Migrants marrying UK citizens must now learn English

Monday 12 July 2010

Compulsory English language tests will be introduced for non-European migrants applying to come to the UK to join or marry their settled partner, the UK government announced today.

From autumn 2010, they will need to demonstrate a basic command of English which allows them to cope with everyday life before they are granted a visa.

The new rules will apply to anyone applying as the husband, wife, civil partner, unmarried partner, same-sex partner, fiance(e) or prospective civil partner of a UK citizen or a person settled in this country. They will be compulsory for people applying from within the UK as well as visa applicants from overseas.

Home Secretary Theresa May said:

'I believe being able to speak English should be a prerequisite for anyone who wants to settle here. The new English requirement for spouses will help promote integration, remove cultural barriers and protect public services.

'It is a privilege to come to the UK, and that is why I am committed to raising the bar for migrants and ensuring that those who benefit from being in Britain contribute to our society.

'This is only the first step. We are currently reviewing English language requirements across the visa system with a view to tightening the rules further in the future.

'Today's announcement is one of a wide range of measures the new government is taking to ensure that immigration is properly controlled for the benefit of the UK, alongside a limit on work visas and an effective system for regulating the students who come here.'

Anyone wishing to come to the UK as a partner will need to demonstrate basic English at A1 level, the same level required for skilled workers admitted under Tier 2 of the points-based system.

A partner coming to the UK from outside Europe will need to provide evidence with their visa application that they have passed an English language test with one of our approved test providers.

Under the current rules, people applying for visas as partners must already meet a range of criteria before being allowed to enter the UK. All applicants must show that their marriage or partnership is genuine, and that they can support themselves financially.

Whether they have married in the UK or overseas (or not at all), the non-UK partner must apply for a two-year settlement visa to come and live in the UK as a husband, wife, civil partner, unmarried partner or same-sex partner. At the end of the two years, they can apply to us for permission to settle in the UK (known as 'indefinite leave to remain').

Partners who apply for settlement after completing their two-year period of temporary residence will still need to meet the 'knowledge of language and life in the UK' test. This is in addition to the new basic English language requirement, which forms part of their initial application.

Latest News On UK Visa application

Wednesday 7 July 2010

2 July 2010: Student Tier 4 visa applications - apply early. During our busy summer period, it is important that you submit your Tier 4 points-based system visa application in good time. This will allow us enough time to process your visa application and for you to attend the start of your course. To enable you to do this you can apply for your visa within 3 months of the start date of your intended course. For courses longer than 6 months your visa will be valid for travel from 1 month prior to the start date of the course. If your course is less than 6 months you will only be allowed to travel up to 7 days before the start of your course. To find out about our most recent visa application processing times, please see the 'Guide to Processing Times' page on this website.

28 June 2010: The UK Government will introduce a limit on non- European immigration. The number of workers entering the UK from outside Europe will be controlled by a new limit, the UK Home Secretary, Theresa May, announced today. Details of how the final limit will be delivered will be agreed following a 12-week consultation with businesses and other interested parties. In the meantime an interim limit will be introduced to ensure there is no rush of visa applications being submitted and the number of work visas issued stays below levels from 2009. For further information please visit the UK Border Agency website.

28 June 2010: The online visa application system will not be available from 05 July until 06 July. The UK Border Agency online visa application system will be unavailable between 06:00 GMT on Monday 05 July 2010 until 11:00 GMT on Tuesday 06 July 2010 for maintenance work. You will not be able to apply online, or access your application, during this time. If you have booked an appointment using the online application system for the 05 or 06 July, you will need to print off your appointment confirmation and a copy of your visa application form before this date. We apologise for any inconvenience.

16 June 2010: New English language requirement for partners. The UK Border Agency has produced further guidance on the English language testing for:

• nationals of a country outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland; and
• nationals in a relationship with a British citizen or a person settled here; and
• nationals who want to apply to enter or remain in the UK as their husband, wife, civil partner, fiancé(e), proposed civil partner, unmarried partner or same-sex partner.

Please see the UK Border Agency website for the latest up-to-date information and the latest news dated 9 June 2010 on this website.

09 June 2010: Migrants marrying UK citizens must now learn English. Compulsory English language tests will be introduced for non-European migrants applying to come to the UK to join or marry their settled partner. The new rules will apply from autumn 2010 to anyone applying as the husband, wife, civil partner, unmarried partner, same-sex partner, fiance(e) or prospective civil partner of a UK citizen or a person settled in this country. The compulsory English language test will be with a UK Border Agency approved test provider and will apply to visa applications from overseas as well as people applying from within UK. The full news report can be found on the UK Border Agency website.

