#immigration rules

[shumailach-blog]

Australia Wants To Attract the World’s Best? Make It Easier to Migrate

A few years ago, an Indian photographer friend living in Malaysia was flying to Fiji on assignment. He opted to fly through Sydney with a five-hour stopover, enough time, he reckoned, to get the train in to Circular Quay and drink a cold beer at the Opera Bar while marvelling at the Harbour Bridge.

But he never even got close, as he was prevented from even boarding his flight. He found out, at the airport desk in Kuala Lumpur, that his Indian passport meant he needed a visa simply to transit through Sydney. Forget the Quay, he needed the visa just to disembark the plane at the airport.

The experience didn’t just set his project back a few days and disadvantage the rest of the crew on the assignment, it left a seriously sour taste in the mouth of exactly the kind of globally well-connected professional that Australia should be trying to woo. When I asked other friends, I found it a common experience. Another Indian friend had been barred from boarding the flight to go to her own wedding in Auckland.

As far as case studies go, I admit that these ones aren’t particularly egregious, not when compared to some of the more difficult issues faced by those trying to enter Australia to work and set up their lives anew. But it’s an experience that shines a blinding light on a couple of things.

Image Credits

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the strict border controls that came with it, Australia right now has more jobs than it has a ready pool of skilled and available people to fill them. The government has been working to clear the visa backlog – down to 775,000, down from a million, it says, and this, along with the expansion of the Pacific worker scheme, shows a commitment to resolving the issue.

So why is it still so hard to get permanency?

Visa seekers speak of waiting five or six years, sometimes longer, to gain permanent residency in Australia. This makes it hard to live a normal life. I have a permanent visa-seeking friend right now trying to get to the United States for a business trip: the US wants a commitment from Australia that she will return here, but Australia is yet to grant her the right to stay. It’s properly a scene from Utopia.

People also speak of extremely expensive, long-winded and fraught quests to gain parent visas. Home Affairs says the waiting time for the parent visa is currently at least 74 months; and a migration agency estimated the total cost at more than $43,000. I’ve heard anecdotally of some spending closer to $100,000.

Image Credits

Australia has, at least since the Tampa standoff in 2001, used its visa program to signal its values. Business visas take precedence, signalling Australia’s dominant value of economic growth. Family visas have always – at least since I started taking notice, when I started at my first reporting job at SBS – been a category that a sceptical public (and consequently, government) has considered to be an unnecessary burden, a fast-track to overstaying and Medicare fraud. Australia requires passport holders from undesirable countries to submit to expensive and sometimes fraught visitor visa processes, even simply for an airport stopover.

Source:https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/australia-wants-attract-world-s-best-make-it-easier-migrate

[lexlawuk]

A Comprehensive Guide: Discretionary Leave to Remain in the UK

The UK’s immigration system is governed by a series of complex rules designed to determine who should be permitted to enter and stay in the country. These rules often set clear criteria for various visa categories. However, there are cases where strict adherence to these rules could result in an outcome that is deemed unjust or a breach of human rights. For such exceptional cases, the Home Office…

[comfymoth]

i’m mad this is my most liked post right now so look at my cat instead lol

[bootleg-nessie]

My dog got eated by an immigrant because of Sleepy Joe Byron’s LIBRAL COMMIE border policies >:(

[probablyasocialecologist]

A proclamation like “Immigrants steal our jobs,” and its rejoinder, “Our economy needs immigrants” treats immigrants as commodities to be traded in capitalist markets and discarded if deemed defective. Migrant justice must not endorse categories of desirable or undesirable, expectations of gratitude or assimilation, gestures of charitable humanitarianism, tropes of migrating to modernity, the commodification of labor to benefit capital accumulation, or state borders and other carceral regimes as legitimate institutions of governance.

Harsha Walia, Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism

[bishopmyrielfundraiser]

even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise--

--as Victor Hugo didn't actually say.

The Winter 2025 Bishop Myriel Fundraiser is now open. This year will be dedicated to immigrants, many of whom are languishing in private prisons whose stock just went way, way up.

Our goal this year is at least 25 auction items and over $1000 in funds raised. If you've never participated before, this is your year. DM if you would like to participate but need advice!

Get your fic, art, books, crafts, costumes, and other offers ready. You can submit them according to the rules under the cut, and bidding on each item will start as soon as it is posted. Bidding in REPLIES, NOT REBLOGS, will continue through the end of December 21st, the darkest night of the year.

The recommended places to donate this year are: 1) RAICES Texas, an immigration-focused group which freed more than 2,000 people from immigration detention over the years. They fought to reunify families when children were ripped from their parents' arms during the first Trump administration, and have now pivoted to using funds to provide legal support for the detained, while continuing to pay bonds for those clients.

2) Annunciation House, a shelter serving immigrants. Run by Catholics in Texas who open their doors to the stranger without asking to see their papers, this year they faced down a vicious attempt by the Texas government to shut them down as a "stash house." The attorney general claimed in court that they followed "a more Bohemian set of ‘seven commandments,’ including commandments to ‘visit’ people when ‘incarcerated’ and ‘care (for them) when they’re sick.'” What could be more in the spirit of this fundraiser's namesake, Bishop Myriel? If you are not in the US and/or find it difficult to donate via those pages and/or want to support a particular organization doing good work to assist immigrants that's not listed above, please feel free to select another organization. From groups funding rescue ships in the Mediterranean to those supporting refugees stuck in camps around the world, there is a lot of good work to be done.

