A campaign has been launched in order to relax visa regulations for Indian shoppers who come to spend amazing amounts in London! In addition, reports say that millionaires from India come in huge number and are gradually becoming one of the upcoming trends of highest spenders in the UK.

The campaign has been termed as ‘The Visa-Ability Campaign.’ Speculations are in the wind that knowing the amount of people these Indian rich families spend in hot areas of UK like Oxford Street and Regent Street, to name a few, the amount is expected to reach 12 billion pounds as far as the next twenty four months are concerned.

Also, 2012 London Olympics are around the corner, so the expenditure would automatically reach its peak, giving a huge turn around in the UK economy. Also, people who love favorable exchange rates would appreciate shopping in the posh markets of London! And the population mainly comes from high end personalities from India and China.

The motto behind this campaign is to get more and shoppers to West End rather then they moving to other places to shop! The news is definitely great for all those people intending to come to UK on a tourist visa in the coming two years. Shop till you drop!

Predictors are speculating that the upcoming events in UK would boost the sales by a huge margin.

The story begins like this: The man is 45 years of age, and has an American spouse. But the story takes a turn when it took him a long span of as long as 17 years to convince the officials of Federal Immigration that his marriage to the American is genuine and not for the purpose of getting a green card. In short, the seventeen years old battle ran just for the sake of convincing the immigration people that the marriage is authentic!

Inderjit Singh, the concerned man is a cabbie. He entered the country in the year 1992, but was barred from getting a spousal green card under stringent marriage visa laws prevailing at that time.

The irony is that the couple was subjected to five interviews from the immigration officials, in addition to filing three additional petitions, but ended up getting failed every single time. Not to forget the time and money spent in this tedious process which has taken 17 years, but still have not reached its meeting end. The journey is till unfinished for them. The couple had to take loans and have almost spent 20,000 dollars on the whole cost spent on this immigration case.

The case states that the man didn’t even go to attend the funeral of his father in India, knowing to the fact that he would not be granted entry in the US premises again.

Reports say that this is not an exception as many cases have been reported which have caused couples to lie in a state of limbo.

With the introduction of new law in Arizona’s immigration, it has become a nightmare for Hispanics to continue to live in the state. New law enforced by the Arizona Immigration is forcing the Hispanics to look for other places to live. The current situation is so bad that they are flying from Arizona seven weeks before the law is enforced, that is on July 29th.

There is no definite figure which can tell exactly how many Hispanics have flown but the Hispanic dropouts from schools and colleges are quite large in number. The Balsz Elementary School District has the population of about 75% Hispanics and within a time period of one month only, around 70% of Hispanic parents have stopped sending their children to the school as said by District Superintendent Jeffrey Smith. The district has lost many of its Hispanic students and parents blame the Arizona’s strict law for this. Hispanics are moving towards other states and countries where they feel more accepted.

By the law, (as signed on April 23rd by Republican Governor Jan Brewer) a police officer could check the immigration status of the person if they suspect that the person is staying illegally in Arizona. People whose business is dependent on the Hispanic community are going into losses. Jorge Vargas is one of those sufferers who are not Hispanic but are greatly affected as their business is dependent largely on them. Jorge has an air conditioning business which mainly has Hispanics as their regular clients.

There are many illegal immigrants in Arizona who have been living with their families and working for more than 20 years. They would not want their families to be insulted by police and so have decided to leave the state and move somewhere else.  It’s mainly the illegal immigrants who are leaving Arizona with their families and this could mean that the chances of breach of law would be less, which quite an accomplishment is making their task easier as said by Paul Senseman, a spokesperson for Brewer.

If you are one of those people who are planning to start their lives in the U.S. and want to work in various fields like accounting, engineering, architecture, law or any other area, then you would needing a H1-B visa. The minimum requirement to apply for this visa is that you should have atleast a bachelor’s degree or any other qualification equivalent to that. Just in case you have a degree of foreign university, then your educational credentials will be checked and examined by the visa authorities. This is to make sure that you are meeting with all the necessary requirements to work there.

