How the Diversity Visa (the Lottery) Actually Works

President Donald Trump has expressed his distaste for the diversity visa on numerous occasions.  In the Rose Garden on February 15, 2019, Trump exclaimed, "And then you have the lottery.  It's a horror show, because when countries put people into the lottery, they're not putting you in; they're putting in some very bad people in the lottery.  It's common sense.  If I ran a country, and if I have a lottery system of people going to the United States, I'm not going to put in my stars; I'm going to put in people I don't want."

Trump continued with his criticism in a campaign rally in Cincinnati on August 1, 2019, stating, "And you pick people out of a lottery.  Well let's see, this one is a murderer, this one robbed four banks, this one I better not say, this one another murderer, ladies and gentlemen, another murderer.  Do you think [these countries] are going to put their great citizens . . . into the lottery?  Look at the people they put into these lotteries."

Trump's message has been consistent.  In 2017, Trump told graduates f the FBI National Academy, "They have a lottery. You pick people. Do you think the country is giving us their best people? No. What kind of a system is that? They come in by lottery. They give us their worst people, they put them in a bin, but in his hand, when he’s picking them is, really, the worst of the worst. Congratulations, you’re going to the United States. Okay. What a system — lottery system."

It is actually quite amazing.  Everything Trump says about the diversity visa lottery is completely wrong.  Not one bit of it is true.  The governments of foreign countries play no role in who applies for a diversity visa through the lottery system.  There is no bin.  No names are drawn from a hat.  Those who win the lottery, and thus have a chance to immigrate to the United States, are vetted to ensure they have no criminal record.  Indeed, in order to obtain the visa, a lottery winner must have a certain level of education or skill to ensure they will not be a drain on the U.S. welfare system.

Through the diversity lottery, visas are made available for 50,000 people each year.   The idea is to give people from countries that have traditionally sent fewer immigrants to the United States the chance to immigrate to the United States.

If a country has sent 50,000 or more immigrants to the United States in the last five years, then people from that country may not receive a diversity visa. Based on this criteria, people from Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, the Peoples Republic of China, El Salvador, Haiti and South Korea, to name a few, are not eligible.

The diversity visas are distributed by region, with people from the regions sending the fewest immigrants to the United States in the previous five years receiving the most visas. The regions which currently receive the most visas under the program are Africa and Europe. No one country can receive more than seven percent, or 3,500, of the visas available for that year. The visas are distributed at random.

To apply, a person enters the lottery online during the registration period. Winning the lottery does not guarantee that the applicant will receive the visa. Rather, the applicant must meet certain additional requirements. The applicant must have graduated high school, or have spent two out of the last five years in an occupation requiring at least two years' training or experience.

A person does not need to meet the eligibility requirements in order to apply online. This has led to a number of disappointed lottery winners. That is, a person can win the lottery only to learn that he or she does not have the required education or work experience to receive the visa.

The be able to immigrate to the United States, a person who receives a diversity visa must still be admissible pursuant to U.S. immigration law.  That means the person may not have committed certain crimes, such as murder, theft or sexual assault.  The person cannot have certain communicable diseases, be a habitual drunkard, be likely to become a public charge, or be considered a threat to national security.

To summarize, a person desiring to immigrate to the United States enters the diversity visa lottery.  That person's government has nothing to do with the application.  Foreign countries do not put people's names into a bit, or a hat, or a box.  An individual applies through the internet by going online.  A computer program picks names randomly.  In order to come to the United States, the person just have a minimum level of education or work experience, and cannot have committed certain crimes.

Thus, when Trump describes the diversity visa, he is engaging in nothing more than fear mongering.  This fear mongering fits in with his overall approach to immigration, where he manipulates the fear of his followers to promote more restrictive immigration policies.  He ignores studies which show immigrants as less likely than those born in the United States to commit violent crimes, instead painting all immigrants as potential threats to the public safety.  Education and access to accurate information can prevent Trump from manipulating the ignorance of his followers to pervert immigration law and policy.

By:  William J. Kovatch, Jr.

Political Wrangling Over Immigration Reform Begins

In the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election, some Republicans began pressing to change the party's stance on immigration reform as a way to change the party's image with Latino voters.  Over 70% of Latinos voted for President Obama, and was seen by many as a key reason for the President's victory.

Comprehensive immigration reform will take time and negotiations.  Some Republicans eager to start changing the party's image have introduced smaller proposals in Congress now, during the lame duck session, in an effort to give the GOP some credibility.

