Newsletter March – April 2020

The first quarter of the year has been unprecedented as all businesses in the world have come across to entirely different challenges roused by the ongoing COVID-19 endemic. The lockdown of the countries has severely affected the travelling all over the world which has directly impacted the immigration policies and also on the people approach towards travelling and migration particularly in the short run.

Almost all major countries have stopped or slowed down their visa application processing and it is expected that the same trend would continue until July/August this year.

It is also foreseen that in the next quarter of the year the volume of visit, work or tourist visa applications would be quite low but on the other hand the student and skilled immigration applications will increase.

Due to the massive lockdown of the boarders and cities, the educational institutions are now offering their programs online, however the majority of international students are still inclined towards classroom education.

China which is a major source country for providing international students to various study destinations, but unlike previous years the enrollment of Chinese students, this year would not be as high as it was has been in earlier years. This would certainly increase the visa approval rate from the countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

On the other hand, UK’s Global Talent Visa would also be a great attraction for PhDs from all over the world. PhDs from Pakistan and from other Asian countries would try to get benefit from this visa.

Australia and Canada have shown their objectives to promote their regional or provincial sponsorship programs and they are introducing policies that can encourage candidates to apply for their designated regions.  Australian 491 visa class and Canadian Provincial Nomination Program for Saskatchewan have been gaining popularity and massive enquiries and applications are being in processed for these programs.

UK has already announced their point based skilled immigration policy to be effective from January 2021 whereas Trump’s government in USA has also announced their plan to introduce point based skilled immigration policy as has been adopted by Australia and Canada. So we are expecting 2021 a year of high skilled talent to move from number of developing or under developed countries to developed countries.

Opening of long awaited New Zealand residence policy for parents in the last month was a good news for New Zealand’s migrated families, however the high income threshold to meet the sponsorship requirement has been considered a check to reduce the number of applications.

It is also expected that Middle East countries would experience a considerable need of skilled workforce from countries like Pakistan, India & Bangladesh when the industries resume their operations after the Coronavirus endemic ends.  

At last, due to the impact of Coronavirus endemic, the travelling in the next few months would be on the lower ebb particularly on the visitor or tourist visa categories whereas the volume of residence and student applications would not be so affected. But in the last quarter of this year, the immigration activities are expected to become normal as these were before the Coronavirus outbreak.

Travel restrictions, border shutdowns by country:

Countries around the world have taken drastic measures, including border closures, in an attempt to curb COVID-19.

13 changes to the US immigration system during the pandemic:

The Trump administration has made sweeping changes to the country's immigration apparatus...

Who Needs a Coronavirus Quarantine When You Can Party in Thailand?

Australian universities are so dependent on money from Chinese students that they’re helping them circumvent travel bans and quarantine.

Self-isolating students and UK Tier 4 visa issues:

The situation is continuing to evolve.  Recently schools throughout the UK have closed.  This is yet to happen to Universities.

Caring for 300,000 temporary migrants in New Zealand is a crucial missing link:

More than one-in-16 people in New Zealand today – or more than 300,000 in total – is a migrant without residence status.

Canada updates immigration instructions amid coronavirus response:

New instructions are available for citizenship, permanent residence, temporary residence applicants and their families as Canada works to stop the spread of COVID-19....

Australia’s New 491 Visa is Now Open

New skilled regional visas:

Two new skilled regional visas will open to applications on 16 November 2019.  These new visas will promote regional migration and replace two existing subclasses:

New Replaces
Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 489) – first provisional stream
Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494) Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visa (subclass 187) – Direct Entry stream

 

Benefits of new visas

  • Priority processing of regional applications
  • Incentives for migrants to stay in regional areas longer term as they build ties through workforce and community participation
  • Can apply for permanent residence without a second nomination stage, if eligible, through the subclass 191 visa (commences 16 November 2022)
  • Lower cost to employers with only one SAF levy stage for the subclass 494 nomination (compared to the two stages for the current subclass 482 to ENS subclass 186 permanent resident pathway)
  • More points available to subclass 491 visa applicants
  • Broader range of occupations available than non-regional pathways
  • Expanded and consistent classification of regional areas

The minimum taxable income for the subclass 494 and 191 visa will be set at the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) unless concessions are agreed (such as in relation to a DAMA). TSMIT is currently $53,900.

We will provide more information about the new skilled regional visas shortly.

Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visa closes 16 November 2019

The Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) Direct Entry (DE) stream visa will close to new applications from 16 November 2019. Employers/migration agents who intend to lodge RSMS nomination and visa applications under the DE stream should submit a request for assessment by a relevant Regional Certifying Body (RCB) regarding local labour market conditions before this date.

Please contact us to get more details for this visa category.

If you want to avail this opportunity send your us your updated resume on info@isas.com.pk

Further information OR schedule your appointment please contact

TURKEY CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT

Turkey announced its citizenship by investment programme. It grants residency, citizenship and a second passport to applicants investing either in real estate or a bank deposit.

