Indian IT professionals hoping to emigrate to the US are likely to get another golden opportunity to do so as the US Senate is seriously debating the addition of 60,000 H-1B visas to the annual quota of 65,000, which has already been snapped up in record time.
The draft legislation now before the US Senate Judiciary Committee would raise the number of visas allowed for skilled foreign workers if it is adopted, Computerworld, an American publication, reported.
The annual cap of 65,000 visas introduced some months ago was lapped up mainly by Indian IT professionals within days of its introduction, two months before the start of the new US fiscal year on October 1.
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In a move that will save students time and money, Australia is encouraging Indians to apply online for their student visa. Currently in the second stage of a three-stage trial, online applications must be processed through one of 19 registered agents in India, who are responsible for evaluating the students and the system. If the trial is successful, students may one day be able to apply online independently. In Chennai, the office of the International Development Program (IDP), a not-for-profit company owned by 38 of the 39 Australian universities helps students with their applications.
"Australia is the only country
Indonesia targets Aust travel warnings, visas
Indonesia has called for a fresh perspective on relations with Australia, including free visas for movement between the two countries.
Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Aburizal Bakrie, told the Australia-Indonesia Ministerial Forum it is time to build a more comprehensive economic, political and social relationship.
Mr Bakrie says Australia should relax its travelling warnings about Indonesia and introduce free visas for Indonesians.
"Our friendship I think will be even strengthened more for the future if we can both have the more access for goods as well as more access for people, between our two countries," he said.
Mr
IMF faces test as it mulls greater power for Asia
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund faces the biggest test in its push for change as the World War Two-era institution weighs giving more power to emerging Asian economies after decades of U.S.-European dominance.
In a scaled-down version of events playing out on the world stage, Asia is voicing growing frustration with its lack of sway over the international lender and what it says is a failure to recognize Asia's swift economic rise.
Changing the balance of power in the IMF is an unsettling prospect for the United States and Europe, which
Abercrombie & Kent, a luxury tour operator, is reviving its $39,100 per person, 21-day private jet tour of South American islands and jungles after canceling it following the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
The tour, which will circumnavigate South America, is one sign of the growing interest in luxury vacations that has enabled Marriott International Inc. and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. to raise prices. Demand for everything from $17,000 luxury-liner voyages to $60,000 African safaris is soaring along with incomes for the wealthy.
``The baby boomers are raking it in,'' Bill Marriott, chief executive of Marriott International, said in
The daughter and daughter-in-law of a hard-line Syrian general have received visitor's visas from the Canadian embassy in Damascus to allow them to give birth in Canada and confer citizenship on the general's grandchildren, sources say.
Zeina Khair and her mother, Soha Tabaa, recently returned to Syria after a spring visit during which Ms. Khair delivered a baby girl, a Syrian source familiar with the situation said.
Montreal interior designer Maya Samaan sponsored the visit. "They're friends of mine, they happened to come here for a while, and they left," she said.
Ms. Khair is married to Majed Suleiman, the son of General
