Africa: U.S. Dashes Hopes of 22,000 Visa Lottery Winners

Paul Ogbuokiri

17 May 2011

The hope of living in the US by over 22,000 people across the world, who were recently declared winners in the 2011 edition of the US Visa Lottery, has been dashed as the US State Department weekend said it mistakenly announced the 22,000 applicants winners.

The US State Department said the mistake was a computer glitch, and that the drawing would have to be redone.

The news dashes the hopes of those who believed they were eligible for the next step in obtaining one of the coveted “green card” lottery visas and gives a second, if remote, chance to the rest of the 19.6 million people who had applied.

According to a State Department official overseeing the programme, David Donahue, because of the computer programming error, 90 percent of the winners were selected from the first two days of applications rather than from the entire 30-day registration period.

“We sincerely regret any inconvenience or disappointment this problem might have caused,” he said He assured that the problem had been fixed and the results of the new drawing from among the same 19.6 million people who applied were expected to be available around July 15.

Under the Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme, the U.S. government makes available some 50,000 visas each year drawn randomly to people who come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

The lottery gives the winners the opportunity to immigrate without having a family member or an employer sponsor them — the typical route to a U.S. “green card” denoting permanent residency.

Donahue said the U.S. government wrote the malfunctioning computer programme. Another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no one will be disciplined for the error.

AllAfrica – All the Time