Diversity Visa Applications Down for 2005 Lottery
Posted Jan 02, 2004

The 2005 diversity lottery (DV-2005) may not be as diverse as in past years. According to a late December 2003 report from CNN.com, the number of applications received for the 2005 lottery is approximately 5 million. In previous years, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) has received as many as 13 million applications. This is good news for those who managed to apply by the deadline of December 30, 2003. However, it may indicate problems with electronic filing, which is a newly initiated requirement for the 2005 DV lottery. For an overview and the list of eligible countries whose nationals are allowed to participate in the program for this year, see our article, Green Card Lottery section on MurthyDotCom.

The decline in applications is most likely attributable to the new online application requirement. We explained this requirement in our August 29, 2003 MurthyBulletin article, DV-2005 Lottery Instructions, Electronic Filing Required, available on MurthyDotCom. This is the first year that all diversity lottery hopefuls were required to file their applications via the Internet. In developing countries, many would-be applicants may not have access to a computer and many more do not feel secure providing their personal data over the Internet. Further, several unscrupulous companies have posed as diversity visa provider services that would file diversity visa applications when they actually did no filing, whatsoever, and only collected money from their victims. On December 20, 2003, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urged all applicants who used certain fraudulent websites to reapply through the government's genuine diversity lottery website. We reported in our October 24, 2003 MurthyBulletin article, FTC Discovers Fraudulent Diversity Lottery Websites, that the FTC had already discovered eight fraudulent websites that were falsely claiming to send in diversity lottery applications for unsuspecting applicants.

The deadline for filing the 2005 DV lottery expired on December 30, 2003. We recommend that any MurthyBulletin or MurthyDotCom readers who applied for the Diversity Visa lottery through a website other than the official DOS WebSite, contact the FTC to determine whether the service used was fraudulent. In September 2003, our Office submitted a comment to the DOS regarding electronic filing that, if electronic filing must be used, the DOS should establish application centers at the consulates or other common locations in order to provide those persons without computer access with an opportunity to apply without risk of falling prey to corrupt scam artists.

We hope that the DOS will either return to permitting the submission of handwritten applications, or will provide safe places for applicants to make their applications and receive technical guidance to complete the process. Otherwise, the diversity lottery program will remain available only those with the financial means to own a computer or living in communities otherwise providing access to computers, still a luxury for most of the world's population, which also does not have ready access to equipped libraries or Internet cafes. Others will continue to be ensnared by online services that seek to cheat those desperate to provide a better life for their loved ones with the hope to immigrate to this great land of freedom and opportunity.