“The applications for the upcoming Green Card Lottery DV-2005 will be accepted between Oct. 5 and Nov. 6, 2003.” This bit of information was obtained from one of the numerous “immigration” internet sites. The problem is, however, that the State Department, which organizes the lottery, knows nothing about this. The rules regarding the upcoming lottery will be announced, at the earliest, this summer.
This is just one of many instances of false information regarding the Green Card Lottery being spread using the Internet. These Web companies are competing for the potential immigrant, who, for under $100 can “guarantee” his or her participation in the lottery. The companies with the best chances of luring customers are those that seem most informed or able to offer a special “in.” Some law firms are already accepting applications and charging fees, ignoring the fact that entry rules might still change. Last year, for example, the State Department issued stricter guidelines regarding the photographs supplied by the applicants.
This scenario repeats itself each year. And each year, predictably, there are people willing to pay for the illusion of increasing their chances in the lottery.
The federal government advises that, “The best protection against lottery scam artists is a full understanding of the regulations which dictate the visa lottery process.”
Why the Lottery?
The goal of the lottery is to promote “ethnic diversity”of immigrants to the United States. The green cards are raffled off to citizens of countries that are currently underrepresented in American society. According to the regulation, countries whose citizens received more than 50,000 permanent visas in the last five years are excluded from the lottery. The annual lottery is named DV (for Diversity) and by year (2000, 2001, 2002, and so on). The year does not refer to the date of application, but rather to the budget year during which the visas are distributed. In each lottery, a cap prevents citizens from any single country from representing more than 7 percent of the total number of distributed visas. What this means is that only 3,500 people born in a given country—such as Poland—will be able to receive a permanent U.S. visa. One should keep in mind, however, that the State Department typically notifies more winners than its limit, taking into account that many will abandon their plans to immigrate.
In addition, continental laws also limit the awarded visas. For example, there is a rule that only one application is allowed per person. “Multiple entries are eliminated by the computers as well as the staff handling the mail before the drawing,” said Stuart Pratt, an official of the State Department, who is responsible for the DV lottery. Married couples may enter two applications—one for each spouse—however, the application should be signed by only one person.
Cycle after Cycle
Currently, two lottery cycles are being finalized and potential immigrants are impatiently awaiting the upcoming ones:
* DV-2003
For this lottery, the applications were sent in the fall of 2001. The winners were notified in the spring of last year. The winners have until September 2003, or the end of the current budget year, to finalize the visas and arrange a place within the limits. Visas not processed by that date will no longer be valid.
* DV-2004
The applications for this edition of the lottery were sent out last fall. The State Department informed Nowy Dziennik/Polish Daily News that the winners, and only the winners, are currently being notified. The winners of this lottery will receive their permanent visas between Oct. 1, 2003 and Sept. 30, 2004. For those who won this year, the race has only begun. Notification alone does not mean a receipt of the visa. Last year, up to 90,000 candidates were notified, despite the limit of 50,000 visas. The visas are awarded in the same order they are drawn, and each registered person is informed of his or her number in line. As the candidates from the front of the line drop out, the chances for those at the end of the line, increases. Thus, everything depends on the speed of finalizing all the formalities.
* DV 2005
The applications for the upcoming lottery DV 2005 will be entered in the fall of this year. Internet companies are furiously competing for the attention of these potential immigrants. The math is simple. Each year, the headquarters receives between six and eight million applications (the record number was 11 million in DV 2001, before the attacks of September 11th). Attracting even a small fraction of the interested individuals, and charging a fee between $25 and $50, would make a great business. The only overhead is the time spent filling out the forms and stuffing them along with the photographs into envelopes. Then sticking on a 37-cent stamp and dropping it into the mailbox before the deadline. Pure profit.
Wrong Address
I write regarding properly filling out the forms for the visa lottery. I have read many instructions on this issue and one of them was your article: “How To Participate in the Visa Lottery.” The mailing address which you included is different from the one posted on the website www.visapro.com. Why?
Best Regards, Joanna (last name withheld)
In one of your issues, there was information on the subject of the lottery that awards “green cards.” You included the mailing address where the entry applications are supposed to be sent (some sort of state department dealing with immigration). I searched for a confirmation on the Internet and one of the sites featured a completely different mailing address. Can you explain this difference?
Tanks, Elizabeth (last name withheld)
I sent my application entry for the DV-2004 lottery to an address totally different than the one you published in the newspaper. In addition, I paid about $50 to the agency advertised on the Internet, when according to you, the participation in the lottery is free. Do I have any guarantee that my entry will arrive on time?