Prospect of visa restrictions, a cause for concern: Infosys

The prospect of increasing restriction on visas in several countries, particularly in the US and the UK, is a concern for the IT industry, according to Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Infosys.

“They (the Governments and States) are responding to high unemployment rates. I hope it is temporary and the impact, if at all, will be minimal. There is no impact as of now,” he said.

“There is a backlash happening everywhere. This is a challenge we are facing. All companies in India have grown in the last two quarters. The future too looks bright. But the prospect of restriction on visas is a concern,” he said.

He was here on Friday to deliver a lecture on the future of IT in modern warfare in the context of challenges being posed to cyber security, organised by the College of Defence Management.

He said Infosys was in touch with industry bodies such as Nasscom to understand the implications. “Preparedness is happening,” he said.

Stating that unemployment in the US was growing, he said, citing reports, about 50 per cent of people in that country were affected in someway or the other by the slowdown. “There are pressures in other countries as well,” he said, indicating the reasons for the threat of visa restrictions.

Britain explains new visa rules for interim immigration cap

For those who plan to immigrate to Britain, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has given a detailed explanation to help better understand the implications of the British government's interim limit on non-EU immigration from July 19. The agency said in a release that until the interim limit is implemented on July 19, 2010, applications will continue to be assessed as normal.

The Investor, Entrepreneur and Post-study work categories of Tier 1 will not be included in the interim limit and in-country extensions under Tier 1 (General) will also be excluded.

About the interim cap, the UKBA said: "From 19 July 2010, we will introduce a limit on the number of applications to Tier 1 (General) that we will consider in any one month. We will also increase the pass mark for Tier 1 (General), from 95 points to 100 points. Applications will be dealt with on a first-come, first-served basis.

"Those who are already in the UK under Tier I (general) will be excluded from the limit and they can even apply for an extension. Same is the case with those already in the UK under any other immigration category and want to switch to Tier I (General)."

The UKBA release said that under the interim cap, the number of points required for a Tier I (general) has been revised.

"If you are in the UK in one of the following categories - Tier I (General), HSMP, Writers, composers and artists, self-employed lawyers and are applying to extend your stay in Tier 1 (General), you will need to score 95 points. If you are in the UK in any other category, for example Tier 1 (Post-study work), then you will need to score 100 points when you apply to switch into Tier 1 (General). If you are applying from outside the UK, you will need to score 100 points."

While applications will be accepted during the interim limit period, they will not be processed once the monthly limit has been reached. Applications will be held in a queue, in strict order of their date of application. Applications in the queue will be processed when the following month's limit is opened.

For the Tier II (General) category, the 'Intra-company transfer', 'Sportsperson' and 'Minister of religion' categories of Tier 2 will not be included in the interim limit.

From July 19, a limit on the number of certificates of sponsorship that each sponsor can assign to migrant workers under Tier 2 (General) is being introduced. A migrant who has a valid certificate of sponsorship will be considered inside the limit and the application will be assessed as normal.

Applicants who are in Britain in another immigration category and wish to switch into Tier 2 (General) will be included in the limit, the release said.

UK Identity cards no longer needed by immigrants

Saturday 3 July 2010

Recently the UK Government has announced that identity cards for immigrants and British citizens will be scrapped within 100 days. The National Identity Register which holds biographic and biometric fingerprint data of card holders will be destroyed. The new Government is giving this a great deal of priority; this was the first piece of legislation introduced by the Coalition Government.

UKHome Secretary Theresa May had the following to say:
'This bill is a first step of many that this government is taking to reduce the control of the state over decent, law-abiding people and hand power back to them.
'With swift Parliamentary approval, we aim to consign identity cards and the intrusive ID card scheme to history within 100 days.'
The Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:
'The wasteful, bureaucratic and intrusive ID card scheme represents everything that has been wrong with government in recent years.
'By taking swift action to scrap it, we are making it clear that this government won't sacrifice people's liberty for the sake of Ministers' pet projects.
'Cancelling the scheme and abolishing the National Identity Register is a major step in dismantling the surveillance state - but ID cards are just the tip of the iceberg. Today marks the start of a series of radical reforms to restore hard-won British freedoms.'
It is expected that the Bill set set out in the Queen's Speech on 25 May will be enacted in August 2010. The bill will invalidate identity cards; It will no longer be possible to use these as travel documents in Europe. The UK Government says that this will save the taxpayer £86m over the next four years. Immigrants and British citizens will no longer have to pay for the cards and according to the Government will save £800 million in card fee costs over the next ten years. The Identity Commissioner role will end. The public panels to scrutinise the identity cards scheme, have been disbanded.

UK Immigration Bogus Job Offer Warning

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has recently made an announcement about bogus job offers to overseas nationals looking for work in the UK. UK immigration warns that sometimes names of real UKBA officials are used in the job offers.

Rob Yeldham, director of communications at UKBA made the following announcement.

'My name has been used in several apparent attempts to scam foreign professionals looking for work in the UK. We have referred cases to our security unit, but at this stage it is unclear what the nature of the scam is, or where in the world it is based. The best advice is to be careful of any unsolicited offers.'
We would advise you to take the following precautions:
UKBA deals with immigration control. It is not their job to find work for migrants.
UKBA email addresses will normally have "gov" at the end of the email address.
It is normally difficult to obtain a work visa for entry to a particular Country. Before paying any money to an individual or entity for work related services ask for full details of the type of visa that you will come under.
Most legitimate organisations have their own domain name. For example they would not use a gmail or yahoo email address.
Try and avoid transferring money using Western Union or a similar service. It is difficult to know for sure exactly who will be receiving the money.
If everyone takes reasonable precautions it should be possible to beat the fraudsters.

Iraq war illegal, Tony Blair was told

Friday 2 July 2010

London, July 2 (IANS) Former British prime minister Tony Blair was warned that the invasion of Iraq would be illegal in a secret memo from Attorney General Lord Goldsmith three months before the war began, a media report said.

The British Cabinet Office has published the first draft of Goldsmith's legal advice which confirmed he had doubts about the legality of the conflict without a new UN mandate, express.co.uk reported.

The memo, written on Jan 14, 2003, refers to the UN's previous resolution saying that it 'does not revive the authorisation to use force... in the absence of a further decision of the Security Council'.

However, within days of giving this advice, Goldsmith flew to the US for a meeting with former president George W. Bush's advisers, who changed his mind.

'We had trouble with your attorney. We got him there eventually,' John Bellinger, former White House legal counsel told British colleagues later, the report said.

Goldsmith, however, termed this report as 'nonsense' but admitted he had serious reservations about the war.

He gave the go-ahead, after which the armed forces joined the US-led invasion March 20.

Several British government lawyers have told the Iraq Inquiry they believed the invasion was unlawful.

The Iraq Inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, is a public inquiry into the role of Britain's role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The inquiry was announced June 15, 2009 by then prime minister Gordon Brown.

UK security not to 'pat down' turbans of Sikhs during airport search

London, July 2 (ANI): Sikhs living in Britain or those travelling to that country will no longer face the embarassment of having their turbans searched as part of an established security drill.

The Department of Transport has taken cognizance of the Sikh community's complaints on this score almost two months after European lawmakers permitted security staff to pat down and open a Sikh's turban if the metal detector bleeped as they walked through.

Airports have been instructed to stop such searches.

Sikhs will now have their turban scanned by a hand held wand, and will only be subjected to searches by hand if metal is detected in the turban.

The Daily Mail quoted a spokesperson for the Birmingham International Airport,as saying: "On Thursday, the Department for Transport advised all UK airports to continue using the previous methods of screening religious headwear, which eliminates the need to carry out hand searches. We have reacted accordingly."

Sikh community leaders have welcomed the end of the "humiliating and offensive" search. (ANI)

Young NRI men in UK being forced into marriage

British officials have been dealing with several cases of young Indian-origin women being forced into marriages against their will, but recent cases show a sharp increase of men facing such ordeals.

Britain has set up a Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) that deals with cases of British citizens being forcibly taken to the Indian sub-continent and married against their will for cultural, immigration or family reasons.

The unit has rescued several young women, but it is estimated that most cases go unreported. Latest figures show that during the last year, the unit registered a 65 per cent rise in the number of calls from men.

The unit received the most calls from men linked to Pakistan, followed by India and Bangladesh. It also received calls from British men with links to the Middle East, Africa and eastern Europe.

A spokesman said: "The calls we receive are the tip of the iceberg. It now seems likely that men account for one in five of all the forced marriages that take place to British citizens."

In June, the FMU took a call from a young man in Leicester whose family had allegedly locked him in his bedroom after discovering that he was gay.

He told the FMU that his family were downstairs, discussing whether to take him to India and either kill him, abandon him there or marry him off.

Last year, the FMU gave advice and support to 1,682 men and women regarding suspected forced marriage.

More than 220 calls and emails involved male victims, up from 134 in 2008. As of the end of May this year, there have been 88 calls from men for help.

Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne said: "Boys and men who are forced into marriage find it harder to ask for help than women, but we are urging males affected by forced marriage to speak out and seek the help that is available to them."

He added: "Of course, women make up the majority of forced marriage victims, and over 1,400 reports of women facing this abuse were dealt with by the FMU last year.

But people often don't realise that men can be victims of forced marriage too."