The bank deposit route is particularly attractive for investors. This requires $500,000 to be deposited into a bank account in Turkey which then needs to be maintained for a minimum of just 3 years. Importantly this investment can be in US Dollars. That eliminates the volatile currency risk of investing in Turkish real estate. Retaining liquid funds in this way leading to a second citizenship ranks Turkey as one of the lowest cost citizenship by investment programmes on the market.

A Turkish passport allows visa free travel (or visa on arrival) to 114 countries worldwide. Turkey also holds out the possibility of eventual visa free access to the EU. Currently talks are ongoing although Turkey has some way to go in order to meet EU conditions.

CITIZENSHIP INVESTMENT LIMITS

Required minimum investment limits for the citizenship programme are as follows:

  • Real Estate Investment  $250,000
  • Bank Deposit                  $500,000
  • Capital Investment         $500,000

The real estate investment amount was originally set at $1 million and in September 2018 was drastically reduced along with that for capital investment and bank deposits. The investment was required into real estate, shares of Turkish companies or government issued bonds. Citizenship of Turkey is granted after 3-6 months following the applicants investment. The applicant must hold the investment for a minimum of 3 years.

RESIDENCY

Residency in Turkey is also available through investment in real estate although the permit needs to be renewed every six months.

Please contact us to get more details for this visa category.

If you want to avail this opportunity send your credentials along with your updated resume on info@isas.com.pk

Further information OR schedule your appointment please contact

Balance the Parents Residence Policy with Parents Long Term Temporary Visa Policy

The government’s new Parents’ residence policy is currently hugely criticized. The government is quite right if they wanted to develop an immigration policy which is meant to favor New Zealand. But this newly introduced parents residence policy is apparently in no way in favor of the country.

At one side, the high salary threshold as set for sponsorship would discourage the highly skilled migrants to select NZ in the future to migrate rather they would prefer to move towards the country like Canada and Australia who have more to offer for their parents.

On the other hand, already settled skilled migrants in NZ would also start thinking to relocate to other countries and NZ would definitely struggle in next few years to retain them.

This predictable negative outcome can be avoided if the government devised a policy which is WIN/WIN for both NZ and for the skilled migrants. This can be possible if some long term temporary visas should also be introduced alongside for the migrants’ parents that I believe would be useful to mitigate the negative impact of this new parents residence policy.

The objective of the proposed long term temporary parents visa policy should be, to not only retain the skilled migrants in the country but also to keep NZ an attractive destination for highly skilled migrants in the future.

To achieve the purpose, Australia and Canada’s types long term temporary parents’ visas can be taken as examples. The parents of the below categories of the migrants can be facilitated with such types of long term temporary visas:

  • Those who are residents for 7+ years in New Zealand
  • Those who are working under current LTSSL occupation
  • Those who can provide long term medical insurance for their parents

 

Newsletter July 2019

The month of June has again been very exciting in terms proposals and changes in the immigration policies of major migrating countries. Some of the highlights includes:
    
The Trump’s government has proposed US’ immigration policy’s shifting from family immigration and H-1B visas to a points based skilled migration plan like Canada and Australia. This gives an indication that the world’s talent hunting race between the major countries will become more competitive. The expected entry of USA into the points based skilled immigration might help to lower down the points selection criteria of Australia and Canada. On the other hand Australia, New-Zealand and Canada will continue to promote  regional sponsored pathway for migration instead of independent visa class. Furthermore, Australia’s skilled category quota for this financial year 2019/2020 has been lowered by 30000  whereas Canada’s hasincreased their quota of number of skilled migrant for the current financial year.

Overall it is expected that the residence policies of most countries will shift from offering direct permanent residency to a regional based sponsorship visas.
As getting closer to Brexit, UK’s new ‘start up’ and  “Innovator Visa” are slowly but gradually gaining popularity in the market. It is expected that the “Start Up Visa” in particular will be a very successful visa for young entrepreneurs. 
Germany is beginning to gain ground to attract foreign talent by offering a similar point based immigration system as other countries to do. The skilled category is expected to be launched in early 2020.

Currently, Switzerland and Singapore have been rated as the largest skilled talent hunting countries of the world.  
Saudi Arab has recently announced a premium residence program in which first time permanent residence stream has been made accessible to aspiring applicants. 
UK and Canada are shaping up their student visa policies to become more attractive destinations in the coming years, while it appears that international student visapolicies of Australia, USA and New Zealand would not be as promising as before. Consequently, it is expected that new policies of the countries would not allow a permanent settlement options for international students after studies.  

Top News for July 2019

Newsletter June 2019

The overall skilled migration trend indicates a downward movement mainly due to the governments’ policies of localization and the unemployment level in the major skilled workforce attracting countries. However, new policies are currently in the pipelines that will dissipate this situation.

There are some changes in the immigration policies are expected in the US and UK in near future which would attract the world’s skilled work force towards these countries. Meanwhile, countries like Germany, Singapore and Switzerland show promising prospects for people having skills in the engineering and information technology fields. Apart from the above there were quite a number of approvals seen for Family Sponsorship Cases of USA during the last month.   

