21 April 2011 Changes:

New sponsors will need to meet new educational accreditation criteria in order to be issued a Tier 4 licence.

There will be interim limit on the number of students that can be sponsored unless the sponsor meets the following requirements:

• hold Highly Trusted Sponsor status; and
• meet the new accreditation criteria.

B rated sponsors will only be able to assign CAS to complete a course.

There will be tougher English language requirements for Tier 4 (General) students:

• a B1 Secure English Language Test (SELT) requirement for all courses at NQF 3-5/QCF 3-5 / SCQF 6-8 (ending the current SELT exemptions on pre-sessionals pathway /foundation degree courses);
• a B2 SELT requirement for courses at NQF 6 /QCF 6 / SQCF 9 and above

Higher educational institutions will be allowed to make their own assessment.

Normally a CAS may only be issued in respect of a single course, except in a situation where you are attending a pre-sessional course of not more than three months’ duration and you have an unconditional offer of a place at a higher education institution or at an independent school starting not more than one month after the end of the pre-sessional course.

July 2011 Changes:

• If you are a Sponsor you will have to vouch for academic progression for students changing course, where the new course is not a step up the NQF/ QCF / SCQF scale.
• If you are a student applying for a visa you will need to declare at the visa application stage that you hold and will continue to hold the required maintenance funds to support yourself and pay the course fees.
• If you are a Student from a designated low-risk nationalities attending courses at Highly Trusted Sponsors you will you will not necessarily have to show documents normally asked for other students relating to maintenance and educational qualifications.
• You will only be allowed to work during your studies if you are at an higher education institutions or publicly funded further education colleges.
• You will only be allowed to sponsor dependents if you are a new student studying at a higher education institution on a course on NQF 7 / QCF 7 / SQCF 11 or above lasting 12 months or more.

Your dependants will be able to work.

April 2012 Changes:

• All sponsors must have reached Highly Trusted Sponsor Status.
• The interim limit will be extended if you are an existing sponsor and have acquired HTS status but not met the new educational accreditation requirements.
• Courses offering work placements will have to have a study:work ratio of 66:33 except at higher education institutions.
• You will normally only be allowed a maximum time of five years in Tier 4 studying at degree level and above; There will be exceptions for some courses and for PhD students.
• The Tier 1 Post Study Work visa will end.
• There will be new provisions for Student entrepreneurs.

End of 2012 Changes:

If you are a sponsors you will need to meet the new educational accreditation criteria to be able to sponsor new students.

There are many standard ways to apply for the work permit in any of the country and they are as following:

1. The training and the work experience arrangements.
2. Student internships.
3. GATS.
4. The business and commercial arrangements.
5. The sports people and entertainers arrangements.
6. The sectors based scheme.

Each of these processes requires its own different applications and the job offer from the employer in that country only. Some of the countries provide the work permit only to the people who are attached to the categories of arrangements above whilst they reject the other ones.

The work permit systems in some of the countries are replaced by the new points based immigration systems. In some of the smaller countries the work permit is managed by the Ministry of Manpower that has introduced an internet platform for work permit transactions. With the internet portal, the ministry is able to process many of the work permit applications within one working day alone.

In some of the countries for the permission of work it has been taken into account many of the things like skills (including all the education), work experience if ever in any other country had performed, and importantly the type of the job applied for. Some of the people have also been restricted for the duration of the time they are permitted to work as well as it depends on the type of the job. Usually high school students are offered the jobs for timings.

First is if the person is not a citizen in one of the countries which fall under the thirty five countries which are listed by the United States government and falls under the visa waiver program.

Second, In case the person is a citizen of Canada or Bermuda then the person need not obtain a visa to enter in to the United State.

Finally, in case the person has some high profile criminal record or due to medical emergency also the person would not have to undergo the visa process.

There are normally 2 types of Visas there which may be Immigrant and Non immigrant types. Please note that in case you area resident of Mexico then also there are separate procedures for you, for as far as Visa is concerned.

To talk about the qualification process for the United State Visas while having applied for one. All applicants for the visa would have to establish that they do qualify as per the provisions made by the Immigration and Nationality Act. It’s an assumption that all visa applicants are intending immigrants. Thus the applicants must overcome the undermentioned.

The sole purpose of the trip is business, pleasure or a requirement of some medical assistance.

The duration of the stay would be specific and limited to a certain period.

The visitors have strong ties or relatives out side the United State boundaries, detachment from whom are likely to bring back the visitors after some time.

An interview amount equivalent of USD $131 is required to be paid to the interviewing officer at the consulate. Also in case the Visa is not granted then the fee does not stand to be refundable. The deciding factor s for the visa approval is adequate employment in the country of current residence, material assets and lack of criminal records for the applicant.

In case the visa officer has doubts about the applicant then they have all rights to reject the application or additionally, they might choose to go for a suggestion from the US Department of State. Now this is a long procedure and might take weeks of time for the approval to come in.

The whole purpose behind this J1 visa program was to increase knowledge sharing and mutual understanding, Between the United States and the rest of the world. This is because of the fact that the United States government was looking forward to establish a long lasting friendly relationships with other countries. Thus what could be better than sharing knowledge and culture as a first step towards establishing the friendship? Under the JI visa program a lot of foreign individuals travel to the United States every year and get a valuable opportunity to see, experience and understand the United States, the US life style, the people and their culture here.

A lot of reputed companies also get in their staff to train or upgrade their skills as a part of this J1 visa program. The maximum duration of the J1 Visa is for a year. The stay could however be stretched over for another additional six months, by completion of the due formalities with the office of exchange coordination and designation. If you are a foreign national and you have come here to the United States as a part of the J1 visa program that certainly means that you would be allowed to go to office of the sponsorer. Take all the kind of trainings that would be involved. But you should not be involved in any direct production. As far as the salary goes you would be eligible for the minimum wages prevalent in the United States at that point of time. Please note that you are eligible to the wages declared either by the state or the center which ever is higher. This would be considered as the cost that you would incur to live in the United States for that period of time. Apart from that you would also be entitled to receive the wages from the country that you come from originally.

Overall the J1 Visa program is a good experience and enriches a person. They get to know of the life in the states. While people they come and meet with they also get a flavor of the cultural back ground the visitor is from. Thus this program can be termed as mutually beneficial for both the parties.