Rules for submitting your offers and bidding on them under the cut

Rules

1. Offering

SUBMIT your offering post to this blog! Include a link to this rules post in your own post, and also a minimum starting offer for your item, which can be a fic, art, or a physical item--be creative! Your offer does NOT have to be connected to the Les Misérables fandom, although such items are always welcome! Any terms and conditions of your offer should also be included in the post, eg what fandoms you are wiling to write for, any hard no’s on content, etc. Offer posts can keep coming in through the SUBMIT button until the auction closes.

2. Bidding

Bidding on each item opens as it is posted. Only bid on items tagged #Winter25. There will also be a masterpost to help distinguish this year's items from last years. Bid in REPLIES NOT REBLOGS (this is important because replies enable me to figure out who bid when and avoid conflicts) until 11:59PM Eastern Time December 21st, 2024. The highest bidder at that time will be the winner. Bidding can start as each item is posted.

3. Claiming or delivering your item

Please do not donate your bid until I have contacted you to inform you that you won the item!

If you have won an item, I will contact you directly via DM and ask you to provide a receipt or other verification for a donation to an immigration organization in the amount bid. This DM may come from either @bishopmyrielfundraiser or my main blog @lifeisyetfair. After you have made your donation, send such the receipt or verification bishopmyrielfundraiser@gmail.com or in a screenshot on Tumblr. Make sure the proof contains the amount you donated!

AFTER I have verified your donation, I will contact the offerer to let them know they can deliver the item. If you do not respond at all to my attempts to contact you within one week, I will move on to the next highest bidder. So check your DMs.

4. Sending the item you offered

All items should be delivered by March 31st, 2025 at the absolute latest, unless you have made other arrangements, eg the custom item/fic takes longer than that to create or write and you communicate about this. Earlier is even better, but remember that the most important thing is to keep the winner informed and make sure everyone has a good time.

[shiryawashere]

I'm sorry to my USAmerican moots but I lost every shred of hope I had for your people today

[sneakydraws]

Since that gothic anthy piece I've been thinking about a whole gothic rgu au... I'd really have to dig in deeper into indian-british history in order to develop this further (and to dress everyone more accurately) but I'm tentatively placing this in the 1830s... Akio could be an indian nobleman who worked with/for the east india company... Maybe did some shady stuff for it and was rewarded with a lavish mansion in the uk... Utena is some plucky orphaned girl who becomes his protégé... Anthy is the woman hidden away in the attic... But utena glimpses her at night... Mrs rochester core...

[muffinlevelchicanery]

[lastoneout]

See this is why I don't buy into that whole "universal healthcare means long wait times so privatized is better" bcs I've been playing phone call tag for like three fucking months trying to figure out what doctors will even DO this test for me and the answer seems to be "either harass your insurance until they give you the info you need or pay $5k and travel to another fucking CITY" like?? Wow yeah privatized healthcare sure seems to be working great I fucking love it here in the glorious US of A, all hail capitalism!!

Like goddamn waiting for a few months and then traveling to Phoenix for the day part wouldn't even be that bad if not for the whole PAY FIVE THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS OUT OF POCKET part. Plus for my other doctors I STILL have long wait times. It takes like 3-4 months to get in with literally ANY specialist. My primary schedules out like two months in advance because she's so busy. I'd take universal healthcare over this cluster fuck any day, at least then I wouldn't have to fucking pay to be treated like subhuman garbage by someone trained to think every single patient they see is the stupidest human who's ever lived and doesn't even fucking PAY ATTENTION WHEN I TELL THEM THINGS.

[lexlawuk]

How to Apply for a UK Ancestry Visa

The UK Ancestry visa is a unique immigration route, available exclusively to Commonwealth nationals who can trace their lineage back to the United Kingdom. This visa offers a pathway to live and work in the UK, with the potential for eventual settlement. For those who meet the eligibility criteria, this visa is a compelling option. This article will guide you through the detailed requirements and…

[traincat]

awhile back you talked about some spider-man side characters and main characters being jewish, do you have any head cannons of J. Jonah Jameson being jewish? hope you're doing well!

I definitely personally headcanon J Jonah Jameson as Jewish. :,) I don't think it's necessarily as strong as the coding with Peter, and that Jonah is a character who could go either way, but given that Stan Lee based him heavily on himself, his bluster and mannerisms come off very "middle-aged Jewish man yells at cloud" to me. Like, he's very clearly supposed to come off as a certain type of New Yorker, and the lines between that and a certain kind of shouty Jewish man blend at a point, and I think Jonah kind of exists on that point. And I kind of like the idea of him and Peter as parallels in this way -- Jonah thinks he's mentoring this Jewish kid who reminds himself of himself Back in the Day and Peter's railing against this mentor he refuses to see as a mentor in a completely different tax bracket. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

[bootleg-nessie]

Suddenly I care about deporting illegal immigrants

[thoughtlessarse]

An increasing number of asylum requests that would have been granted previously are now being turned down because of new rules governing “credibility”, current affairs show Nieuwsuur reported on Monday evening. The programme spoke to lawyers, refugee agency Vluchtelingenwerk and experts about the changes, which came into effect on July 1. The change was introduced by former minister Erik van der Burg with the aim of increasing the rejection rate, Nieuwsuur said. But lawyers say in practice the rules are leading to more work for the immigration service. Before the changes, 81% of requests for asylum made in the Netherlands were honoured, compared with an EU average of 53%. Asylum seekers who arrive in the Netherlands now have to hand over documents that prove that they are personally at risk, rather than part of a group of people who are under threat. Those without documents have to undergo a “credibility check” in five key areas which, together, should prove the asylum seeker’s story.

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