Szczepan G (last name withheld)
The above letters are just a few examples of massive e-mails received by Nowy Dziennik/Polish Daily News regarding the lottery. Our readers and their families in Poland are trying to clear up the confusion surrounding participation in the DV program. In their search for information, many fall victim to less-than-honest agencies or law firms, who are using the annual program as a way to make extra money.
Szczepan, the above-quoted gentleman, became an unaware victim of an agency that charged a steep fee for a service that consisted of sending filled out forms to the appropriate address. The ladies, Joanna and Elizabeth, eventually sent in their own forms without using any liaisons.
On the Edge of Truth
Even new rules stating that applications need to be signed by the applicant, and include photos of all family members, have done little to deter the visa lottery scam artists. Now, candidates fill out forms downloaded from the Internet and send them to the address of a law firm or another institution. After processing their fee, the given agency then sends the forms to the program headquarters in Kentucky. The internet is full of such “liaisons.” Nowy Dziennik/Polish Daily News visited many of these sites. The majority operate legally; charging a fee for assistance in filling out forms is in accordance with the law—as long as these services don’t promise customers the moon.
In 1999, the number of dishonest offers and claims on the “lottery market” prompted the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue an official warning about scam artists involved in the DV programs: “Beware of unscrupulous businesses and their employees, who claim that your fee will ensure a winning draw in any of the visa lotteries organized by the U.S. State Department.”
Most of the Internet sites offering help in filling out the lottery forms, also promise a little something “extra,” teetering on the edge or actually crossing the thin line of what is truthful information. So, how does one tell the “bad” guys from the “good” guys? Here are some common scams that customers should steer clear from:
* We know more than others
Under the address www.greencardapply.com/lottery.htm, one can find out when the applications for DV 2005 will be accepted, despite the fact that the State Department has not yet issued the procedure regulations for this upcoming lottery! Of course, the website has a “Do It Yourself” section where for only $39, one can download the lottery materials. For “balance,” the website includes the FTC warning about lottery scams. Another site, www.greencardlotterygroup.com already offers the DV 2005 application forms, even though the State Department has not yet issued information about the upcoming program. A company with a Minneola, NY, address, also has instructions in Polish and an account in ING-Bank Slask, and charges $25 (100 zloty) for an individual and $40 (160 zloty) for married couples. It is not the only internet site to make such claims. (See www.greencardplus.com and www.goUS.org.) The crowning argument for early registration is the supposed necessity of a thorough review of all application materials before they are sent to the visa headquarters of the State Department before the deadline.
* The liaison intercepts all lottery-related correspondence
Some Internet sites force customers to register with them and they write their address instead of the potential immigrant’s on the application form. This means additional future expenses for the winners, since the law firm behind the website will enthusiastically volunteer to assist with the all the formalities. The FTC warns applicants about services that attempt to take over the immigration process for heavy fees.
Equal Chances for All
Filling out one’s own application forms should not present a major problem, according to the State Department. “The registration process is simple and will remain so,” assures Pratt, whose responsibilities include relating visa lottery information to Washington. “There is no special formula to filling out the forms and only basic personal data is necessary.”
Ironically, the best guarantee that the lottery entry will arrive at the right address and on time is to put it in the mailbox yourself. After all, the liaison has to do the same thing for the client in the end. Entries can only be sent via regular or air mail. There are no special channels. The only thing that the agencies can guarantee is that the completed application (which still needs to be signed by the candidate) is mailed in a timely manner. And that’s something that anyone can do for himself.
“The entries are registered by the computer, and then sorted out also by computer using a special program that limits the number of registered participants from each country,” says Pratt. The lottery drawing program does not play favorites. It’s impossible to cheat.
Nowy Dziennik/Polish Daily News will report on all events relating to the DV lottery.
No Amnesty
State Department employees hold that any undocumented immigrants in the United States should not plan to participate in the Green Card Lottery. Only people who are staying here legally will be able to finalize all the formalities in the event of winning the lottery. Immigration clerks warn that no one should make serious plans based on the possibility of winning the lottery, nor should applicants abandon pursuing other means of legalizing their stay in the United States.
The situation of undocumented immigrants is much more complicated. The official instructions of the State Department included in the DV-2004 lottery state that only persons qualified in Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) can attempt a status change without leaving U.S. territory. At the same time, 245(i) which allowed undocumented immigrants to legalize their status without leaving the country, is no longer valid and it is unknown if Congress will reinstate it in the future.
However, the lottery presents a great means to bring family members from Poland, who have often waited for years to make the trip.
This article was written as part of the Ethnic Press Fellowship of the Independent Press Association-New York.
