Glitch in DV Lottery Leaves Thousands Disappointed
This Friday, the Obama administration announced that the results of the annual worldwide lottery for immigrant visas will not be recognized because of a computer glitch that corrupted the State Department. This has, to say the least, led to worldwide disappointment for thousands of potential immigrants. Almost 15 million individuals submitted their entries for the 2012 lottery in hopes of being one of the 50,000 winners to be granted visas to immigrate to the U.S. The winners are chosen randomly and the usual visa petition process which entails a showing of familial ties or employer sponsorship is not required.
The State Department has indicated that the results of the lottery are not valid because the software glitch caused selection of 90 percent of the winners from entries submitted on October 5, 2010 and October 6, 2010 only- the first 2 days of the registration which ran for 30 days. The registration period began on October 5, 2010 and ended on November 3, 2010.
An in-house programming error caused the problem which the State Department reassured, has been fixed. A new drawing will be held from the current pool of entries with winners to be announced in mid-July. Applicants who have previously submitted their entries do not have to re-enter and new entries will not be accepted.
Congress established the diversity visa lottery program in 1994 in an attempt to increase immigration to the U.S. by individuals from the developing world and from countries with traditionally low rates of immigration to the U.S. The lottery has exclusively been conducted electronically in the past 15 years and this is the first time in its history that such a problem has been encountered according to the State Department.
The results of the lottery became accessible online on May 1, 2011 and 1.9 million people had already checked to see if they had won before the problem was finally discovered on May 5.
The State Department anticipates the results of the lottery do-over to be available online on or about July 15, 2011. Applicants received confirmation codes which will remain valid for use on the lottery website.
The State Department assures lottery participants that no unauthorized party had access to their personal data and maintains that the problem was not due to an intentional act, but simply a computer programming error.
To check lottery results, go to www.dvlottery.state.gov.