Coming towards the New Zealand, Australia and Canada region – the skilled immigration points criteria has continued to remain at the higher side. In Canada  it went up to 470 points earlier in end of May and then again showed a downward trend later in mid-June. In Australia the last 02 rounds’ selections have been as high as 75 and 80 points for most of the occupations with only 100 each EOIs were picked up for processing. Experts suggest that keeping high points and slow processing of applications are being used by the governments to manage the immigrant inflow in these countries.

On the contrary, the present situation in the Gulf region will remain vulnerable for the skilled workforce but it is expected that this uncertainty in the market will only last for temporary period. The recently announced investment and business migration policies by UAE and KSA is a highly encouraging indicator for those considering these markets as a good business and investment prospects .

The countries like USA, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand would continue to increase the inflow of students but without compromising quality – for a serious and genuine students particularly for post graduate STEM programs, the current situation is very encouraging to apply.

By: Maraj Ahmed
Managing Director 

Top News for June 2019

Australia 476 Visa From Pakistan

Introduction

Australian Recognized Graduate visa for 18 months is designed for those Engineers who have recently completed Bachelor of Engineering from recognized institutes by Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).

 

Potential Candidates

If you are meeting the following criteria you can be a prospective nominee for the Recognized Graduate Visa.

AgeNot above 31

QualificationRecognized Engineering Degree (Bachelor degree, Master degree, Doctoral degree or
Post Graduate Diploma)

English Language Ability  – Competent  (6.0 overall with no band less than 5.0 or equivalent)

Date of Graduation –  Within last two years

ENGINEERING MAJOR – Major area of study in one of these engineering fields:

Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering

Electrical and Electronics Engineering -Mechanical, Production and Plant Engineering

Mining and Material Engineering

 

Please contact us to get more details for this visa category.

If you want to avail this opportunity send your credentials along with your updated resume on info@isas.com.pk

Further information OR schedule your appointment please contact

 

 

Study in New Zealabd for Pakistani students

Reasons to STUDY IN NEW ZEALAND

Study in New Zealabd for Pakistani students

Reasons to STUDY IN NEW ZEALAND
— New Policy, New Opportunities —

  1. More chances for students to be eligible for PR after studies
  2. High visa chances for study in NZ’s regional institutions
  3. Full time work rights on PhD or Masters by research program
  4. One year job search visa after studies
  5. 20 hr/wk work during studies for Level 7 or Higher
  6. Full time work rights for spouse (for level 8 or higher program).
  7. Affordable tuition fee, to be paid after visa approval
  8. Religious tolerance and multicultural environment
  9. Quality education with world best ranked universities
  10. Fast visa processing with ISAS Consultants’ higher ratio of success
  11. Encouraging visa policy for post graduate level studies in Engineering, IT, Education, Food Science & Media Sciences

For more info contact ISAS Consultants today!
Mobile/Whatsapp: 0316-2666551 / 0316-2666552
Phone: 021 3-4987124 / 4980174
Skype: isas.consultants
Email: info@isas.com.pk
Web: www.isas.com.pk

New Zealand Education Expo – Regent Plaza Karachi [PHOTO GALLERY]

NZ Education promotion has now kicked off in Pakistan!

ISAS would like to thank Allah and all of you who have made our yesterday’s event (NZ Education – Karachi Expo) a great success.

A large participation from the interested candidates was beyond our expectations and interestingly majority of participants were meeting the current criteria of New Zealand student visa at post graduate level.

According to some of the participants, a one to one meeting with trained counselors and licensed advisor has made it a wonderful opportunity to them to discuss their cases in detail and get the assessment outcome on the spot.

We are now moving to Lahore to conduct the same on 1st November at Avari hotel with the aim that talented Lahorities should not miss the opportunity to explore New Zealand and to asess their chances of eligibility.

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[envira-gallery slug=”karachi expo gallery”]

3 things that can increase your chances of getting hired in NZ

An individual might possess all the required skills that are needed to get him/her a job in New Zealand but that is not the end of the story. There are still some factors one needs to overcome in order to perfectly fit in into the New Zealand job scene.

Here is a list of factors one should be mindful of in order to be all set for their respective jobs in the New Zealand marketplace:

Get familiar with the New-Zealand workplace environment:
Try to understand the workplace environment of New Zealand, this will be handy for you as it will show your employer that you know how the kiwi workplace functions.

Learn the difference between English and Kiwi-English:
The style and accent of the English language spoken by Kiwis is slightly different than the normal English, so an individual no matter how well versed he is in English, might experience some problems in understanding the local Kiwi lingo. It is advised to get comfortable with the Kiwi English beforehand to avoid any problems.

Try some volunteering work:
Taking part in jobs that a volunteering based is a great way to make connections and to get familiarized with the way New-Zealand works. Also, it helps out the individual to gain experience in skills that may turn out to be valuable when he/she applies for the actual job.