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Young people from Australia and Bangladesh now have the opportunity to work in each other’s countries through a work and holiday arrangement that came into effect today (December 31). University-educated Australian and Bangladesh travellers who are aged between 18 and 30 will now be able to work and holiday in the other country for up to 12 months.

The work and holiday visa differs from a working holiday visa as it requires applicants to have the support of their government, have or be studying towards tertiary qualifications and to speak functional English. Bangladesh has become the latest country to have a reciprocal work and holiday visa arrangement with Australia, joining a number of other countries, including Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey and the United States.

Feedback on these arrangements has been positive and these places are quickly filled each year. There will be an annual limit of 100 work and holiday visas for both countries but this figure will be reviewed each year. This new arrangement is an investment in future relations with Bangladesh and will also help develop links between people in both countries.

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For the first time in several years, thousands of H-1B visas, the once most sought after by Indian professionals in the US, still remains unused, even as the year comes to an end.

About 11,000 H-1B visa slot still remains available for qualified applicants for the fiscal 2010-2011, says the latest figures released by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

This is in the Congressional mandated-general category of 65,000 H-1B visas. Last year the cap was reached on December 21, 2009. However the cap has almost reached in the H-1B Master’s Exemption category. So far USCIS has received 19,700 applications in this category against the Congressional mandated cap of 20,000.

The latest figures indicate that the employment situation in the country has still not improved. Till a couple of years ago, the cap in H-1B visas was reached in the first few days of USCIS starting to accept applications. For instance, in 2008, the cap was reached on April 8 and the USCIS had to resort to computerized draw of lots to determine successful applicants.

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The extension of the deadline for national ID card registration does not offer much of a reprieve to expatriate businessmen and professionals as the card will be mandatory for them to access government services soon, a top official told Gulf News. The Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) plans to link the ID card registration to the issuance and renewal of residence visas, but expatriate professionals should not wait until their visas expire, Dr Ali Al Khoury, Director-General of Eida, said.

It will be a gradual process to be implemented in all emirates by the end of 2011.Unlike labourers, professionals have to perform many transactions with the government and without an ID card, they will not be able to access many services, Al Khoury said. So they should not delay the registration. But labourers [blue-collar workers and household workers who constitute the majority of expatriates] can wait until the renewal of their visas.

Eida has extended the December 31 deadline for both Emiratis and expatriates. Emiratis who have not yet registered will have until June 30, 2011 to register, according to a press release issued by Eida yesterday. Al Khoury revealed that about 125,000 Emiratis, mostly newborns and children, have not yet registered.

Although Eida did not specify the next deadline for expatriates, the announcement mentioned that Eida was keen to complete the registration of all legal residents based on the new Eida Strategy 2010-13. The deadline extension has dispelled rumors and confusion about fines or other penal action against non-registered expatriates.

Thousands of expatriates had caused chaos at certified typing centers in the past two weeks in an attempt to complete the pre-registration process before the December 31 deadline.

It is understood that Eida plans to stick to the new strategy announced last year which envisaged enrolling all residents by the end of 2013.

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The Nepali Ministry of Foreign Affairs is all set to distribute the machine readable passport (MRP) from Sunday by distributing the diplomatic passports to the distinguished personalities first.

The ministry said the MRP will be first provided to President Ram Baran Yadav amidst a function Sunday morning. For the first round of the distribution, MRPs will be provided to the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice and the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly.

After distributing the MRPs to the distinguished persons, it will be distributed to all commoners in need from the Central Passport Office, Narayanhiti in Kathmandu.

Chief of the Passport Office, Bharat Poudel said the MRP generally provided in six months after application can be provided in a week but with extra charge. The ministry is planning to distribute the MRPs from all three districts of the Kathmandu Valley after some days.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed into law a new bill easing work permit regulations for highly qualified foreign specialists in Russia, including those employed at the Skolkovo hi-tech research hub, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Highly qualified specialists from abroad will now be able to extend the term of their residence permit not after, but during receipt of a work permit. Foreign labor quotas will not be applied to such specialists or their families. They will also be exempt from the necessity to register their residence, a bureaucratic leftover from the Soviet era.

Skolkovo, dubbed Russia’s Silicon Valley, is being built from scratch 20 kilometers west of Moscow. The hub will focus on five research areas: energy, information technologies, communications, biomedical research and nuclear technologies.

Earlier, Federal Migration Service head Konstantin Romodanovsky said that about 20,000 high-profile foreign professionals and researchers come to Russia annually, while the Kremlin needs some 46,000 skilled foreigners a year to implement its ambitious modernization plans.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reminds Haitian nationals that the registration deadline for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is Jan. 18, 2011.

Haitian nationals who have continuously resided in the United States since Jan. 12, 2010, and who meet other TPS eligibility requirements, must file their applications for TPS no later than Jan. 18, 2011. The TPS designation for Haiti will remain in effect through July 22, 2011.

USCIS advises Haitian nationals to review their TPS application packages carefully. Details and procedures for applying for TPS are provided on the USCIS website and in the Federal Register notice announcing TPS for Haiti.

TPS forms are available on the USCIS website or by calling toll-free 1-800-870-3676. For additional information, applicants may also contact the USCIS National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283.

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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.