RELO NEWS
Foreign employers seconding employees to Bulgaria must comply with new notification and document retention rules by February 10, 2017.
Notification Rule Details
Foreign employers seconding employees to Bulgaria must file a form with the Labor Inspectorate by February 10, 2017. The foreign employer may authorise the Bulgarian host entity to file the form on its behalf through a representative employee.
President Donald J. Trump is expected to sign an executive order that will suspend the entry of foreign nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen to the United States for a period of 30 days, according to a published draft of the order. The executive order is also expected to suspend a worldwide program that exempted certain visa renewal applicants from consular interviews.
The executive order is expected to be issued Thursday, though it could be delayed. The following information is based on Fragomen’s analysis of the published draft. The final order could differ.
Foreign nationals currently living in Bolivia (with or without a visa) must register online before immigration by April 2017, according to a new immigration policy implemented due to increased security efforts.
Registration Details
Foreign nationals must complete an online form on the immigration authority website and take it to the immigration authority office to submit fingerprints and take a photograph.
UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) have advised that sponsors are now able to apply to renew their allocation of Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) in Tier 2 (General) .
The present allocations will expire on 5th April 2017.
Some sponsors’ allocations will be "automatically renewed”, in which case nothing is required from the sponsor.
However, UKVI will contact other sponsors via email three months before 5th April 2017, and monthly thereafter, by way of reminder
A new decree replaces the current Consular Visa exemption with a new one only for those holding a valid Australian, Canadian, UK or U.S. multiple-entry visa valid for at least one year from the date of entry and used at least once, for stays up to 30 days initially, renewable twice for 30 days each stay through an in-country process. The previous exemption, allowing EU or Schengen country visa holders to qualify for the exemption as well, has been eliminated.
According to a change in practice, foreign nationals seeking Indian visas in Austria will be required to visit an Indian visa application center to submit an Indian visa application on or after January 23, 2017. Additionally, foreign nationals filing in-person Indian visa applications in San Francisco must appear for biometrics at an Indian visa application center and must secure an appointment prior to visiting the application center.
Critical Skills Employment Permit (CSEP) holders cannot apply for a Stamp 4 which allows them to work without company sponsorship unless they have completed the requisite two years under their current CSEP.
Previously, CSEP holders could add up time spent on multiple CSEPs to meet this requirement.
Background
Until recently, CSEP holders could apply for a Stamp 4 after two years, regardless of the number of CSEPs the foreign worker held during the previous two-year period.
A new law effective March 1, 2017 will reorganize Peru’s immigration categories into temporary and resident categories, will allow foreign nationals to work in the public sector, and will relax travel bans but create new fines for foreign nationals violating immigration laws, among other changes.
New Immigration Category: Temporary Workers
The immigration category for temporary workers is meant for short-term workers. It includes the following key subcategories, among others:
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has begun to review a final regulation that, as originally proposed, would allow up to five years of temporary stay, on a case-by-case basis, for qualifying foreign entrepreneurs who establish a U.S. start-up entity that has substantial U.S. investment and the potential for rapid growth and job creation.
The long-awaited international entrepreneur regulation was first announced in November 2014 as part of President Obama's planned executive actions to encourage innovation and support U.S. high-skill businesses and workers and was published in proposal form in August 2016.
Third-country nationals who are considered to have in-demand skills are now eligible for a new expedited two-to-three week Single Permit processing time, instead of the normal processing time of up to 14 weeks. Currently, expedited processing is only available to nationals of a neighbouring country of Hungary, however the list of eligible nationals may be expanded to all third-country nationals.
The FY 2018 H-1B cap season will begin on Monday, April 3, 2017
Though the opening day of the filing period is still several months away, it is not too early for your organisation to begin assessing H-1B needs and working with your immigration team to begin the process.
Demand for new H-1Bs reached unprecedented levels last season and is expected to remain high in the FY 2018 season. For FY 2017, USCIS received 236,000 petitions against the annual quota of 85,000.
The Hong Kong Security Bureau is imposing stricter entry requirements for Indian nationals entering Hong Kong for business and tourism on or after January 23, 2017. Indian passport holders – who are currently allowed to enter Hong Kong without a visa for up to 14 days – will be required to complete an online pre-registration called a Pre-Arrival Registration (PAR) prior to travel. The new measures are meant to address the increasing number of Indian economic migrants who enter Hong Kong illegally.
In an effort to ease the administrative burden on sponsors of foreign workers and align UK immigration obligations with document retention obligations imposed on UK employers, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) has reduced the period of time for which sponsors must retain documents for their sponsored migrant workforce.
Specifically, sponsors must abide by the below new document retention rule, whichever is shorter:
A new law implemented in March with initial provisions effective November 1, 2016 (with a transitional phase) and additional provisions effective January 1, 2017, significantly overhauls the French immigration system, and includes measures to attract skilled foreign talent and increase employer requirements to combat illegal immigration and illegal work.
The most significant changes affecting employers are explained below.
Foreign nationals must earn at least DKK 408,000 per year to qualify for a work and residence permit under the Pay Limit Scheme.
This new rule applies for work and residence permit applications submitted on or after January 1, 2017. Applications submitted prior to January 1, 2017 will be subject to the current DKK 400,000 threshold.
This amount is subject to change on an annual basis.
On or after December 15, 2016, most spousal visa applications submitted in and outside Canada will be processed within 12 months, instead of the current average of 24 months, according to the Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Additional streamlining of the application process will include the following changes:
One application kit (applicants will no longer have to choose between two kits depending on whether they live in or outside Canada);
Dependents’ Telex VITAS (Limited Stay Visa Pre-Approval) can no longer be filed with the primary visa applicant's Telex VITAS application, which will prolong the overall processing time for dependents’ entry applications.
Additionally, Telex VITAS sponsor letters must now be signed by a company director of the local sponsoring entity. These developments follow the recent policy changes made by the Directorate General of Immigration.
The Costa Rican government has issued new visa rules for Non-Residents that will amend the visa requirements and the allowed periods of stay for certain nationalities in Costa Rica on or after December 14, 2016.
The official bulletin is available here (in Spanish) and the most notable changes will include the following:
Instead of the current four visa groups, nationalities will be divided into two main groups: visa-exempt nationals; and nationalities that require a consular or restricted entry visa, unless they possess one of following visas or statuses:
Foreign nationals and employers should expect a delayed work permit quota announcement in Romania.
Due to typical delays associated with the announcement of work authorisation quota levels for the year and the upcoming elections in Romania, foreign nationals and employers should expect a delayed work permit quota announcement and therefore, delayed work authorisation approvals for applications still pending in the beginning of 2017.
If the quota for 2017 is not published while a work authorisation application is pending, the work authorisation deadline will be automatically extended by 15 business days.
