Immigration News

DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY 2010 (DV-2010) RESULTS

The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2010 diversity lottery.  The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.  Approximately 102,800 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first *50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2010 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2010 (October 1, 2009 until September 30, 2010).

Applicants registered for the DV-2010 program were selected at random from over 13.6 million qualified entries received during the 60 day application period that ran from noon on October 2, 2008, until noon, December 1, 2008.  The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country.  During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent, or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years.  Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly.  Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.

Registrants living legally in the United States who wish to apply for adjustment of their status must contact the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services for information on the requirements and procedures.  Once the total *50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2010 will end.  Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2010 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2010 registration.  Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2010 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2010.

Only participants in the DV-2010 program who were selected for further processing have been notified.  Those who have not received notification were not selected.  They may try for the upcoming DV-2011 lottery if they wish.  The dates for the registration period for the DV-2011 lottery program will be widely publicized during August 2009.

* The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulated that up to 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas be made available for use under the NACARA program.  The reduction of the limit of available visas to 50,000 began with DV-2000.

The following is the statistical breakdown by foreign-state chargeability of those registered for the DV-2010 program:

AFRICA

ALGERIA 1,957   ETHIOPIA 5,200 NIGER 56

ANGOLA 46        GABON 19           NIGERIA 6,006

BENIN 369           GAMBIA, THE 108            RWANDA 178

BOTSWANA 23  GHANA 8,752     SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE  0

BURKINA FASO 184         GUINEA 737       SENEGAL 520

BURUNDI 83       GUINEA-BISSAU 8           SEYCHELLES  4

CAMEROON 3,719           KENYA 4,619       SIERRA LEONE 3,898

CAPE VERDE 6    LESOTHO 2          SOMALIA 229

CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 20           LIBERIA 2,172     SOUTH AFRICA 863

CHAD 27               LIBYA 152             SUDAN 1,084

COMOROS 9       MADAGASCAR 31            SWAZILAND 11

CONGO 92          MALAWI 50        TANZANIA 221

CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE 1,817  MALI 129             TOGO 827

COTE D'IVOIRE 658          MAURITANIA 20               TUNISIA 164

DJIBOUTI 33       MAURITIUS 78  UGANDA 396

EGYPT 4,201       MOROCCO 3,124              WESTERN SAHARA  0

EQUATORIAL GUINEA 15              MOZAMBIQUE 8              ZAMBIA 93

ERITREA 799       NAMIBIA 16       ZIMBABWE 170

ASIA     

AFGHANISTAN 345          ISRAEL 99             OMAN 2

BAHRAIN 15       JAPAN 302          QATAR 13

BANGLADESH 6,001        JORDAN 143       SAUDI ARABIA 104

BHUTAN 2           NORTH KOREA 3               SINGAPORE 37

BRUNEI 0             KUWAIT 70         SRI LANKA 650

BURMA 473        LAOS 3  SYRIA 98

CAMBODIA 359 LEBANON 181    TAIWAN 368

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMIN. REGION 49            MALAYSIA 60     THAILAND 54

INDONESIA 277 MALDIVES  0      TIMOR-LESTE  0

IRAN 2,773          MONGOLIA 144                UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 30

IRAQ 142              NEPAL 2,132       YEMEN 72

EUROPE              

ALBANIA 2,311  GREECE 48           NORWAY 60

ANDORRA 6        HUNGARY 192   PORTUGAL 51

Macau Special Admin Region 17

ARMENIA 1,332                ICELAND 36         ROMANIA 674

AUSTRIA 181      IRELAND 167      RUSSIA  1,912

AZERBAIJAN 324               ITALY 470             SAN MARINO 0

BELARUS 1,178  KAZAKHSTAN 343            SERBIA 367

BELGIUM 117     KYRGYZSTAN 205             SLOVAKIA 108

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 72       LATVIA 90            SLOVENIA 19

