Few residents eligible for U.S. visa lottery

Only certain UAE residents will be eligible to apply for the annual lottery for a 'Green Card' to live in the U.S. in 2003.

Under the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery scheme, the U.S. Congress makes available a maximum of 55,000 visas each year to be allocated to nationals of countries which have low immigration rates in the U.S.

However, since 1999, the Nicaraguan and Central African Relief Act (NCARA) stipulates that 5,000 of the 55,000 visas be made available for this region which effectively reduces the number of visas to 50,000 for the rest of the world.

The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990 specifies the number of visas available which it apportions between six geographic regions – Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania and South, Central America including the Caribbean.

A greater number of visas go to those regions that have lower immigration rates and nationals of countries which have a high number of immigrants are not eligible to apply.

For the 2003 lottery, nationals of India, Pakistan, the Philippines, China (mainland-born), Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, South Korea, the UK and dependent states and Vietnam are not eligible.

To be eligible, an applicant has to be a native of a country admitted to participate in the lottery and have at least a high school education, or its U.S. equivalent. There are no other bars except the applicant should be over 18.

The new immigrants are randomly chosen through a lottery and those wishing to apply need to do so between noon on October 1 and noon on October 31. All applications submitted between this period will be considered valid for the lottery.

An applicant can only send one application. However, in a household, the husband and wife can apply separately, to double their chances. Only the successful candidates are informed by mail.

The application process is very simple. There is no fixed application form for applying. On a plain sheet of paper, the applicant needs to write his own, his spouse's and children's full name, date and place of birth, native country, his mailing address and attach colour photographs of himself as well as the family members, sign and mail it to the appropriate address.

The application is free of charge and the U.S. authorities do not impose any fee for processing it. But some websites on the Internet are taking advantage of public ignorance of the mailing details by charging money for processing the application.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Abu Dhabi said: "The U.S. Government employs no outside consultants or private mail service to operate the DV programme. Any intermediaries or others who offer assistance to prepare DV casework for applicants do so without the authority or consent of the U.S. Government. Use of any outside intermediary or assistance to prepare a DV 2003 entry is entirely at the applicant's discretion.

"A qualified entry received directly from an applicant has an equal chance of being selected by the computer at the Kentucky Consular Centre as does an entry received through a paid intermediary who completes the entry for the applicant."

Meanwhile, Canadian Legal Services is preparing application forms, envelopes and information booklets for free distribution to the public. "Like last year, we are going to offer a free information booklet, application form and printed envelopes," Sam Byat of Canadian Legal Services said.

"Last year, we found out some people made mistakes in writing the proper mailing addresses on the envelopes. So we are now printing the envelopes as well for them. These will be available within 10 days."

The spokesman said the company will also advertise to create public awareness about the lottery and has prepared a free downloadable application form on its website -www.ilsgroup.com.

Some document clearing shops in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah plan to 'sell' their own application forms for the DV lottery.

Mozammel Haq, owner of Jeddah Typing, said his company 'sold' over 1,000 forms last year for DV 2002. "We charge Dh10 for processing a form," he said. "This year also we have prepared the form and, once people start approaching us, we will serve them."

Fazlul Kabir Chowdhury of Green Dome Typing, said: "We have got the new dates for DV 2003 through the Internet and are printing the application forms. Applicants will approach us from the last week of September once the mail-in period approaches.

"Last year we helped nearly 2,000 applicants, mostly Bangladeshis, Sudanese, Somalese, Iranians and Afghans. This year we expect a higher number of people to apply." He said the number would have increased dramatically if Indians and Pakistanis had qualified.