The UK
Spending Review
Government cuts announced in the Spending Review will mean that the UKBA’s budget will be reduced by 20% over the next four years. The Home Office has said that the cuts will be met by reducing support costs in the UK Border Agency and improving productivity and value for money from commercial suppliers. The agency will also invest in new technologies to secure the border and control migration at a lower cost. An increasing proportion of the costs of controlling immigration and securing the border will be met by migrants and visitors to the UK. By taking these measures, the agency will save around £500m.
Linked to this, the Ministry of Justice has stated that migrants and asylum seekers will have to pay for appeals against decisions made over their cases, whether or not they are successful. The Ministry of Justice said that last year it cost £115m to run the immigration appeals system. Fees will apply to appeals against decisions refusing someone leave to remain, leave to enter, or vary their current leave to remain in the UK. Fees are expected to range between £60 and £250 dependent on the type of appeal. Some people may be excluded from paying the fees, including those who qualify for legal aid, those who are receiving asylum support and applicants who are in the asylum “detained fast track process”. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Migrants has argued that migrants already contribute through application fees. The Home Office said that the UK Border Agency accumulated £750m a year from people applying for visas to visit, work, study or settle in the UK. Currently, the immigration and asylum tribunals system does not charge an appeal fee. Costs are met by the taxpayer, via the Ministry of Justice.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11598677
Colleges protest over Ministers comments on further education
Comments by the immigration minister, Damian Green, that international students applying for further education (FE) courses “may, or frankly may not be the brightest and the best” have triggered protests from principals of the UK’s larger colleges. They claim that the minister should update his knowledge of what FE is all about. Green’s remarks have caused concern that vocationally orientated international students will be discriminated against.
Bradford College’s principal, Michele Sutton, said "We don't think students get a lesser experience or a lesser qualification – and we don't believe they're worse quality students. We've had students who've gone on to make a massive impact, not just on their families and communities but also on the wider world."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/oct/04/visa-international-students-foreign-colleges
Immigration cap may harm UK research
Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of Universities UK has warned that the UK immigration cap being proposed by the Coalition Government will seriously affect the recruitment of highly skilled staff to UK universities and in turn, the provision of courses for UK students. Overseas competitors are watching and will be ready to attract international staff and students deterred by negative perceptions of the UK visa system. Over 10% of academic staff at universities are non-EU nationals
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/oct/12/universities-rely-on-international-staff
Tier 1 under threat?
A study published by the UK Border Agency reveals that around a third of the Tier 1 people sampled are being employed in lower skilled jobs. In what sounds like a threat to the continuation of the current Tier 1 schemes, Immigration Minister Damian Green said:
'While it is important that low-skilled jobs are filled, there are hundreds of thousands of British people who could be doing them instead of a migrant.
'Those coming into the UK under the highly skilled migrant route should only be able to do highly skilled jobs - it should not be used as a means to enter the low-skilled jobs market.
'Investors and entrepreneurs aside, this report questions the value of this route into the UK, and the findings will play a key part in discussions on how the annual limit will be shaped.'
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/pbs-tier-1/pbs-ter-1/pbs-tier-1.pdf?view=Binary
New interactive forms for in-country applications
A new service for in-country applications has been recently launched by the UK Border Agency. The process represents first steps towards providing for online applications but for Tier 4, it only allows for the appropriate form to be identified, downloaded, completed and submitted as at present.
http://apply.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/popup/popup.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=howToIntelligent&
Renewal of annual allocations of Tier 2 Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS)
Sponsors should respond to reminders from the UKBA concerning the renewal of their annual allocation even though they will not receive an allocation whilst the interim limit is in place. Failure to submit a renewal request may cause the Tier 2 part of the sponsor licence to become inactive.
News from abroad
China plans to rival the West.
Beijing’s Peking University has embarked on a programme which has already brought a new, two-wing teaching hospital, an economics faculty, a centre for Executive MBAs and an English language school as part of a long term plan to rival the world’s top universities.
"China - unlike Britain, perhaps - understands that investing in top-quality university education is essential for its future economic development," said Yojana Sharma, Asia editor of University World News.
The Ministry of Education has stated that he wants to double the number of foreign students to 150,000 by 2010, transforming China into the largest provider of education to international students in Asia. A report by the British Council’s International Education Intelligence Unit identified China as a “competitive threat to the UK”. Even if China’s emergence as a university superpower is still 10-20 years away, the gap is narrowing year by year.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/ULTIMATE+UNIV+BRAIN+DRAIN/3712991/story.html
Australia’s plan to attract foreign students
As a result to a considerable fall in international student numbers, vice chancellors are calling for a special student visa and proposing that foreign students should be taken out of the immigration statistics.
The Australian international student market has been affected by bad publicity from attacks on Indian students, the high Australian dollar and competition from the US and the UK.
