CBP Launches App for Border Crossing Updates
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has launched a ‘Border Wait Time App’ to help travelers plan when and where to cross the US border. By providing estimated wait times for pedestrian, passenger and commercial vehicles at land ports of entry, the app allows travelers to locate the three POEs closest to them and map the best route to the crossing of their choice. No registration or personal information is required to use the app, that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play. Read the full CBP press release.
Belgium
The Belgian government has announced an increase in the minimum salary requirement for Type B work permits and Blue Cards from January 1, 2015.
In addition the Belgian region of Wallonia has adopted legislation confirming that discretionary bonuses cannot be taken into account when processing a work permit application.
Minimum Salary Thresholds
The minimum annual salary for highly skilled foreign nationals applying for Type B work permits will increase to €39,802EUR, from €39,422EUR.
The minimum annual salary for senior management and executive-level foreign nationals applying for Type B work permits will increase to €66,405EUR from €65,771EUR.
The minimum annual salary for Blue Card applicants will increase to €51,466EUR (depending on the region of Belgium) from €50,974EUR.
Background
The Belgian government annually increases its minimum salary requirements for foreign nationals in line with inflation. Work permits are processed by the Belgian Regions: Flanders, Brussels, and Wallonia.
Canada
On 1 January 2015, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will launch a new electronic application system called Express Entry, to manage applications for permanent residence under certain existing economic immigration programs.
This is of particular interest to many foreign nationals currently in Canada on the Temporary Foreign Work (TFW) program. A cap was introduced on 1 April 2011 that limited stay under the TFW program to four years maximum. That initial four years will be up on 1 April 2015, so it is important that qualifying Temporary Foreign Workers who have been in Canada since 2011 and who wish to remain beyond that date apply correctly for permanent residence under the new system.
What is Express Entry?
The Express Entry system will be the new first step to immigrate to Canada under three existing programs:
the Federal Skilled Worker Program,
the Federal Skilled Trades Program, and
the Canadian Experience Class.
Provinces and territories will also be able to recruit candidates from the Express Entry system through their Provincial Nominee Programs to meet local labour market needs.
Note that the Province of Quebec will not use Express Entry. They select their own skilled workers.
How Does Express Entry Work?
First, potential candidates will be able to complete a secure, online Express Entry profile at any time, providing information about their skills, work experience, language ability and education. Note that there will be no deadline to complete a profile and there will be no caps on the number of candidates that will be accepted to the pool.
Anyone who meets the criteria for one of these programs will be accepted into a pool of candidates.
Invitation to Apply
Then, top-scoring candidates will be drawn from the pool at regular intervals and invited to apply for permanent residence. CIC will only pick the top ranking candidates, regardless of when they were accepted into the pool.
Candidates will be awarded points for:
a job offer, usually backed by the employer’s Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA);
a provincial/territorial nomination;
skills and experience.
Candidates who have been invited to apply will have 60 days to submit a complete Application for Permanent Residence online.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada aims to process the majority of complete applications (meaning those with all the necessary supporting documents) in six months or less.
Candidates can stay in the pool for up to twelve months. If they do not get an Invitation to Apply for permanent residence within twelve months of submitting an Express Entry profile, they may submit a new profile. If they still meet the criteria, they can re-enter the pool.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to enter the pool, candidates must have skilled work experience and a job offer in one of the National Occupation Code (NOC) 0, A or B occupations, and meet the relevant language requirements. The job offer must also meet the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) requirements for the relevant permanent residence program.
A candidate who already has a job offer supported by an LMIA, or a nomination from a province or territory, will rank high enough to be invited to apply at the next eligible draw of candidates. A candidate who does not have either of these must register with Employment and Social Development Canada’s (ESDC) Job Bank.
Finland
Effective December 1, 2014, foreign nationals applying for a Finnish residence permit will be asked whether they wish to be registered in the Finnish Population Information System and apply for a personal identity number in the application form. Until now, foreign nationals have had to register separately at a local office in Finland after receiving the residence permit and arriving in the country in order to submit their personal data and request a personal identification number. The personal ID number, is often needed for tax purposes and when communicating with public authorities, banks and employers.
Registration Procedure
Foreign nationals may ask to be registered in the Finnish Population Information System when they apply for their first residence permit, and receive a Finnish personal ID number (henkilötunnus) at the same time as they are issued with the permit. An extract from the population register will be enclosed with the residence permit decision letter, together with information on the ID number and local registrations. In addition, the ID number is printed on the Permit Card. If no residence permit is granted, no information will be recorded in the Population Information System, and the applicant will not be issued with a personal identity code. Note that the personal identity code will not be automatically issued, but the applicant must remember to ask to be registered when applying for the residence permit and include the request form.
