Increasing opportunities for Skilled MigrantsWritten by Dean Marshall
Skilled Independent Migration has become increasingly popular with a number of countries, including UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Essentially, Skilled Independent Migration allows individuals with strong experience and/or education to migrate to another country with right to work WITHOUT first needing to find an employer to sponsor a work permit. This gets round problems faced by people seeing great jobs that they cannot apply for because employer is unwilling to sponsor their work permit.The purpose of allowing people to enter country with right to work already gained is to encourage entry of people with exactly skills that country needs. These visas tend to be more flexible for individual as they do not tie person to only one company. United Kingdom The HSMP (Highly Skilled Migrant Programme) is a points based system. Applicants are awarded points for their education, experience and previous earnings and must be awarded a minimum of 65 points to qualify. Applicants who are under 28 will get points for this and find criteria for other areas easier in terms of lower criteria for points being awarded. MBA students from certain universities around world are also awarded HSMP purely based on their education. The HSMP Visa allows for an initial one year period, with a further three year extension to be applied for at end of first year. This scheme has proved very popular since its creation. You can use an online points calculator to get an idea as to whether you are likely to qualify, such as http://www.skillclear.co.uk/hsmp-highly-skilled-migrant-programme-points-calcultor.asp Canada The Federal Skilled Worker Visa is again a points based system, but rather more complex than UK version, with additional points being available in a wider range of areas. These can include points for having a relative in Canada, for having a job offer, for French and English language skills and more. This Visa takes a considerable time to be approved presently, but many feel that opportunities available in Canada make wait more than worthwhile. Again, there are online points calculators available to find out if you qualify, such as http://www.skillclear.co.uk/canada/canada-skilled-worker-points-calculator-1.asp
| | Critical Business Procedure - Keep All Email CommunicationsWritten by Richard A. Chapo
Businesses routinely maintain copies of correspondence and memos. Far to often, however, they do not extend this practice to email correspondence. Email correspondence is no different then your normal paperwork. You must keep copies of all of it to protect your business in any litigation.Currently, only banks and broker-dealers are obliged to retain e-mail and instant messaging documents for three years under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. Beginning July 2006, all public companies will also be required to do so under Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Notwithstanding these laws, your custom and practice should be to maintain copies of all email correspondence. Email is considered evidence and courts are hammering businesses that do not maintain email records. Judges are often ruling that failure to maintain and produce email records means business in question is hiding key evidence. In recent Perelman v. Morgan Stanley litigation, a judge’s ruling on failure of Morgan Stanley to produce email was key factor in issuance of a $1.45 billion verdict. Based on failure to produce email records, Judge Elizabeth Maass issued a pretrial ruling that effectively found Morgan Stanley conspired to defraud Perelman in a 1998 deal. Morgan Stanley is not only business defendant to have this problem.
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