State Dept. IG to probe voided visa lottery
In May the State Department notified applicants in this year's lottery of diversity immigration visa applications that the results of the drawing were being nullified owing to a computer glitch - disappointing 22,000 applicants who'd already been told they had won a chance at residency in the United States.
Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, the State Department's Inspector General is investigating the lottery, and those whose hopes of living in the U.S. were first answered and then dashed are asking Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to reverse the decision, with an online petition and a Facebook campaign.
Computer glitch forces redo of U.S. visa lottery
The Journal's Miriam Jordan writes that the drawing was tossed out because a computer problem meant 90 percent of the winners were chosen from those who'd applied in just the first two days, rather than across the entire 30-day application period.
In a notice on the State Department's website, David Donahue, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services, said that the programming error meant the drawing did not represent a fair, random selection as required by U.S. law.
"Because this problem unfairly disadvantaged many Diversity Visa Lottery entrants, we will conduct a new, random selection," said Donahue.
A record 15 million people submitted entries to this year's diversity visa (DV) program lottery, from which 50,000 people are selected by random drawing. The lottery is aimed at making visas available to applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
But those who'd already won the lottery say it is unfair to nullify the results.
"Thousands of people were devastated by the news of the invalidation," L.A.-based immigration attorney Kenneth White told the Journal.
White asked the State Department to allow the 22,000 winners to go forward with their applications, while holding a second drawing. He received an e-mail last week from State's Office of Inspector General saying the OIG was reviewing the Diversity Visa Lottery matter.
Meanwhile, an online petition (US Green Card Lottery DV-2012), blog (One Nation 2012), and Facebook page (22 Thousand Tears), have been created to campaign for preserving the visa drawing results.