Lottery Gives Immigrants Chances For Green Cards

TAMPA - Fadi Akhtar won his future in a lottery - a government green card lottery. And Broadway, here he comes.

The annual Diversity Visa Lottery gives 55,000 winners an opportunity to apply for highly sought-after cards making them permanent U.S. residents.

Akhtar, 25, a University of South Florida graduate student from Kuwait, is among winners of the 2002 lottery who are in the process of receiving or applying for their green cards.

Chances of winning are slim. About 8 million foreign citizens enter the lottery each year. And obtaining a green card once your name is selected is not a sure thing, either. But for a chance at a chance, millions more will enter the lottery this month for the 2004 drawing.

``I [entered] three times before, and it never, ever actually happened,'' Akhtar said. ``If I didn't win this, my only option left was to try to get a work visa or get married.''

For the aspiring performer and choreographer, who has been attending USF on an expired student visa, that green card could not have come at a better time.

He will be allowed to stay in the United States permanently to pursue his aim of performing on Broadway, without fear of deportation to the country he fled during the Gulf War.

``For 13 years, I didn't have a country to call my own,'' Akhtar said. ``Now I can ... get work outside of school and live sort of a normal life.''

It is stories like Akhtar's that have made the lottery so popular around the globe.

At home, critics believe the lottery admits immigrants from exactly those places our laws should screen out.

Congress approved the lottery program in 1990 as a means of diversifying the immigrant population, to help correct what some view as a nepotistic immigration system.

Immigration to the United States is based mainly on family sponsorships. Some countries remain underrepresented while immigrant contingents from high-admission countries such as Canada and India continue to grow.

Thus, the computer-generated, random drawing makes available 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to people from countries with low rates of emigration to the United States.

Every year, during the 30- day entry period - from the first Monday in October to early November - the visa lottery is a hot topic among immigrants in the United States, and in villages and cities worldwide.

Unlike most immigration- related processes, entering the lottery is relatively simple. And it's free for those who prepare their own entries.

``This is a great opportunity for our people that we serve to become legalized,'' said Jose Fernandez, director of immigration services for Catholic Charities.

Fernandez said the lottery always has been popular among the agency's clients, and Catholic Charities offices in Tampa and St. Petersburg charge $40 to assist clients with their entries.

At Lutheran Services immigration offices in Tampa, counselors say this is one of their busiest times. They are seeing 15 to 20 clients a day, each of whom pays $10 for assistance with his or her entry.

``Everybody's getting the information and photocopying it for their friends and family members,'' said Joy Margolis, Lutheran Services' communication director.

Immigration lawyers look forward to this time of year as much as their clients do. Tampa immigration attorney Robert Krug said he sends out letters to clients reminding them the application period is approaching.

``People tend to give the information that they think will give them the best chances of winning,'' he said. ``But if you're not eligible, even though your name comes up, you won't get a green card,'' Krug said, debunking one of the biggest myths surrounding the lottery.

Illegal immigrants ineligible to become permanent residents cannot obtain visas through the lottery.

``If your name is selected and we find that you're ineligible because of some violation, then you're ineligible to receive a green card,'' said Stuart Pratt, a spokesman for the Department of State's Consular Affairs Bureau.

Pratt said most people believe lottery winners automatically receive green cards. But what they actually win is the opportunity to apply for the immigrant visas.

Once the application process begins, ``They're screened just like any other visa applicant,'' Pratt said.

And, please, only one entry per person, he said. Sending more than one will disqualify all entries from that individual.

While many U.S. citizens never have heard of the visa lottery, its international popularity has spawned a host of ``official'' green card lottery Web sites that charge people $50 to $150 to submit ``accurate'' entries that will better their chances of winning.

Pratt warns entrants against paying an individual or company to complete their entries.

``There are many entrepreneurs who'll take advantage of people's desires to immigrate to the U.S,'' Pratt said. ``There's is no advantage to doing that.''

But critics are calling for Congress to end the program they call ``problematic.''

``There should be a better way to choose new immigrants than a simple roll of the dice,'' said David Ray, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, immigration policy critics who seek lower immigration levels.

The lottery ``has opened up a whole stream of immigrant flow from countries the [United States] sees as terroristic nations,'' Ray said. ``The lottery system is letting in immigrants we arguably don't need in the first place.''

Critics point to lapses in the program, such as the case of Egyptian immigrant Hesham Hadayet, who went on a shooting spree at the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport on July 4, killing two people and wounding four.

In 1995, Hadayet was facing deportation for overstaying his visitor visa when his wife won the federal visa lottery and Hadayet applied for and received a green card allowing him to stay.

Congress has discussed doing away with the lottery. But those who have won a green card, and the opportunity to live out their dreams, hope that day never comes.

There is no official entry form for the Diversity Visa Lottery. On a plain sheet of paper, type or print your:* Full name, with the surname underlined. * Date and place of birth. * Official native country if different from country of birth. * Spouse's name, date and place of birth, and same information on all unmarried children and stepchildren younger than 21. * Full mailing address. * Photograph (Attach recent 1 1/2-by-1 1/2 and 2-by-2-inch photographs of everyone on the application. Print the name and date of birth of each family member on the back of each photograph.) * Signature, as it appears on the applicant's passport.

The application is free of charge and must reach processing centers via regular mail by noon Nov. 6.

* Natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply because they have sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the last five years: Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and Vietnam. * Applicants must have at least a high school education or its equivalent, or must have worked for at least two of the past five years in an occupation that requires two or more years of training or experience.

* For lottery purposes, the world is divided into six regions - Africa, Asia, Europe, South America/Central America/Caribbean, Oceania and North America - and each region has a separate mailing address.

Entries should be sent via regular mail or airmail to the address matching the region of the applicant's native country.

For official information about addresses, photo requirements and entering the 2004 lottery, visit http://travel.state.gov/DV2004.html

I [entered] three times before, and it never, ever actually happened,'' Akhtar said. ``If I didn't win this, my only option left was to try to get a work visa or get married...

Contingency plans *are* always a good idea, aren't they Akhtar?

For the aspiring performer and choreographer, who has been attending USF on an expired student visa, that green card could not have come at a better time.

BUT.......

Illegal immigrants ineligible to become permanent residents cannot obtain visas through the lottery.

Does anyone sense a sort of incongruity here? This meatball is here on and EXPIRED student visa, yet he qualifies for the green card in this ludicrous lottery?

Just call it the Terrorist Diversity Lottery for God's sake!

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