Priority Processing Arrangements for General Skilled Migration Visas – 19 July 2010

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, has set new priority processing arrangements for certain skilled migration visas.
SOURCE: WWW.IMMI.GOV.AU

PLEASE GO THROUGH THE FOLLOWING LINKS:

READ CAREFULLY:

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/priority-processing-14-july-2010.pdf

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/gsm-priority-processing-faqs.pdf

REQUEST:

ALL ANGAD INFO CLIENT’S PLEASE BE PATIENT AS NO STATE HAS COME WITH APPROVED MIGRATION PLANS.

WE ARE EXPECTING 2-3 STATES TO COME WITH APPROVED MIGRATIONS PLANS BY 31ST JULY’10 AND MOST OF THEM BY END OF AUG’10.

http://www.visabureau.com/blog/post/Australian-State-Migration-Plan-Updates-for-1-July2c-2010.aspx

SOURCE: WWW.VISABUREAU.COM

SO WE ARE LEFT WITH NOT MUCH CHOICE BUT TO WAIT.

WILL KEEP YOU POSTED

admin Immigration Immigration to Australia

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s ambassador to the United States said on  Friday he expects immigration reform is unlikely to pass in that country in 2010 because of unemployment and midterm elections, reports New York Times.
In an unusually frank assessment, Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said Mexico will continue its quiet, ”under the radar” lobbying for a reform that would benefit the estimated 11.8 million Mexicans living in the United States. A large percentage are undocumented.
”It’s not that it is unachievable. It is possible, but it will be difficult,” he told a news conference. ”And this year, especially, the conditions … will be particularly difficult.”
”If the (U.S.) economy grows, but there continues to be the unemployment and the job losses that occurred in the United States in 2009, it is politically impossible for the Republicans or the Democrats, as much as they might be interested … to put an integrated immigration reform on the table,” Sarukhan said.
Sarukhan also said past pronouncements on the issue by Mexico may have done more harm than good.
”Having spoken about it publicly at times in the past … has done a great deal of damage to our countrymen and our allies in the United States,” he said.
Sarukhan said a general amnesty that would automatically legalize undocumented migrants ”cannot be the solution,” because ”the radical conservative wing in the United States would immediately mobilize to torpedo it.”
He said a more realistic goal is a program of temporary work visas and a ”regularization process” — presumably, what has been called ”earned legalization” involving fines or other qualifying factors.
Sarukhan said chances for reform may depend on how much political capital the administration of President Barack Obama has left after the divisive debate over health care.
Daniel Hernandez Joseph, director of overseas citizen protection services for Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department, told reporters that anti-immigration rhetoric ”has permeated in (U.S.) society” and that anti-immigration groups in the United States currently ”feel empowered.”

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admin Immigration Immigration

Foreign nationals who are HIV-positive will find it easier starting Monday to visit the United States.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed HIV infection from the list of diseases that prevent non-U.S. citizens from entering the country.

Advocates for HIV-positive people said the new policy was long overdue, calling it “a significant step forward for the United States.”

“The end of the HIV travel and immigration ban is the beginning of a new life for countless families and thousands who had been separated because of this policy,” said Steve Ralls, spokesman for Immigration Equality, a national rights organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive individuals. “This is a new beginning for them.”

The final rule was approved in November and went into effect Monday.

The new regulation takes HIV infection out of the category of “communicable diseases of public health significance,” the CDC said. It also removes required testing for HIV infection from the U.S. immigration medical screening process and eliminates the need for a waiver for entry into the United States.

Visas issued under the new regulation will not publicly identify any traveler who is positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

HIV-infected visitors previously had to obtain a special waiver from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to obtain a visa, a sometimes lengthy process. Under that process, the U.S. State Department had to make individual recommendations on HIV-positive travelers to DHS, which then conducted a case-by-case evaluation.

In fiscal year 2007, the average processing time for DHS to make decisions on such recommendations was 18 days, the federal agency said. The new rule streamlines the process, making visa authorization and issuance available to many otherwise eligible HIV-positive travelers on the same day as their interview with a U.S. consular officer.

The restrictions, President Barack Obama said in October, were “rooted in fear rather than fact.”

U.S. laws and regulations enacted since 1952 have made persons “who were afflicted with any dangerous contagious disease” ineligible to receive a visa to enter the country. People infected with HIV have been restricted since 1987, when Congress directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to add HIV to its list of diseases of public health significance.

The United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008, which President Bush signed on July 30, 2008, removed the statutory requirement that mandated the inclusion of HIV on the list of diseases of public health significance that barred entry in the United States.

The legislation did not, however, automatically change the existing regulations, administered by HHS, that continued to list HIV as a “communicable disease of public-health significance” and required the more cumbersome visa process.

The United States was one of 13 countries that restricted entry of HIV-positive visitors, according to amfAR, an AIDS research foundation.

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admin Immigration, Tourist/Visitor Visa Immigration, USA Visas

Amid the ongoing attacks on Indians down under, Australian authorities have tightened procedures to keep out those unable to meet the costs involved in pursuing academics without taking up part-time jobs. According to latest data, Australia refused admission to one-third of Indian students who applied to educational institutions in that country between July and October last year, citing a high incidence of documentation fraud. Overestimation of cash reserves to be shown as mandatory assets accounted for a majority of frauds.

The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship turned down 33.2% of the 21,120 student visa applications between July 1 and October 31, 2009 — a substantial increase from 6.5% in the corresponding period in 2008. India was second only to Nepal (38.8%) in the visa refusal rate; Pakistan stood third with 30.8%. In a letter to CEO of Universities Australia, a copy of which is with TOI, the department of immigration said, ‘‘A forensic analysis of applications conducted by immigration officers at Australian High Commission in New Delhi found extremely high rates of fraud within documentation being provided in support of student visa applications in India. Over 50% of cases analyzed contained at least one fraudulent document, with many of these cases containing numerous such documents.’’

The spurt in refusals is a fallout of the stringent checks imposed by the department after education providers and media reports raised concerns about visa processing in the country.

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admin Study Abroad NewZealand Study Visa, Study Visa Australia