….and be one of those lucky 55,000 immigrants to win the big prize and come to America! That’s right, new readers will be shocked to learn that Congress in its infinite wisdom has mandated we increase America’s diversity and take immigrants from countries that have sent less than 50,000 immigrants here in the last 5 years.
I’ve written about this on several occasions, but was reminded that it must be application time when reader Cristina sent me this link to an immigration law firm that will help you get your ducks all lined up to participate in the lottery (for a fee I’m sure!).
Here is the press release, dated September 29th, from the State Department.
The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 and provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants.” Section 203(c) of the INA provides a maximum of 55,000 Diversity Visas (DVs) each fiscal year to be made available to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
The annual DV program makes visas available to persons meeting simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. A computer-generated, random lottery drawing chooses selectees for DVs. The visas are distributed among six geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the past five years. Within each region, no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.
For DV-2011, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply because the countries sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years:
BRAZIL, CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PERU, PHILIPPINES, POLAND, SOUTH KOREA, UNITED KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and VIETNAM. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible.
No countries have been added or removed from the list of eligible countries. The list of eligible countries remains the same as for DV-2010.
Here is a breakdown of last year’s applicants, I don’t know who the “winners” are.
“Winners” get to come stand in line overnight in places like Shelbyville, TN to compete (and scuffle) for scarce jobs with refugees and Americans at the Tyson’s chicken plant there as we learned from the Shelbyville Times Gazette in February and reaffirmed by the Wall Street Journal here in May.
In May I also reported that legislation had been introduced in Congress to halt this program, here, but with the Leftwing progressives running the place, the bill could hardly be more than symbolic.
The refugee resettlement program brought in about 75,000 refugees this past fiscal year, and in 2010, the goal is 80,000 (No! We are not cutting back in this recession). Only about 20% of refugees are finding jobs, and they will compete with 55,000 new immigrants in this program. One difference is that refugees get all sorts of public assistance and the diversity visa immigrants are on their own.