Immigration Insights

July 12, 2018

Effective 1 July 2018, employers wishing to hire foreign nationals for occupations with an unemployment rate of 8% or above must test the Swiss labour market by advertising. This threshold will be lowered to 5% from 1 January 2020.

July 12, 2018

Hong Kong's high court handed down a victory for LGBT expats last week, giving them rights to dependent spouse visas. While the APAC region continues to present challenges for LGBT expats, there are signs of positive change benefiting companies and foreign employees. A look at 7 APAC destinations.

July 11, 2018

Effective immediately, the Shanghai State Administration of Foreign Affairs requires a different tax certificate in support of applications for Category A work permits, including applicable new work permits, renewals and cancellations.

July 10, 2018

An amendment to the Criminal Code in Canada has doubled the maximum prospective punishment for drunk driving (‘DUI’ – Driving Under the Influence) from five years to ten years. Now classed as “serious criminality” in Canada, a foreign national with a prior DUI, may now be inadmissible.

July 9, 2018

Effective 6 July 2018, the UK Home Office has introduced the new “UKRI Science, Research and Academia” scheme, which allows non-EEA researchers, scientists and academics to come to the UK for up to two years.

July 9, 2018

Discover the latest immigration news and updates from around the globe with your weekly newsletter from Newland Chase. In this week’s edition, we bring you news from Hong Kong, Indonesia and the United Kingdom plus there are updates from Russia, Australia and India.

July 6, 2018

The Indonesian Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has unexpectedly announced that its online application system for RPTKA (expatriate placement plan) and IMTA (work permit) applications would be replaced by a new online system, integrated with the Directorate General of Immigration, from Monday 9 July 2018.

July 6, 2018

On 4th July 2018, Hong Kong’s highest court, the Court of Final Appeal, upheld a previous decision by a lower court to allow same-sex spouses to hold dependent visas, denying an appeal by the Director of Immigration.

July 5, 2018

The Australian Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has released further details of its pilot Global talent Scheme (GTS), aimed at attracting highly-skilled talent to Australia, which took effect on 1st July 2018.

July 4, 2018

The Indian Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the deadline for residents to link their Aadhaar number to their Permanent Account Number (PAN) until 31 March 2019. This is the fifth time the government has extended this deadline.

July 2, 2018

Discover the latest immigration news and updates from around the globe with your weekly newsletter from Newland Chase. In this week’s edition, we bring you news from Colombia, Australia, Kenya, Russia and Oman. There are also updates from Switzerland and Ireland.

June 29, 2018

Oman’s Ministry of Manpower has extended its ban suspending the recruitment of foreign nationals in 87 professions, across ten sectors, for another six months from 30 July 2018.

June 29, 2018

China is using an opening of immigration policy as a competitive tool of its economic expansion. In addition to its 'belt and road' initiative and foreign trade, increasingly open borders present opportunities for international business and foreign talent in China.

June 29, 2018

Russian employers of highly qualified specialists (HQS) have until 31 July 2018 to notify the migration authorities of salaries paid to these foreign national employees in the second quarter of 2018 (1 April to 30 June 2018).

June 29, 2018

Effective 25 June 2018, Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) in Ireland has advised that applications for Stamp 4 status must be submitted twelve weeks in advance of the expiry of the current Critical Skills Employment Permit (CSEP).

June 28, 2018

The Swiss Federal Council has decided to extend, for the year from 1 June 2018, the quota on Romanian and Bulgarian nationals (EU-2) of 996 long-term B permits, released quarterly. The State Secretary of Migration has confirmed that there will be no quota for short-term L permits for EU-2 nationals

June 27, 2018

The Australian Department of Immigration visa application charges (VAC) are set to increase for a number of visas lodged on or after 1st July 2018. For many visa types the fees have been increased in line with Consumer Price Inflation (CPI).

June 26, 2018

COLOMBIA has implemented new immigration compliance rules and penalties. Effective 16 May 2018, Resolution 1238 establishes stricter criteria for compliance with immigration obligations, and bigger penalties for non-compliance.

June 26, 2018

The Kenyan Department of Immigration Services (DIS) is currently piloting a new digital Biometric Foreigner Registration (BFR) process alongside the existing manual biometric registration system for Foreign Nationals Certificate (“Alien Card”) applications.

June 25, 2018

Discover the latest immigration news and updates from around the globe with your weekly newsletter from Newland Chase. In this week’s edition, we bring you news from Israel and the United States, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. There is a Brexit update as well as updates from Uruguay and Israel.