pdf

Three years ago, the U.S. Armed Forces struggled with a serious recruiting crisis, a crisis that evaporated temporarily only when the economy slumped. As it recovers and our population continues to age, the Armed Forces will face yet another challenge in recruiting the high-quality people needed for the modern military.

For that reason, the Department of Defense identified the DREAM Act as a smart way to expand the pool of eligible candidates for enlistment.

The Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act is a bipartisan bill that would provide a path to legal residence for undocumented young people who were brought to the United States as children. The conditions: They must graduate from high school, demonstrate good moral character, and — to keep their legal status — complete at least two years of higher education or at least two years service in the U.S. military.

Without the relief of the DREAM Act, the future of these American-educated young people is bleak.

About 65,000 such eligible students graduate from U.S. high schools each year, but upon graduation, these young people, who include honor roll students, star athletes and junior ROTC members, hit a wall.

Read the story…

U.S. consular officials are arranging to meet with a San Diego-born 14-year-old accused of carrying out killings and decapitations for a major drug cartel in central Mexico.

Mexican officials approved the meeting after a formal petition from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, the juvenile court judge handling the teen’s case said Monday.

Mexican troops arrested Edgar Jimenez Lugo, known as “El Ponchis,” and his two sisters on Thursday on the outskirts of the central Mexican city of Cuernavaca, a tourism destination 40 miles south of Mexico City and the capital of the state of Morelos.

All three have ties to San Diego, according to county birth records. The night of the arrests, the boy was carrying a San Diego County document registering his birthplace as San Diego, but the Mexican government was still waiting Monday for U.S. officials to authenticate his citizenship.

Army officials had made it known a month ago they were searching for “El Ponchis,” after graphic online videos prompted talk of a boy assassin.

An unnamed Mexican Army lieutenant said in written testimony that an anonymous tip led authorities to the airport where the arrests occurred.

Read more…

Belarus will soon open an embassy in Brazil, Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Martynov said in an interview to Belarus-TV Channel. “Actually we are opening the embassy there. The first employees have already been deployed. Previously we had a consulate general in Brazil, and now we are opening a full-fledged embassy,” Sergei Martynov said.

The minister explained the importance of cooperation with Brazil, which is the eighth economy in the world. For Belarus this is one of the major trading partners in Latin America. “The downside is that Belarus has been primarily exporting fertilizer there. And we want our trade with Brazil to be diversified with other goods including machinery and chemicals, and also the manufacture of our products in Brazil,” Sergei Martynov said.

“Our approach to foreign economic relations is that we need to proceed from simple forms of trade (exports/imports) to more sophisticated forms. We seek to create joint ventures and through them increase our presence in the market,” the minister stressed.

He also noted that in the near future Belarus will open its embassy in Nigeria. “This is a reflection of the policy that we must advance onto new markets – the countries new to us,” the minister said.

Over the past two years we have discovered, figuratively speaking, 34 new countries. Naturally, that our diplomatic presence moves along with our economic interests,” Sergei Martynov added.