Software engineers have long been treated, in Silicon Valley at least, as special, worthy of massive salaries, and deserving of cozy work conditions and top-of-the-range benefits. Sticking the profession down on your US visa application usually does the trick in getting your paperwork eventually all sorted, paving the way for …

AnalysisThe US government will now require "most" visa applicants to provide details of their social media accounts before they are allowed into the country. The controversial policy seemingly came into force on Friday. As far as we can tell, it will require people to provide the URLs or handles of social media accounts – from Twitter …

Frontline public sector workers have been urged to fight against backroom data-sharing deals as campaigners warn the British government wants to build a massive data set for automating immigration checks. Speaking at an event today, Gracie-Mae Bradley, policy and campaigns manager at civil rights group Liberty, called for a …

The Department for Education forked out £15,000 defending its controversial pupil nationality data slurp that was canned just months later. The money was spent on drawing up legal defences against judicial challenge launched by campaigners against the scheme, which sucked up data on schoolchildren's nationality and country of …

The Home Office is making life-changing decisions using "incorrect data from systems that are not fit for purpose" and has not fixed the "appalling defects" identified during the Windrush scandal, MPs have said. Parliament's influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) slammed the department's "systemic failure to keep accurate …

The High Court has agreed to hear a campaign group's case against the UK's Data Protection Act, which they say leaves immigrants with fewer rights over their data. The sueball – lobbed by the Open Rights Group and EU citizens' group the3million – targets an exemption in the Act that was passed into law last May. The groups …

Campaigners have welcomed reports that the UK government plans to remove doctors and nurses from an immigration cap – which could also make it easier for businesses to recruit IT workers from outside the EU. Home secretary Sajid Javid is expected to reveal the policy shift tomorrow, various outlets have reported, as the …

The Home Office has awarded Sopra Steria a £91m contract to develop a digital visa and immigration service in the UK. The French outsourcer will take on the contract in October 2018 – the latest in a raft of recently signed deals intended to cope with processing immigration status post-Brexit, particularly for the 3 million EU …

Thousands of skilled workers – including IT specialists and engineers – have been refused visas this year due to the British government's much-maligned immigration cap. According to figures released today, more than 6,000 Tier 2 (General) visa applications by people who had job offers from companies in the UK were refused …

The UK government has partially backed down from ordering the NHS to hand over patients' personal details to the Home Office so it can track down illegal immigrants. The decision to force NHS Digital cough up non-clinical records came under fire from privacy and civil liberties campaigners, doctors, and Members of Parliament, …

CommentIs there a lesson for politicians around the apparent destruction of disembarkation cards of citizens from Caribbean nations who arrived in the UK after the Second World War? Perhaps. But it goes something like this: it's a bad idea for the Home Office to make it difficult for legal immigrants to prove their status. It's an …

ExclusiveThe UK Home Office will sign a deal with Accenture to replace its clunky 1990s-era immigration and asylum applications system – having previously written off £347m in its last attempted overhaul. The department confirmed procurements have been awarded to Accenture and PA Consulting as "caseworking delivery partners" to replace …

Campaigners have welcomed reports that the UK government is planning to cease monitoring pupils' nationality in its mass school data slurp. The school census, a statutory survey that takes place three times a year, collects a range of information about students, including country of origin and nationality. Civil rights and …

The US Department of State wants to ask visa applicants to provide details on the social media accounts they've used in the past five years, as well as telephone numbers, email addresses, and international travel during this period. The plan, if approved by the Office of Management and Budget, will expand the vetting regime …

President Trump’s immigration policies are costing the United States technology jobs, rather than their intended effect of growing them, according to Bill Wagner, the CEO of LogMeIn. Speaking to The Register in Sydney, Australia, today, Wagner said his company had hoped to bring in more workers, some on H-1B visas. He now …

Forty industry bodies have called on UK government to rethink its cap on skilled workers' visas, which has been reached for the last three months running. Skilled non-European workers wishing to work in the UK must enter through the Tier 2 (General) Visa route, which is used for most hires in the science and tech sectors, as …

The UK government's plan to excuse itself from having to hand over information about the data it holds on immigrants has received short shrift from MPs. In the first debate on the Data Protection Bill in the House of Commons on Monday evening – the draft text having been passed by the Lords in January – MPs lambasted an …

The United States Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services has released new and strict rules for H-1B visas, the permit used by many-a-tech-company to bring skilled workers to the USA from abroad. President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to restrict use of the visas, which he claimed are …