BULGARIA 842   LIECHTENSTEIN  0             SPAIN 169

CROATIA 74        LITHUANIA 195 SWEDEN 163

CYPRUS 23          LUXEMBOURG 2               SWITZERLAND 185

CZECH REPUBLIC 116      MACEDONIA, FORMER YUGOSLAV REP. OF 272 TAJIKISTAN 178

DENMARK 75

Greenland 2       MALTA 7              TURKEY 2,826

ESTONIA 66        MOLDOVA 724  TURKMENISTAN 108

FINLAND 83        MONACO 0         UKRAINE 5,499

FRANCE 703 French Guiana 4 French Polynesia 8

French Southern & Antarctic Lands  0 Guadeloupe 13

Martinique 4

New Caledonia 0

Reunion 5

St. Pierre & Miquelon 0 MONTENEGRO 13            UZBEKISTAN 4,059

GEORGIA 648     NETHERLANDS 200

Aruba 16

Netherlands Antilles 22 VATICAN CITY  0

GERMANY 2,188               NORTHERN IRELAND 31

NORTH AMERICA            

BAHAMAS, THE 18

OCEANIA            

AUSTRALIA 705

Christmas Islands 2

Coco Island 0      NAURU  3            SOLOMON ISLANDS  3

FIJI 674 NEW ZEALAND 258

Cook Islands 0

Niue 16 TONGA 80

KIRIBATI 1           PALAU 12            TUVALU  1

MARSHALL ISLANDS  0   PAPUA NEW GUINEA 15               VANUATU  7

MICRONESIA, FEDERATED    STATES OF 0               SAMOA 0             WESTERN SAMOA  26

SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN      

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 9         DOMINICA 18    SAINT LUCIA 19

ARGENTINA 188               GRENADA 9        SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES 9

BARBADOS 29    GUYANA 41        SURINAME 10

BELIZE 10             HONDURAS 82  TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 226

BOLIVIA 142       NICARAGUA 50 URUGUAY 17

CHILE 53               PANAMA 39       VENEZUELA 624

COSTA RICA 74  PARAGUAY 29  

CUBA 298            SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 6            

Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2010:  Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R., and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

Green Card Lottery Results Now Online
Check Your Green Card Application the Easy Way

By MAIRE POWER – IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, July 1, 2009

DV Lottery applicants can now check their status online.

The results of this year's Diversity Visa Green Gard lottery are now available online.

This is the first-time ever that the State Department has made the results available online.

If you applied for this year's program, you can check your status now on a special State Department website.

Applicants need to have the following:

– the confirmation page received when you entered the lottery

– confirmation number, last name/family name, and year of birth

The DV lottery gives away 55,000 visas through this program each year which enables people to become permanent residents of the United States.

After five years of continuous residence, green card holders are entitled to start a naturalization process to become U.S citizens.

Ireland has fared poorly in the lottery in recent years.

The recent three years have seen about 200 people from North and South win green cards.

For instance, the results of last year's lottery saw just 207 Irish people win green cards, 163 in the Republic and 34 from the North.

That means that people in the Ireland have less than a 0.4 percent chance of winning a green card.

The lottery result website is at http://dvlottery.state.gov/ESC/

DV Lottery 2010 Status Check – Starting July 1, 2009 until June 30, 2010, entrants (who previously completed online DV entry through the official website at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov) will be able to check the status of their entry through the E-DV website at http://dvlottery.state.gov/ESC   Entrants will need to use their own confirmation page information from the time of their entry (made between October 2, 2008, to December 1, 2008), to check the status to find out if their Diversity Visa Lottery entry was or was not selected.

All "winners" will also receive a package by regular mail with further instructions on how to proceed with their application. The US State Department will not contact anyone by phone or e-mail.

They have yet to announce how many people were selected from each country for the latest DV-2010 round.

DV Lottery Application Period Now Over

The entry registration period for DV-2010 green card lottery ended on December 1, 2008. DV-2010 lottery applicants will be selected and notified by mail between May and July 2009 and will be provided further instructions, including information on fees connected with immigration to the U.S. Those selected in the random drawing are NOT notified by email. Those individuals NOT selected will NOT receive any notification. Starting July 1, 2009, applicants will be able to check the status of their entry by returning to the website and entering their unique confirmation number and personal information from their online application receipt.

For more information, go to www.dvlottery.state.gov

Travelers from Ireland and about two dozen other "Visa
Waiver" countries will be required to register electronically before boarding
a plane or boat to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
announced recently.

DHS will begin accepting applications via a secure
Internet site on August 1, and will require visitors to use the Internet system
beginning January 12, 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
The move will help U.S. authorities vet foreign visitors, he said.

The requirement
does not apply to U.S. citizens traveling overseas.

The announcement is the
latest change to the Visa Waiver Program, which allows citizens of 27 countries
— most of them European countries that are strong U.S. allies — to travel
to the U.S. without a visa. Currently, citizens from VWP countries complete
a written green form (I-94W) providing basic biographical, travel and eligibility
information while en route to the U.S. and submit the forms to border officials
on arrival.

Under the new program, known as Electronic System
for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, travelers will complete an electronic version
of the form before traveling. DHS recommends that travelers fill out the form
not less than three days (72 hours) before traveling, and authorizations will
be valid for up to two years or until the applicant's passport expires, whichever
comes first.

Initially, there will be no fee to apply for travel
authorization, although one may be imposed later. Visitors will still be required
to have valid passports, but after January 12, travelers with valid ESTA clearance
will not be required to complete the written form.

Chertoff said the system
will make it easier for U.S. officials to check travelers against terror watch
lists, and will help travelers by allowing them to deal with possible problems
before they get to U.S. borders.

Chertoff said ESTA is "a 21st century
solution" to
the problem of keeping terrorists out of the United States.

Click
for More Information . . .