Registration of EU Nationals
EU nationals can now also apply to be registered in the population register and obtain a personal ID number, at the same time as the EU registration at the local police station or online.
Municipality of Residence Registration
Registration in the Finnish Population Information System and issuance of a personal ID number does not include or replace municipality of residence registration, which must still be completed at a local register office if remaining in Finland for more than a year. Municipality of residence registration is needed for the use of services provided by the city or the municipality, such as healthcare services and child day care.
India
On November 27th the Indian government launched its new online tourist visa system for nationals of 43 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, UAE and USA (note that the UK is not included in the list).
The new system is expected to facilitate visa processing and increase tourism to India, and is likely to be rolled out to more countries soon.
Who Can Use The New Visa On Arrival?
The Tourist Visa on Arrival is available for holders of passports of the following countries:
Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Djibouti, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue Island, Norway, Oman, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, UAE, Ukraine, USA, Vanuatu, Vietnam.
Activities Permissible
The visa is available to those traveling on leisure, for short duration medical treatment, for a “casual business visit” or to meet friends and relatives. Travellers must show proof of onward travel and sufficient funds.
The definition of “casual business visit” is not clear but could realistically be interpreted as meaning business meetings of a short duration. If there is any uncertainty over whether the activities to be carried out qualify as a business visit or not (i.e. if any activities verge on “working” in India), it is unlikely that this visa would be appropriate. For more information about what activities are and are not permissible on business visa status in India, please contact us.
How Does it Work?
This visa applicant must apply online, at least four days before the intended date of arrival to India, for a Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA). The visa fee (about US$60) should be paid at this time. A digital photograph and copy the passport information page must be uploaded as part of the application.
The applicant should receive an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) within 72 hours, which they must carry at the time of travel.
On arrival to India, biometric data will be taken at the port of entry.
The TVoA is valid for 30 days from the date of arrival in India, is non-extendable, non-convertible and allowed for a maximum of two visits in a calendar year.
Ireland
There are delays in re-entry visa processing, and a change of wording for one category of eligible skills for the Critical Skills Employment Permit.
Re-entry Visas
In recent weeks there has been a very high number of people queuing to obtain re-entry visas, as people plan to travel over the Christmas period. There are reports of people queuing overnight at the main Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) office in Burgh Quay, Dublin.
The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) has acknowledged that they are experiencing an unprecedented demand for re-entry visas, but hopes to have normal processing times restored as soon as possible.
However the visa office strongly advise that any applicant intending to travel in 2015, does not join the queue at this time as it is creating additional difficulties for those who are planning to travel before Christmas. It is possible for people to apply for the re-entry visa by post and this service can take anything from 10 to 21 days.
Any visa required national residing in Ireland, with a valid permission to remain, will require a re-entry visa to travel freely into and out of Ireland (until they gain Irish residency rights). Re-entry visas are only granted for a maximum of one year, or in line with the expiration date on an individual’s GNIB card.
Note that the registration process with the Garda National Immigration Bureau, which is co-located with the Re-entry Visa Office, is operating normally. There is no need to queue before the Office opening hours and all applicants will be dealt with on the day.
Highly Skilled Eligible Occupations
The Department for Justice, Enterprise and Innovation (DJEI) has made slight changes to the Highly Skilled Eligible Occupations List, which defines which skills are eligible for the Critical Skills Employment Permit. The most important change is the new wording for the Sales, Marketing and Related Associate Professionals category.
The category now applies to “Business sales executives specialising in International Sales roles or ITB2B sales roles and with fluency in the official language, ‘’’apart from English’’’, of a state which is not a Member State of the EEA.” It can be concluded from this that any international or IT sales executive with fluency only in English or an EEA language is now ‘’’ineligible’’’ for the Critical Skills Employment Permit. Previous to this change, English as an official language of a non-EEA state was not mentioned as an exception in this category.
Russia pt.1
January 1, 2015 will be a big day for Russian immigration. In addition to the changes to the Highly Qualified Specialist (HQS) work permit system, which we covered in an alert earlier this week, major changes are coming to the standard work permit system for Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nationals, introducing a new system of “work patents”.
In addition, the new requirement for proof of knowledge of Russian language, history and legal system will be implemented for all categories of standard work permit and patent application.