The responsibility of reviewing your credentials goes to the officers at the USCIS who would ensure that your educational qualifications or work experience is good enough to meet the necessary requirement to enter the U.S. territory. It’s not necessary that your credentials will be evaluated only on the basis of your educational degree, your work experience or practical training can also be counted.

Just in case, you do not have any bachelor’s degree or your degree is from some foreign university, then you have to show that your qualifications or work experience holds the value which is equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree.

Showing the statement of your credentials means that you have managed to clear your college level equivalency test (CLEP) or your credentials are being assessed by some recognized office which is responsible for evaluating the educational credits of students coming from foreign land.

To know more, it is recommended that you get in touch with an Immigration and Visa Expert who deals with US immigration. Such a person would be acquainted with all the recent updates in this regard. He would be in a position to guide you through the entire process effortlessly.

The report came from the UK Border Agency office in India that more and more people are intending to visit the United Kingdom, and as a result of which the visa processing process has been getting slow, significantly. The agency is receiving large number of visa applications from Indians of late. When there is huge number of applications, the processing process is ought to be slow.

According to many reports, Indians who have filed for UK visas are required to wait for up to 70 days to get their visas. The delays in visa processing made many people to postpone their visit to the UK. The situation is mainly caused by the increased number of petitions for visitor visa.

However, the officials of the UK immigration services said that they have been trying their level best to make the process quick. According to the agency, they have seen an increase of applications of 20 percent in the visitor visa category this year over the last year. And this part of the year happens to be peak season for the type of visa.

However, people who have visited the UK within the last year, they can obtain their visitor visa in just one week. As for the people who have been planning to visit the United Kingdom (unlike the ones who have already visited the previous year), they are recommended to apply for their UK visitor visa a minimum of five to ten weeks prior to their UK visit.

It is always recommended to keep everything ready in advance to make sure your travel plan becomes a success. As far as overseas trips are concerned, visa obtaining process being the most daunting one, it is advised to seek the help of a professional Immigration and Visa consultant in proper time!

The Canadian High Commission in New Delhi is constantly asking all its applicants especially those belonging to the security forces in India to submit a detailed record of all their service years. This is post the apology made by Jason Kenney, the Immigration Minister for Canada. He also indicated that the immigration counselors have too much freedom when it comes to taking decisions related to visa issues.

The recent controversy coming about is the case of a retired colonel who lives in New Delhi. He has filed his application for a tourist visa to Canada. Additional to all his documents, he was asked to submit the tax returns of his son-in-law who lives in Canada. Post submission, he was then asked to present a detailed record of his career in the Indian military which must include all the places that he was posted at and the names of his superiors.

Such information was never asked for when the colonel had applied for a visa previously and questioned if the same would have been asked from a Canadian soldier, how would Canada react to this?

It clearly shows that the apology was only of face-value and the communication gap still continues to exist. This is all happening when Canada portrayed all its intentions to further its ties with India. At the same, it has also come forward that certain Canadian Diplomats have disapproved of the Security forces in India.

With such serious allegations in the letters informing the visa denials clearly fumed the nation with many politicians suggesting to stop New Delhi being used a transit point to go to Afghanistan.

Despite promise for amendments being made, the case still seems to be the same. Being bureaucratic in nature, it is but obvious that these changes would take time to be implemented. But then, the sooner the better for both the nations!

The visa denial series involving the Canadian High Commission in India and the Indian border protection personnel seems to be never ending. Even after expressing regrets by the Canadian immigration ministry over the issue, there were still few more details to come out. A latest report of an e-mail sent to a Punjab police officer tended to uncover the hypocrisy of the Canadian government over the whole visa dismissal saga.

