Immigration news

Australia's skilled migrant recruitment campaign has begun in the United Kingdom. The international skills expo is being held at Australia House on the Strand in London.The event is the result of the Department of Immigration's decision to admit an extra 20,000 skilled migrants this year, taking the 2005/2006 intake to almost 100,000.

Legal and illegal immigration into the United States declined as of 2001 after reaching a high in 2000, a study released by the Pew Hispanic Center found.

"The number of migrants coming to the United States each year, legally and illegally, grew very rapidly starting in the mid-1990s, hit a peak at the end of the decade, and then declined substantially after 2001," the report found.

Shortly after Moses Bittok took the oath of citizenship last week, he discovered he won $1.89 million in the Iowa Lottery's Hot Lotto game.

"It's almost like you adopted a country and then they netted you $1.8 million," Bittok said 26 Sept. as he cashed in his ticket. "It doesn't happen anywhere - I guess only in America."

Bittok said he took the citizenship oath at the federal building in Des Moines on 23 Sept., then went shopping with his family. They stopped at a gas station to check his lottery ticket from the Sept. 21 drawing.

"For some reason, I'm calm," he said. His wife, Leonida, screamed.

Application fees for immigration to the US will go up after 26 Oct. The fee increase was published in 26 Sept.'s edition of the Federal Register by Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

The fee increases range from as little as $5 more to replace a permanent resident card -- which increases the fee to $190 -- to as much as $20 more to obtain a U.S. visa for a child adopted internationally, which will cost $545.

The department said the fees were increased to cover inflation.

The visa office of the Canadian Embassy in Conakry, Guinea, West Africa, will be closed to the public as of September 22, 2005.

After this date, people in need of temporary resident visas will have to apply at the visa office in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

The mailing address of the Canadian Embassy in Abidjan is:

The Canadian EmbassyImmigration Section01 B.P. 4104Abidjan 01Ivory Coast

The Canadian Embassy in Abidjan is located at:

Canada's Immigration Minister is pushing for major changes to the country's immigration system, according to government sources. If the changes are accepted, Canada will be bringing in more than 300,000 immigrants a year within five years, including more tradespeople such as pipefitters and truck drivers.

The plan would eventually mean an increase of about 35 percent from current levels of more than 220,000 permanent residents a year.