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The US Department of State has announced that registration for the 2007 Green Card Lottery, or Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery, will begin at noon on October 5, 2005. The 2007 Green Card Lottery will make available 50,000 permanent resident visas to individuals from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The Immigration Lottery makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. You can check if you are eligible by visiting our website.

The US also announced this week that its fees for immigration will increase on Oct. 26.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.

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 minister’s plan also includes recruiting more people to work outside the largest cities and giving permanent status to more foreign nationals already there, such as university graduates who arrived on student visas. Immigration Minister Joe Volpe confirmed that he is preparing a proposal for the cabinet to decide on in October that includes those elements and "many more people," although he declined to give details.

The number of new immigrants to New Zealand, and New Zealanders returning home in the year ending August, fell 66 percent compared to the previous year, according to Statistics New Zealand. This prompted business organizations to argue that New Zealand must start a debate about the long-term economic benefits of attracting more immigrants rather than focusing on how foreigners could fix the short-term labour problems. New Zealand business organizations are calling for the door to be opened to allow more immigrants in, in order to ease the labour shortage.

Workpermit.com also likes to bring its readers some happy immigration stories. This week, we learned that a man from Kenya received his US citizenship, and won an $1.89 million lottery in the US state of Iowa, on the same day. Congratulations to Moses Bittok, who said, “It doesn't happen anywhere - I guess only in America."

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