Reportedly, Parmjit Singh Khaira had filed a petition for a travel visa to Canada in on August last year. However, he happened to be one of those security officials who have been rejected permits over the recent years. The Canadian High Commission in India dismissed his application after five days of his filing the same, citing the reason that Mr. Khaira does not fulfill the requirements of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act’s Section 35(1) (A).

As per the said section, Canada does not permit the entrance of the individuals who have engaged themselves in anti-human activities. Eventually, the officer had to face more interviews, following his appeal to the consulate general in Chandigarh. Still, he was not found eligible for the visa. He then appealed the immigration ministry for a review of the decision in written in March, 2010. Khaira was then sent an e-mail from the ministry that supported the views expressed by the High Commission. The ministry stood by the views that Khaira belonged to the group of inadmissible individuals who are not allowed by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

This particular case surely exhibits the slyness of the Canadian government, irrespective of its regrets over the series of visa rejection instances!

According to the recent statistics from the Home Office, there has been more number of immigrants from European nations such as Czech Republic and Poland who have abandoned the United Kingdom rather than settling down in the nation.

This has been the first major turn around since the UK immigration from the time immigration went on a large scale in Europe. Forty five thousand have arrived in the UK as A8 nationals compared to fifty seven thousand departures in 2009.

The A8 pertains to the nations of the central and Eastern Europe such as Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania and Czech Republic. These nations were included to the European Union in 2004.

The total migration figures for the year which ended in September 2009 have decreased. As per the data, the level of immigration is only increasing by 142,000 and has descended by 160,000 in the last year.

It has been announced by the new Coalition government in the UK that it would bring about a cut in immigration especially for those belonging to the non-EU nations. However, no specific limit has been set as of now.

According to Damian Green who is the Immigration Minister for the United Kingdom, the new plans for immigration would involve cuts on the number of work permits, a system that would cater to the international students intending to come to the UK and lastly, actions on marriage.

Australia has been in the news recently for various reasons. More is being added to it with the Chinese media warning the Rudd government of the impact that it is going to have on Australian immigration. With the Skilled Migration List that is very limited post the amends brought in, the doors to immigration can be considered as being narrowed to a great extent.

With the new immigration policies in place, the agents in China have literally being taken aback. This industry sector caters to about one-third of the $17 billion magnum opus industry. This is because the students who intend to study in Australia would have financial concerns with the crisis already in place from the Indian students.

Previously, there were four hundred occupations in the Skilled Occupation List which has now been narrowed down to only one hundred and eighty one. The new list would be implemented from 1st July 2010. This change would hamper the students from China studying and those who intend to study in Australia.

According to the latest figures, the number of international students coming to Australia has gone down by 3.3% in the last four months till April. Last year, the figures showed 166, 414 foreign students when compared to only 160, 924 students this year. The trend showed a decline by 3.8% when it came to the vocational sector and 17% in the genre of English language.

Above all, it is of key importance to have an immigration policy that is migrant friendly so that more immigrants come in and contribute to the economy of the nation.

According to reports, lakhs of overseas applicants come to the United States every year with intentions to study further. Overseas students, especially Indians find ample reasons to move to US Universities, with Harvard being one of them.

The University ranks first all over the globe and offers more than three thousand courses to students who come to study here from all over the world. The University applauds those students who are decked with high intellectual imagination, brilliant character and capacity to come out with better judgment.

The University was established in the 1636 and since then, it has retained its position of being one of the highly acclaimed institutions in the global arena. Students from all over the world find it their fortune to study in this prestigious institution and hence, go on to become some of the best individuals.

Now here is some useful information for those intending to immigrate here. F-1 Visa is something which can prove to be an extremely beneficial aspect for overseas applicants intending to apply for a student visa. An overseas student can come to the US and stay there till the time he remains a student. After the completion of the course, the student applicant has the freedom to reside in the US for a span of 1 year and get OPT (Optional Practical Training)

In order to receive a student visa, one needs to fulfill all the mandatory requirements and see to it that he or she gets admission in a recognized university before commencing further. Guidance from a Student Visa Expert would add on to the benefit.