Foreign Workers

A US federal judge on Wednesday turned down Trump-era changes to H-1B visa rules that were to deter US companies from replacing American workers with cheaper foreign labour.

Hundreds of overseas workers could be welcomed to Australia in the next 10 months, under travel exemptions for holders of a government visa created to aid the post-pandemic recovery -- even as tens of thousands of its own citizens remain stranded.

The head of ISIS in the Greater Sahara, who was wanted for deadly attacks on US soldiers and foreign aid workers, has been killed in an operation by French troops.

A bus blast last month that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, was a suicide bombing by Islamist militants backed by the Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday.

Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi urged Pakistan to investigate a blast on a bus that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, but stopped short of calling it an attack, according to a post on Thursday on the foreign ministry's website.

Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat has overtaken Hong Kong as the world's most expensive city for foreign workers, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Australia was due Friday to shut its embassy in Afghanistan, highlighting the security fears for foreign missions and their local workers as US-led troops pull out of the war-torn country.

Hong Kong on Tuesday scrapped a plan to make coronavirus vaccines mandatory for foreign domestic workers after the proposal sparked an outcry and a diplomatic tussle with the Philippines.

In view of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in several countries, especially India, and emergence of new virus variants, Singapore is reducing entry approvals for work pass holders and their dependents entering the country in the coming weeks.

Britain and India on Tuesday signed an accord on migration and mobility, a foreign ministry official said, as they look to deepen economic, cultural and other ties following the UK's departure from the European Union.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday let the ban on foreign workers visa, in particular H-1B, lapse as the notification issued by his predecessor Donald Trump expired, a move which is likely to benefit thousands of Indian IT professionals.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to allow a proclamation from his Republican predecessor that had blocked many temporary foreign workers from coming into the United States to expire on Wednesday, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Five powerful Democratic senators on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to rescind his predecessor Donald Trump's ban on some non-immigrant visas, including the H-1B visa which is popular among Indian IT professionals, saying this creates uncertainties for US employers, their foreign-born professional workers and their families.

The Biden administration on Friday said it is willing to reconsider the objections or adverse decisions to foreign workers on visas like H-1B due to the three policy memos by the previous Trump administration which now have been rescinded.

Increases in visas for highly skilled foreign workers could fall by the wayside this year if Democrats decide to overhaul immigration through a series of small bills instead of the sweeping one put forward by President Joe Biden.

A US federal judge on Wednesday turned down Trump-era changes to H-1B visa rules that were to deter US companies from replacing American workers with cheaper foreign labour.

Hundreds of overseas workers could be welcomed to Australia in the next 10 months, under travel exemptions for holders of a government visa created to aid the post-pandemic recovery -- even as tens of thousands of its own citizens remain stranded.

The head of ISIS in the Greater Sahara, who was wanted for deadly attacks on US soldiers and foreign aid workers, has been killed in an operation by French troops.

A bus blast last month that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, was a suicide bombing by Islamist militants backed by the Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday.

Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi urged Pakistan to investigate a blast on a bus that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, but stopped short of calling it an attack, according to a post on Thursday on the foreign ministry's website.

Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat has overtaken Hong Kong as the world's most expensive city for foreign workers, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Australia was due Friday to shut its embassy in Afghanistan, highlighting the security fears for foreign missions and their local workers as US-led troops pull out of the war-torn country.

Hong Kong on Tuesday scrapped a plan to make coronavirus vaccines mandatory for foreign domestic workers after the proposal sparked an outcry and a diplomatic tussle with the Philippines.

In view of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in several countries, especially India, and emergence of new virus variants, Singapore is reducing entry approvals for work pass holders and their dependents entering the country in the coming weeks.

Britain and India on Tuesday signed an accord on migration and mobility, a foreign ministry official said, as they look to deepen economic, cultural and other ties following the UK's departure from the European Union.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday let the ban on foreign workers visa, in particular H-1B, lapse as the notification issued by his predecessor Donald Trump expired, a move which is likely to benefit thousands of Indian IT professionals.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to allow a proclamation from his Republican predecessor that had blocked many temporary foreign workers from coming into the United States to expire on Wednesday, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Five powerful Democratic senators on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to rescind his predecessor Donald Trump's ban on some non-immigrant visas, including the H-1B visa which is popular among Indian IT professionals, saying this creates uncertainties for US employers, their foreign-born professional workers and their families.

The Biden administration on Friday said it is willing to reconsider the objections or adverse decisions to foreign workers on visas like H-1B due to the three policy memos by the previous Trump administration which now have been rescinded.

Increases in visas for highly skilled foreign workers could fall by the wayside this year if Democrats decide to overhaul immigration through a series of small bills instead of the sweeping one put forward by President Joe Biden.