The new visa would allow foreign students to stay in Australia during their degree plus two or three years’ work experience in a related filed. This aims to depoliticise the debate by dissociating study from migration. An interesting approach in the light of the current debate about students and migrant numbers in the UK.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/vice-chancellors-call-for-student-visas/story-e6frgcjx-1225940876697
New TOEFL Junior Test for Younger Students
Students aged 11 to 14 years who are studying English as a foreign language now take Educational Testing Service’s (ETS) TOEFL Junior Test, a global assessment of middle school-level English language proficiency. The test contains three sections: Listening Comprehension, Reading Comprehension and Language Form and Meaning.
http://frontierindia.net/now-toefl-junior-test-to-guide-english-learning-for-younger-students
Veristat Services
For support in complying with UKBA requirements see our website www.veristat.co.uk and contact us at enquiries@veristat.co.uk Veristat provides a wide range of services to education providers through compliance audits, advice packages, assessment of intent and recruitment. Please contact us for a no commitment discussion if you think you would benefit from any of these services.
Sunday 31 October 2010
Monday 4 October 2010
Immigration Notes October 2010
Cancelling existing leave overseas
The UKBA announced on 16 September 2010 that Tier 4 students who still have leave to remain within the UK in their passport can now make a new application for a UK visa from outside the UK.
The Tier 4 policy guidance currently states that if a student wants to study with a new Tier 4 sponsor before the existing visa has either expired or been curtailed, they must make their new application in the United Kingdom. If a student makes a new application from outside the United Kingdom it will be refused.
However, students with existing visas will now be able to make applications from outside the United Kingdom. http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/aboutus/newsroom/?view=News&id=22872220
Fees
New fees for immigration applications were announced on 9 September and introduced on 1 Ocober 2010. A table showing the new fees can be found at http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/fees-table-Oct-10.pdf
In line with the new fees, UKBA has also published new versions of the following application forms and guidance:
• NTL form and guide (If your resident permit gives you permission to settle permanently in the UK (indefinite leave to remain), and you want to transfer it to a new passport, you must apply for a 'no time limit' (NTL) stamp using form NTL.
• TOC form and guide (If your resident permit gives you temporary permission to live in the UK (limited leave to remain) and you want to transfer it to a new passport, you must apply for a 'transfer of conditions' (TOC) stamp using form TOC.)
• Tier 5 (Temporary worker) form
• PBS Dependant form
• Tier 4 (Help text leaflet form) (G)
Revised Sponsor Guidance
Revised Sponsor Guidance for applications under Tiers 2, 4 and 5 has been introduced from 1 October 2010. The revised Tier 2 Guidance covers the introduction of the interim limit for the issue of Certificates of Sponsorship. Copies of the revised documents can be downloaded from the UKBA website via the following link http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/pbsguidance/
Immigration Minister’s Speech and Comments
The Immigration Minister, Damian Green delivered a speech on 6 September 2010 at the Royal Commonwealth Society following the publication of new Home Office research called The Migrant Journey. The research is an analysis of the current routes into the UK and the different ways that migrants are able to reach settlement providing evidence about the routes migrants use to enter and remain in the UK, indications of how long they stay and when they leave. The research looks at the cases granted settlement in 2009 and looks backward through their immigration history to see why they came here in the first place, and what changes to their status they subsequently went through before deciding to settle here permanently http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/horr43c.pdf
The largest group of cases in the study granted visas in 2004 were to students, around 186,000, of whom more than a fifth were still in the UK after five years. Whilst accepting that the system has changed since 2004 and that it would be inappropriate to extrapolate directly, the Minister expressed concern about the effect on net migration if a similar proportion of students from other cohorts remained in the UK. In the 12 months to June 2010 the figure for long term students coming to the UK was almost 288,000 rising to over 320,000 once you include their dependants.
Whilst the Minister inevitably stated that he wanted to encourage legitimate students to universities, he also referred to having a system which “scrutinises” effectively, allows action to be taken against those who seek to remain in the UK long term and ensures that institutions play by the rules. The focus on universities and reference in the speech to having to decide whether it was “right” that the UK should be bringing more than ninety thousand people into Britain every year to do courses below degree level at private institutions has been interpreted as suggesting that action will be taken against further education colleges. This was also the view that emerged from a BBC interview conducted by the Minister on the same day in which he referred to looking hard at students doing courses that may not be of benefit to themselves or the UK http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11197156
There has been considerable debate about what all of this means. At the more extreme end there has been speculation, particularly in India, that Level 4 and Level 5 courses will no longer be available to international students and that this is evidenced by the delays currently being experienced in students applying for such courses. Looking back to what happened earlier in the year with regard to Level 3 courses, others have suggested that colleges offering Level 4 and 5 courses may in future require HTS status; and restrictions will be imposed on students switching to other categories and will no longer be allowed to bring in their dependants. All of this is, however, no more than speculation. All that we know at present is that there is a review of Tier 4 and that we can expect there to be some changes. The normal pattern is for policy changes to be announced mid October/November after the Party conference season.
