The UK’s future skills-based immigration system: engagement programme

Over 2019 the government is engaging across the UK and internationally to listen to the views of a range of stakeholders, to shape the future immigration system.

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Foreign talents have played not only an important role in China’s economic success but also diversified the Chinese talent pool.

As China becomes more open and embraces globalization more deeply, the demand for international talents is growing.

Therefore, the Chinese government has rolled out a series of policies to attract more foreign talents.

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Australia - Administration of Immigration Program

Australia - The Department of Home Affairs has produced a paper to help external stakeholders understand how it administers Australia’s Immigration Program, complementing existing publicly available sources.

This paper has been produced to help external stakeholders understand how the Department of Home Affairs administers Australia’s Immigration Program, complementing existing publicly available sources. 

The paper outlines how the combined factors of large scale growth in the movement of people across borders and the changing threat environment over the past two decades have necessitated a shift in approach to the administration of the Immigration Program to ensure it continues to support Australia’s security, economic and social cohesion objectives now and into the future. 

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China’s new round of reform, opening-up unleashes potentials to world

At the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in China’s southernmost province of Hainan last year, President Xi Jinping announced that China will roll out broader and bolder reforms and further open up China’s economy.

Over the past year, China has kept its promises on further reform and opening-up with concrete deeds.

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Canada - Budget 2019: Building a Better Canada

Connected, clean and vibrant communities are crucial to a strong and healthy middle class, and a growing Canadian economy.

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South Korea - Financial Policy Plans to Support Innovation-led Growth

The FSC announced financial policy plans to support Korea’s innovation-led economic growth. 

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New Zealand - Visa applications for victims of the Christchurch mass shootings and their families

Immigration New Zealand has priority processing for the families of the people killed or injured in the mass shooting at the Masjid Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch.

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Sweden - More difficult to charge excessive fund fees

Sweden - As of 1 January 2020, new requirements will be introduced for fund managers to more clearly report how actively a fund’s assets are managed.

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Germany - Notices on value added tax (VAT) refund procedures for the United Kingdom withdrawal from the EU (Brexit) without a withdrawal agreement

Starting 30 March 2019, 12.00 a.m. (CET), the United Kingdom will no longer be a member of the European Union (in the following: EU). This means that the legal provisions that are to be applied to the member states of the EU will not apply to the United Kingdom after this time unless a ratified withdrawal agreement provides for another date.

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Washington - Tax Time Guide: IRS publication helps small businesses, self-employed understand what’s new for taxes

The Internal Revenue Service wants business owners and the self-employed to know that a publication on IRS.gov has information they can use to learn which recent tax-law changes impact their bottom line.

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China - The draft of the foreign investment law is to be presented to the country’s top legislature for approval on March 15

The three existing laws related to foreign investment — the law on Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures, on Chinese-foreign contractual joint ventures and on wholly foreign-owned enterprises — have played their roles in promoting China’s opening-up in the past four decades. It would have been unimaginable for China to receive the most foreign direct investment for 26 consecutive years since 1992 among developing countries without these three laws.

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Signing of agreement between Switzerland and the UK on citizens’ rights

Switzerland and the United Kingdom are safeguarding the existing rights of their citizens for the time when the UK is no longer a member of the EU. As part of the Federal Council’s Mind the gap strategy, State Secretary Mario Gattiker and his British counterpart, Parliamentary Under-Secretary Christopher Heaton-Harris, signed an agreement in Bern.

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Artificial intelligence adoption gathering momentum in China

Artificial intelligence adoption by Chinese businesses has outpaced the global average thanks to increased spending on research and development and industry growth, said a PwC report.

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New Zealand: Government confirms Electronic Travel Authority details

On 25 February 2019, the Government confirmed details of the Electronic Travel Authority (ETA), which is a new security and facilitation measure that will help to speed things up at the border.

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Singapore - With the changes announced in the recent Budget 2019, read more about S Pass quota and Levy requirements

The number of S Pass holders you can hire is limited by a quota. You must also pay a monthly levy for these workers.

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UK - Businesses are being urged to get ready as over 2,000 businesses are signing up for Making Tax Digital for VAT each day.

Almost 1.2 million businesses have one month to go before the introduction of Making Tax Digital (MTD) – a new way of keeping business records and submitting digital VAT returns.

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Hong Kong - Refinements to Legislative Framework of Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters to come into force

The Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance 2019 (Amendment Ordinance) is gazetted today (March 1). The legislative framework of automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters (AEOI) under the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112) (IRO) will be refined with effect from January 1, 2020 for better aligning the relevant provisions with the requirements promulgated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

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Denmark - New Positive List as of 1 March 2019

SIRI is publishing a new Positive List valid until 30 June 2019. If you apply for a residence and work permit under the Positive List from 1 March 2019, please make sure your profession is on the new Positive List.

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Australia - Commencement of the five year subclass 870 Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa

On 1 March 2019, Minister Coleman announced that applications to sponsor a parent for a Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa will be open from 17 April 2019. 

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