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FEWER APPLICANTS FOR GREEN CARD LOTTERY - STATES US STATE DEPARTMENT
It has been advised that Eight million people have applied to win the Green card for this year US Diversity Visa lottery, compared to the previous record of 15 million applicants last year according to the statement given by US State Department.
The reason for the drop in applications this year was due to the fact that Bangladeshi citizens weren't eligible to participate. Also, South Asian nation in years past had submitted the most applications as of this year, they are no longer classified as a low-immigration country to the US.
The Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery is commonly known as the Green Card Lottery for applying permanent visa. It is a 2-step process. In order to enter the lottery, the applicant has to be a native of an eligible country and meet a basic education or training requirement. It is not necessary for the applicant to have a family living in the US, nor do you have to qualify under one of the employment-based immigrant visa categories.
The first step is to submit a lottery entry form. Individuals from most countries are eligible to participate in the lottery, although individuals born in certain countries are not eligible. Those excluded are from countries from which recently there have been a large number of immigrants to the U.S. Generally, the U.S. Department of State accepts entries during a 1 month period each fall. The exact dates of the registration period vary every year.
After the one month period when the registration is closed, the Department of State randomly selects lottery “winners” by computer. Winning applicant will be given a case number based on their region of birth. If an applicant’s entry form is selected it is not guaranteed that he will receive a permanent visa (i.e. a green card). It simply allows the applicant to proceed to the second step, which is applying for a permanent visa.
This lottery diversity-visa is an immigration program which offers a quick way to permanent U.S. residence visa for up to 50,000 people every year and who are selected randomly by the US government. Applicants are from countries that send few immigrants to the US. This year there was a computer error, which forced the government to redo the previous lottery, after 22,000 applicants were incorrectly notified that won a green card.
This year, three countries submitted the most entries: Nigeria - 1.36 million, Ghana - 909,000, and Ukraine - 853,000. Last year Bangladesh accounted for 7.6 million entries.
Last week The Wall Street Journal reported that the number of applicants could decrease even more in coming years because of a recently passed measure in Senate that charges on the fee for entering through electronic draw and starting with next year’s drawing.
The US Senate approved a bill this year in October, to extend federal benefits to disabled refugees living within the US. As per the earlier deal worked out by Senators, $36 million in aid will be offset with revenue generated by the new $30 fee for individuals applying to enter the country through the diversity-visa lottery program.
It was told that this year's US diversity-visa green card lottery ended on 5 November 2011. The results will be announced in May 2012.
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