Veristat Services
For support in complying with UKBA requirements see our website www.veristat.co.uk and contact us at enquiries@veristat.co.uk Veristat provides a wide range of services to education providers through compliance audits, advice packages, assessment of intent and recruitment. Please contact us for a no commitment discussion if you think you would benefit from any of these services.
The UKBA announced on 16 September 2010 that Tier 4 students who still have leave to remain within the UK in their passport can now make a new application for a UK visa from outside the UK.
The Tier 4 policy guidance currently states that if a student wants to study with a new Tier 4 sponsor before the existing visa has either expired or been curtailed, they must make their new application in the United Kingdom. If a student makes a new application from outside the United Kingdom it will be refused.
However, students with existing visas will now be able to make applications from outside the United Kingdom. http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/aboutus/newsroom/?view=News&id=22872220
Fees
New fees for immigration applications were announced on 9 September and introduced on 1 Ocober 2010. A table showing the new fees can be found at http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/fees-table-Oct-10.pdf
In line with the new fees, UKBA has also published new versions of the following application forms and guidance:
• NTL form and guide (If your resident permit gives you permission to settle permanently in the UK (indefinite leave to remain), and you want to transfer it to a new passport, you must apply for a 'no time limit' (NTL) stamp using form NTL.
• TOC form and guide (If your resident permit gives you temporary permission to live in the UK (limited leave to remain) and you want to transfer it to a new passport, you must apply for a 'transfer of conditions' (TOC) stamp using form TOC.)
• Tier 5 (Temporary worker) form
• PBS Dependant form
• Tier 4 (Help text leaflet form) (G)
Revised Sponsor Guidance
Revised Sponsor Guidance for applications under Tiers 2, 4 and 5 has been introduced from 1 October 2010. The revised Tier 2 Guidance covers the introduction of the interim limit for the issue of Certificates of Sponsorship. Copies of the revised documents can be downloaded from the UKBA website via the following link http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/pbsguidance/
Immigration Minister’s Speech and Comments
The Immigration Minister, Damian Green delivered a speech on 6 September 2010 at the Royal Commonwealth Society following the publication of new Home Office research called The Migrant Journey. The research is an analysis of the current routes into the UK and the different ways that migrants are able to reach settlement providing evidence about the routes migrants use to enter and remain in the UK, indications of how long they stay and when they leave. The research looks at the cases granted settlement in 2009 and looks backward through their immigration history to see why they came here in the first place, and what changes to their status they subsequently went through before deciding to settle here permanently http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/horr43c.pdf
The largest group of cases in the study granted visas in 2004 were to students, around 186,000, of whom more than a fifth were still in the UK after five years. Whilst accepting that the system has changed since 2004 and that it would be inappropriate to extrapolate directly, the Minister expressed concern about the effect on net migration if a similar proportion of students from other cohorts remained in the UK. In the 12 months to June 2010 the figure for long term students coming to the UK was almost 288,000 rising to over 320,000 once you include their dependants.
Whilst the Minister inevitably stated that he wanted to encourage legitimate students to universities, he also referred to having a system which “scrutinises” effectively, allows action to be taken against those who seek to remain in the UK long term and ensures that institutions play by the rules. The focus on universities and reference in the speech to having to decide whether it was “right” that the UK should be bringing more than ninety thousand people into Britain every year to do courses below degree level at private institutions has been interpreted as suggesting that action will be taken against further education colleges. This was also the view that emerged from a BBC interview conducted by the Minister on the same day in which he referred to looking hard at students doing courses that may not be of benefit to themselves or the UK http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11197156
There has been considerable debate about what all of this means. At the more extreme end there has been speculation, particularly in India, that Level 4 and Level 5 courses will no longer be available to international students and that this is evidenced by the delays currently being experienced in students applying for such courses. Looking back to what happened earlier in the year with regard to Level 3 courses, others have suggested that colleges offering Level 4 and 5 courses may in future require HTS status; and restrictions will be imposed on students switching to other categories and will no longer be allowed to bring in their dependants. All of this is, however, no more than speculation. All that we know at present is that there is a review of Tier 4 and that we can expect there to be some changes. The normal pattern is for policy changes to be announced mid October/November after the Party conference season.
Veristat Services
For support in complying with UKBA requirements see our website www.veristat.co.uk and contact us at enquiries@veristat.co.uk Veristat provides a wide range of services to education providers through compliance audits, advice packages, assessment of intent and recruitment. Please contact us for a no commitment discussion if you think you would benefit from any of these services.
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