Over 7000 Ghanaians win US Visa Lottery

A total of 7,040 Ghanaians have won the 2004 edition of the US Diversity Immigration Visa Lottery (DV-2004), an increase of 707 over the figure the 2003 figure of 6,333.

Ghana’s figure comes close to Nigeria’s 7,145 which topped the list of countries whose citizens participated in the lottery.

According to a release announcing the results, approximately 111,000 applicants have been registered and notified. The winners may now make an application for an immigration visa.

However speaking to GRi on the basis of anonymity, a handful of winners in the 2003 draw claimed that they were rejected visas on very flimsy excuses.

The Immigration and Nationality Act makes available 50,000 persons out of winners of the diversity lottery permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

Applicants registered for the DV-2004 programme were selected at random from approximately 7.3 million qualified entries but an additional 2.9 million applications were either received outside of the mail-in period or were disqualified for failing to properly follow directions.

When the results for 2003 were released and eventually the winners attended interviews for their visas the outcome sparked off varied reactions- some very harsh while others were blunt without apologies.

A number of people who called at the Chronicle offices in Accra accused the United States Embassy of denying many who legitimately win visa lotteries from entering America.

The public affairs section of the embassy in a swift reaction denied all the allegations.

Their major concerns among others centred on the payment of assorted fees, bearing expensive medical tests and also the often-flimsy excuses for rejecting an applicant a visa.

The whopping sums they lose are breaking marriages and forcing some victims to lead wretched lives, it was gathered.

A teacher Kofi Atakorah who failed to mention offhand the name of the pupil who placed last in his last terminal examination, was denied the visa, it was reported.

An accountant who failed to answer to the satisfaction of an interview panel a question on the profession was also reportedly denied a visa.

For soliciting the assistance of someone to fill some forms relevant to the visa acquisition, others were denied the visa.

"What they at times do is they ask you to copy from the original papers you have filed with them, just to test whether you wrote them yourself.

And if, because you are unable to write well, you make somebody help you to fill the form, they disqualify you," was a complaint from one of them.

Others included disqualifications on the grounds of omitting the minutest detail such as a dot in a signature and that was Dinah Duah’s plight.

A father and the whole family missed the visa because, "the child did not resemble the father" and spent ?1.7 million each for HIV/AIDS test.

Additionally they paid ?120,000 to obtain a police report and another ?3,918,000 each at the interview stage at the embassy and the fees have to be paid –including babies still breast-feeding.

In all, an average family size of five that applies for a visa lottery ends up paying about ?30 million for various services, it was gathered.

"If you raised a loan to pay all these because you trusted in the lawful lottery, you won and at the last minute were rejected on some dubious fault, you would feel hopeless and helpless," another said.

But the public affairs section of the US embassy denied the allegation that it deliberately subjects some Ghanaians who have won the DV lottery to frustrations, in a bid to refuse them entry into America.

Susan Parker-Burns, the information officer, explained that the embassy considers high education and specialized occupations as well as experience as the two determinant factors for the issuance of entry visas to a DV lottery winner.

She further stated that the embassy thoroughly studies all the documents of various winners some of which, she noted, turn out to be forged by the supposed winners.

She explained that it is the exposition of such fraudulent deals that results in refusal of entry visas which some applicants do not understand and for which reason they accuse the embassy of deliberate frustration.

Parker-Burns suggested that no physical features were used to refuse any applicant, "except proven by a DNA test."

She maintained that the embassy puts premium on the visa lottery in Ghana, as the country ranks quite high among the world's stakers.

She revealed that over 5,000 people won the lottery last year, while about 6,333 people applied for this year's DV lottery.

On specialized occupations, she said, such applicants are trained in America, in order to meet the American labour standard requirements.

Following is the text of the State Department announcement:

(begin text)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
June 24, 2003

Media Note

DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY 2004 (DV-2004) RESULTS

The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky, has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2004 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/(1) permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 111,000 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/(1) persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2004 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2004 (October 1, 2003 until September 30, 2004).

Applicants registered for the DV-2004 program were selected at random from the approximately 7.3 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period that ran from Noon on October 7, 2002 through Noon on November 6, 2002. An additional 2.9 million applications were either received outside of the mail-in period or were disqualified for failing to properly follow directions. 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/(1) visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2004 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2004, will derive no further benefit from their DV-2004 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2004 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2004.
Only participants in the DV-2004 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-2005 lottery if they wish. The dates for the mail-in period for the DV-2005 lottery program will be widely publicized during August 2003.
1/The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NCARA) 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 NCARA 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-2004 program:

AFRICA

 ALGERIA  1,285          ERITREA  373        NAMIBIA  10 
 ANGOLA  17              ETHIOPIA  6,353     NIGER  35
 BENIN  209              GABON  14           NIGERIA  7,145
 BOTSWANA  8             GAMBIA, THE  65     RWANDA  87
 BURKINA FASO  34        GHANA  7,040        SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE  0
 BURUNDI  27             GUINEA  22          SENEGAL  269
 CAMEROON  1,531         GUINEA-BISSAU  6    SEYCHELLES  1
 CAPE VERDE  4           KENYA  5,721        SIERRA LEONE  2,149
 CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 10 LESOTHO  0          SOMALIA  566
 CHAD  41                LIBERIA  1,570      SOUTH AFRICA  413
 COMOROS  0              LIBYA  24           SUDAN  1,183
 CONGO  31               MADAGASCAR  27      SWAZILAND  2
 CONGO, DEMOCRATIC       MALAWI  32          TANZANIA  329
 REPUBLIC OF THE  455    MALI  51            TOGO  2,819
 COTE D'IVOIRE 268       MAURITANIA  25      TUNISIA  115
 DJIBOUTI  24            MAURITIUS  44       UGANDA  351
 EGYPT  4,189            MOROCCO  5,069      ZAMBIA  124
 EQUATORIAL GUINEA  1    MOZAMBIQUE  5       ZIMBABWE  168
 
 ASIA 
 AFGHANISTAN  46         IRAQ  174           MONGOLIA  65
 BAHRAIN  15             ISRAEL  465         NEPAL  4,259
 BANGLADESH  5,126       JAPAN  1,291        OMAN  3
 BHUTAN  9               JORDAN  125         QATAR  8
 BRUNEI  7               NORTH KOREA  4      SAUDI ARABIA  54
 BURMA  906              KUWAIT  45          SINGAPORE  137
 CAMBODIA  237           LAOS  10            SRI LANKA  1,418
 HONG KONG SPECIAL       LEBANON  105        SYRIA  64
 ADMIN. REGION  293      MALAYSIA  222       TAIWAN  1,833
 INDONESIA  844          MALDIVES  0         THAILAND  297
 IRAN  1,431                                 YEMEN 106 
 EUROPE 
 ALBANIA  3,071          GERMANY  1,227      NORTHERN IRELAND  51
 ANDORRA  1              GREECE  66          NORWAY  19
 ARMENIA  836            HUNGARY  139        POLAND  5,467
 AUSTRIA  64             ICELAND  17         PORTUGAL  46
 AZERBAIJAN  338         IRELAND  305        Macau  0
 BELARUS  966            ITALY  165          ROMANIA  1,845
 BELGIUM  46             KAZAKHSTAN  451     RUSSIA  2,600
 BOSNIA/HERZEGOVINA 128  KYRGYZSTAN  206     SAN MARINO  0
 BULGARIA  3,482         LATVIA  172 SERBIA & MONTENEGRO 448
 CROATIA  73             LIECHTENSTEIN  1    SLOVAKIA  392
 CYPRUS  11              LITHUANIA  2,059    SLOVENIA  8
 CZECH REPUBLIC  172     LUXEMBOURG  4       SPAIN  62
 DENMARK  39             MACEDONIA, FORMER   SWEDEN  82
 ESTONIA  71             YUGOSLAV REP. 166   SWITZERLAND  183
 FINLAND  44             MALTA  10           TAJIKISTAN  105
 FRANCE  313             MOLDOVA  574        TURKEY  2,343
 French Guiana 1         MONACO  1           TURKMENISTAN  95
 French Polynesia 3      NETHERLANDS  94     UKRAINE  4,494
 Guadeloupe 5            Netherlands         UZBEKISTAN  1,819
 Reunion 2                 Antilles  6       VATICAN CITY  0
 Aruba 1 GEORGIA  479
 NORTH AMERICA
 BAHAMAS, THE  12
 OCEANIA
 AUSTRALIA  362          NAURU  0            SOLOMON ISLANDS  2 
 FIJI  738               NEW ZEALAND  155    TONGA  43 KIRIBATI  0
         Cook Islands 0      TUVALU  0 MARSHALL ISLANDS  0 PALAU  0
            VANUATU  1 
 MICRONESIA, FEDERATED   PAPUA              NEW GUINEA  3
 STATES OF  0            SAMOA  8
 SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN
 ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA  6  DOMINICA  12        PERU  1,298
 ARGENTINA  194          ECUADOR  746        SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS  2 
 BARBADOS  3             GRENADA  6          SAINT LUCIA  5 BELIZE  4
G GUATEMALA  26       SAINT VINCENT AND BOLIVIA  62
 GUYANA  22          THE GRENADINES  5 BRAZIL  287
 HONDURAS  25        SURINAME  1 CHILE  23   NICARAGUA  27
 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO  71 COSTA RICA  12          PANAMA  13
 URUGUAY  41 CUBA  674               PARAGUAY  31        VENEZUELA  194
 

Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2004: Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R., and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam