New Zealand: 34 members of the Immigration staff in New Zealand have been taken into investigations for their improper behavior as they have been speculated to have their connections with fraud cases.

According to Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman, it was on August 16 when 32 staff members were taken into investigation for their wrong conduct. Now two fresh investigations have added into the category of suspects, making the count to 34.

Out of the 34 allegations, 16 of them are present in various branch offices located all over the globe and rest are present in New Zealand branch. As far as the statistics from last one year are concerned, 60 such allegations have been faced by the immigration officials regarding various cases linked with fraud and corruption. 10 out of them were substantiated while 23 went through thorough investigation. 27 of them went unsubstantiated.

Out of the seven immigration officers who were sacked, six of them were based in New Zealand, while the other worked in New Delhi.

According to Labour’s immigration spokesman Pete Hodgson, it is extremely disappointing that immigration officials are facing these kind of allegations related with fraud and corruptions. He further added that he is not satisfied with robust checking system of the country.

In addition, it has been confirmed that a lot of work has been done in the direction of setting clear standards of conduct and behavior.

It is being planned by the New Zealand government to grant interim visas to all those foreigners who have been living in the nation on residential permits which have expired. This way they could continue to reside in the nation while they could submit new applications and are being considered in the meantime. As per the present rules, those immigrants living in the nation on either work permits or residential permits; these permits tend to expire automatically as soon as visa expires.

According to Jonathan Coleman, the Immigration Minister for New Zealand, this visa been brought about as a part of the New Immigration legislation. This would be implemented for the applicants to obtain from November in this year itself. He also said that a new program for sponsorship which would enable the various governmental departments as well as the organizations to sponsor foreign migrants under the rules of the Talent and Visitor policies. This would also cater to the needs of the sponsorship as well as those of the stakeholders.

This would be a huge alleviation for all the foreign migrants residing in the country of New Zealand. This is because this would enable them to work on a temporary basis after their visa has expired. In the process, a new application could be filed. This would make it much easier for these migrants.

About 34 Immigration officials from New Zealand deployed locally as well as overseas have been accused of fraud and corruption and are under investigation for wrongful conduct. This has come about after the termination of seven immigration officials this year. Of these, three of the officials were involved in the processing of the visas.

According to Jonathan Coleman, the Immigration Minister for New Zealand, about 32 allegations are being investigations by the department. These investigations are looking into the conduct and performance of the immigration staff. With this, two new allegations have come to surface.

Of the above, about 18 allegations are associated with the officials deployed in New Zealand. Another 16 of the staff members who are alleged to be involved are stationed at the branch offices abroad.

In the last one year, about sixty allegations pertaining to corruption, dishonesty and fraud have been charged on immigration officials. Of these, 10 allegations were confirmed where as another twenty seven were not proved. The rest twenty three are still under the process of investigation. Of the seven officials who were sacked on charges of misconduct, six were based in New Zealand while one of officials was in New Delhi.

As per Nigel Bickle, the spokesman for Immigration New Zealand, most of the cases here pertained to a conflict of interest along with the non-disclosure of interests when it came to the applications of friends and family. It requires a lot of work in order to clear and bring about clear standards of behavior and conduct.

New Zealand: Payao Chaimat, who is a national of Thailand,  the much wanted Thai man has finally handed himself over to the custody of police officials of Tauranga. He was in “Wanted” list since long time.

According to Senior Sergeant Glenn Saunders, the man in concern is aged 26 and escaped the custody of police as well as the immigration authorities on 17th August would be seen by the Immigration Services on this coming weekend. The guy has been confirmed to have lived in the land of Kiwis for more than twenty four months. He was searched extensively by the police of Taurange but managed to escape despite a thorough search through bikes and helicopters.

Reports say that he along with other two applicants came to reside in the land of Kiwis in August 2007. They arrived on “temporary work permits.” But since one year, they have been staying in an undocumented manner which made them a issue of chase by the police authorities.

It was on Tuesday when people these people were acquainted with a surprise visit by few police and immigration authorities. But Payao Chaimatran his best to avoid the encounter. Now other people are also taken into the police custody. The Thai community played a major role in telling about his whereabouts, for which acknowledge of appreciation has been given by the Sergeant Paul Cade of Tauranga police.

According to reports, the permanent population of New Zealand has increased by a heavy margin. The main reason behind this increase is due to the increase in the level of immigration seen in this beautiful country in the month of July. As far as the overall increase in concerned, the hike is seen of 15,200 for this year.

The reports are taken from Statistics New Zealand. The department has also confirmed that the net as well as permanent and long term arrivals from people from different countries have seen a hike as compared to the annual average of 11,900. This statistics has been recorded for years starting from 1990 till the year 2009.

As far as the statistics are concerned, a net 16,500 people crossed Tasman permanently. This figure is for July 2010. This has been calculated after noticing departures of 32,300 people and arrival of 15,800 applicants. New Zealanders were the majority amongst these immigrants.

According to BNZ senior economist Craig Ebert, the problem lies in the fact that people usually default to the statistics which are taken on the annual average basis. Also, these people ignore the underlying month on month figures.

Also, there has been a hike in the permanent departures and a continuous trend has been witnessed in the same over the past year. But now it has tended to freeze with more and more people waiting for the outcome of global crisis. Elbert further said what they may be seeing at present is the stabilizing permanent arrival figure which indicating low levels, but not going in a negative direction.