Finally, there are some some minor amendments to the notification requirements for holders of standard work permits who are nationals of countries requiring a visa to enter Russia.
CIS Nationals
Work permits for CIS nationals are to be replaced with a new system of work patents, effective January 1, 2015. Following entry into the country, where any CIS nationals intending to work should state this on their migration cards, the applicant should then apply for the work patent within 30 calendar days and find local employment (either with a company or an individual) within 60 days of the work patent collection.
Work patents will give the right to work in a particular Russian region for almost any employer for up to 12 months (renewable once), free from any quotas. They will not be issued for specific job positions, allowing for transfer without need to amend the document and will not require a sponsoring employer for the initial application.
Authority with regards to issuance of work patents will be transferred to the governors of Russia’s regions who are now authorized to hire third party companies to process the applications, to prevent the issuance of work patents at any time basing their decision on Labour Office opinion, and to order that all work patent holders who are engaged in certain type of work need to be dismissed by their employers in a given timeframe if they see fit. It remains to be seen how this will be implemented regionally.
Visa Nationals
Effective January 1, 2015, Federal Law number 357-FL of November 24, 2014 amends existing notification requirements for visa nationals holding standard work permits, with fines of up to 1,000,000 RUB for each violation.
Companies employing standard work permit holders will not be required to notify the Tax Authority reporting hiring or dismissal of the employee and should instead notify the Federal Migration Service office reporting hiring or dismissal of the employee within three business days from the day of signing or termination of the labour agreement.
Russian Language, History and Legal Knowledge Exams
The upcoming requirement for Russian language, history and basics of legal knowledge tests to be applied to all categories of standard work permit applicants and work patent applicants remains vague. It seems that local schools and universities will be selected to test work permit/patent applicants on Russian language, history and legal basics knowledge but when and how this will work in practice is yet unclear.
Impact
Since none of the above developments will affect the Highly Qualified Specialists (HQS) work permit process, it is expected that more and more employers will consider engaging exclusively HQS Work Permit holders.
This is likely especially now that IT companies can employ HQS work permit holders with a reduced minimum salary, and even more so once Representative Offices are granted the right to sponsor HQS work permits from January 1, 2015.
Russia pt.2
Effective December 12, 2014, amendments to the Russian Labour Code state that employers must sign unlimited term labour agreements with foreign employees in most cases.
The new regulations also clarify that a labour agreement must include details of the foreign national’s work permit and medical insurance cover, and offer a few benefits for internal employee changes.
New Labour Agreement Regulations
From 12 December, all employers of foreign nationals in Russia are required to:
sign unlimited term agreements with all foreign employees including those applying for the Highly Qualified Worker Category. Some exceptions will apply (for general directors, chief accountants and/or when the employer is a Representative Office or Branch Office).Previously, there was no official guidance for employers about whether to sign limited term or unlimited term labour agreements with their foreign employees.
include in the text of the labour agreement the details of the document, confirming the right of a foreign national to perform work activities, whether this be the work permit, work patent, or temporary or permanent residence permit;
include in the text of the labour agreement the Medical Insurance Certificate or agreement between employer and Insurance company for provision of the medical insurance, including cover for first aid and emergency medical care. Previously, Russian legislation did not contain any specific guidelines as to what services medical insurance should include.
Moreover, all host entities now have the right to:
transfer a foreign employee to another job position within the company for up to one month within a calendar year, without first applying for a work permit amendment;
suspend a foreign employee from work activities for up to one month, if the employee’s work permit expires. Previously employers were required to terminate labour agreements in this situation.
Singapore
Personal Employment Pass (PEP) holders who obtained their PEP before December 1, 2012 must meet the higher minimum salary requirement introduced on that date by December 31, 2014.
Background
In 2012, the Singapore Ministry of Manpower announced significant changes to the Personal Employment Pass (PEP) route for highly skilled foreign workers, effective December 1, 2012. The PEP is not employer sponsored, and allows the holder to work for any employer, with permission for the holder to remain in Singapore for up to six months between jobs to evaluate new employment opportunities.
The changes introduced in 2012 included a huge increase in the minimum annual fixed salary requirement for new PEP applicants, from SGD 34,000 to SGD 144,000 (approximately EUR 88,950). Existing PEP holders were given a deadline of December 31, 2014 to meet the new minimum salary requirement.
Those whose PEPs expire between January 1, 2015 and June 30, 2015 are permitted to remain in Singapore until expiry of their PEPs without being required to meet the new salary criterion.