New Zealand: It has been confirmed that the new scheme to lure wealthy immigrants to New Zealand is turning to be a flop show as it is proving a lot more difficult to attract wealthy immigrants to retire to the land of Kiwis.

As far as the statistics are concerned, it has been proved that the new scheme implemented in the month of March has only managed to lure 12 applicants. This in itself is a disappointing figure to portray.

The Labour has confirmed that the new scheme has turned out to be a huge flop. As far as this scheme was concerned, it was launched to bring economical favors to the country. It was meant for the enhancement of the land of Kiwis but with only 12 people attracted towards this scheme, you don’t have much to get! The same has been confirmed by Labour’s Immigration spokes person Pete Hodgson.

But when the reaction of government is seen, it seems they are pleased with the figures. ,” Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman has stated that the starting has been encouraging and it is much head of what the previous government achieved.

But the Labour has confirmed that this scheme has not worked till now. In addition, the government ahs also said that the conditions would be made tougher and tougher in the upcoming times.

As reported before (http://blog.abhinav.com/new-zealand-and-australia-into-fingerprints-sharing-agreement/), the immigration authority of Australia has started exchanging and sharing the fingerprinting information with the land of Kiwis. The step has been taken in order to present the arrival of undocumented workers and applicants to barge into the country. Also, the step would prevent applicants make use of fake travel documents while traveling between both the countries.

Also, is reports are to be believed, this policy is likely to expand to other nations like US, UK and Canada as a part of what is called as the Five Country Conference (FCC). Also, this will help the immigration authorities find out those people who are resifting in the nations under the refugee status.

Refugees hardly have the correct documents. In addition, they lack apt identification papers, which confuse the immigration authorities to know about their immigration status and country of origin. Under the policy, the information would not be shared with anyone out of the nations who are a part of FCC policy.

This information would further be used to gather all the biometric knowledge about people who would be suspected to have their connection with false or undocumented status. Also, those suspected to hold relations with the crime world would be scrutinized too.

NZ has confirmed that it has almost 4,7000 fingerprints present on the database, which would further be shared countries in FCC policy. The step would prevent illegal immigration in future in a major way.

If you will go to www.nothinglikeaustralia.com you will find that Tourism Australia has come out with a new competition offering visitors who come from China to come and enjoy of the best of Australia!

Hence, this website will allow all those visitors who have been to Australia earlier to post their pictures or videos (what ever they feel like) in order to share some of their best experience spent in the land of Kangaroos.

The competition is an integral part of an attempt to promote Australia as a tourist destination on a global level. The competition would indirectly give a message that there is no country like Australia. In addition, these videos and photographs would allow prospective tourists to explore various aspects linked with the Australian tourism. The posters can also write the description associated with their traveling experience as to provide a deep insight into this beautiful land called Australia.

In addition, the Tourism Australia is decked with informative map of the country decked with plenty of attractions which the country has to offer.

Tourists to Australia need to get a Tourist Visa until and unless they don’t have an Australian or New Zealand passport. You can apply for ETA visa which provides the applicant with the freedom stay in the land of Kangaroos for a span of three months for tourism related

For more info on the same, contact a Tourist visa expert and skim through various aspects linked with Immigrating to Australia.

Reports say that as many as 3,516 visitors went on to avail the Visa on Arrival (VoA) scheme, the same which was implemented by the Indian government to bring more ands more of overseas visitors to India. The statistics are noted from the period of January till July.

The scheme came into action in January in the year 2010 and was meant for the nationals of countries like Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, who have intentions of coming to India for the purpose of tourism.

The statistics further say that Delhi issued the maximum number if visas (1,838). This number was followed by Mumbai which issued 769 and Chennai for which the number was 727.

The government has further confirmed that Singapore tourists topped the list when it came to the maximum number of visitors using this scheme. 1,164 tourists came from Singapore as far as these seven months are concerned. The next country in the list was New Zealand, for which the number was 856, Finland, for which 847 tourists were recorded and finally Japan which gave 625 tourists in number.

July alone witnessed 365 such visas alone. Amongst these 104 visitors were from Japan, 124 were from Singapore, the land of Kiwis gave 88 tourists while 45 came from Finland.

The statistics point out in the direction that the scheme has been a hit with the overseas tourists.

According to a research conducted by the Massey University, many immigrants from Korea are converting to Christianity in order to improve their business and social lives. Of the 31,000 Koreans who are in New Zealand, almost 90% of them attend the church regularly. This is despite the fact that Buddhism is the main religion in South Korean. And only one-fifth of the population consists of Christians.

Those attending the churches are doing so for religious reasons as well as to develop their network for business prospects apart from getting information and support. This is because many Koreans tend to face many issues pertaining to settlement, with difficult in English language which makes it difficult for them to be accepted by the local people.

20 Korean employers and 20 employees were interviewed where in it was found that around 75% admitted to being subject to some form of discrimination. According to one of the respondents, may customers tell them to go back to their nation. More so, teenagers on the streets spit and swear at them.

Since these people are comparatively earning less to what they were earning in South Korea, this also means that they cannot afford the same lifestyle that they were accustomed to in South Korea. At the same time, the expenses are very high.

Between the years 1986 and 1996, Koreans were the fastest growing community amongst the Asians. The numbers rose from mere 400 to 12,653. During the last Census, it was found out the Koreans consisted of 30,792. Most of these reside at the North Shore of Auckland.