One such proposal is the expansion of the number of permanent residency visas available for workers in science, technology, engineering and math, so-called STEM workers.  I have already discussed the arduous process of hiring foreign-born STEM workers and applying for their visas on this blog.

While Republicans may not be completely unified on comprehensive immigration reform, STEM worker visas is one area where the GOP does have a degree of unity.  One Republican proposal on STEM worker visas was brought to a vote in September of this year.  The plan would have increased the number of visas available for STEM workers by 50,000, while eliminating the diversity visa program.  The diversity visa program, also known as the visa lottery, makes 50,000 visas available to people born in areas of the world that have sent the fewest immigrants to the United States in the past five years.

The GOP bill was brought to the floor in September under the suspension calendar, and needed a two-thirds majority to pass in the House of Representatives.  While the proposal failed to gain the required support in September, the bill to expand the number of STEM visas came to the floor on the regular calendar, and passed the House on November 30, 2012.  The bill passed, and was introduced in the Senate.

In the Senate, Republican John Cornyn sought unanimous consent to bring the bill on STEM worker visas to a vote.  Democrat Chuck Schumer objected, noting that while Democrats favored expanding the number of visas available for STEM workers, that Democrats did not believe it had to be done by eliminating the visas available under other immigration programs.

The political wrangling over immigration reform has therefore begun.  There is a question over whether the Democrats will even permit immigration reform to pass.  If immigration reform were to pass, it would rob the Democrats of a political issue where they believe they have an advantage over Republicans. 

This first foray into the issue of immigration reform, therefore, does not bode well for the passage of comprehensive reform.  If political parties cannot agree on the specifics of this one issue, where there is general agreement for the need to expand the visas available for STEM workers, then finding common ground on a host of other immigration topics could prove elusive.

By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.
(703) 837-8832
info@kovatchimmigrationlaw.com

What is the Diversity Visa Lottery?

You may have heard people talking about "winning the lottery" when they explain how they came to the United States.  What exactly does "winning the lottery" mean?  Can just anyone get a visa by winning a lottery?

It is true that U.S. law provides for a lottery to make visas available for 50,000 people each year.  But, that is a deceptively simple way of explaining it.  The program is called the diversity visa lottery.  The idea is to give countries that have traditionally sent fewer immigrants to the United States the chance to have their nationals come to the United States.

Visas through the lottery are made available to countries that have sent the fewest immigrants to the United States in the last five years.  No on country can account for more than 7% of the total of visas available for that year.  Plus, there are qualifications that the immigrant must meet.  The immigrant must have a high school education, or have been working in an occupation that requires two years of training for two of the past five years.

The qualification requirement is where many applicants get tripped up.  There is no requirement that a person meet the qualifications to enter the lottery.  A foreigner simply registers for the lottery online when the registration is open.  This means that a person can win the lottery, think they have a visa, and then become greatly disappointed when the Consulate inform them that they don't have the required education or occupation.

At any rate, the lottery may be on its way out.  In all of the talk of immigration reform, some Republicans are proposing the elimination of the diversity visa lottery, and expanding the number of immigrant visas available to graduates with advanced degrees in science and engineering by 50,000.  Whether this happens remains to be seen.  A bill that would have eliminated the lottery almost passed the House of Representatives in September.

Click here and you can read more about the diversity visa lottery in another article I wrote on the subject.

By:  William J. Kovatch, Jr.
(703) 837-8832
info@kovatchimmigrationlaw.com

No Republican Uniformity on Immigration Reform

After Romney's presidential election defeat last week, many prominent Republicans began advocating for a change in the party's stand on immigration reform.  Pointing to the overwhelming majority of Latino voters who sided with President Obama, these Republicans saw a softening on the party's stance on immigration as one way that the party could appeal to this demographic group.

However, there does not appear to be uniformity within the Republican ranks on this issue.  Some have argued that changing the party's stance on immigration would amount to nothing more than pandering, and would not guarantee that Latinos would be more attracted to Republican candidates.

A strategy that hoisted all hope on immigration reform may not work to attract more Latino voters to the Republican party.  Such a strategy assumes that Latinos are single-issue voters, leaning heavily on immigration policy to guide their choice.  This, however, appears to be a false assumption.  Indeed, to consider the Latino vote to be a homogenous group itself is something of a fallacy.  Cuban Americans living in Florida, for example, are not the same as Mexican Americans living in California.

 The argument has been made that changing the party's stand on immigration reform could be the first step to changing the GOP's image on diversity in general. Business Insider has pointed out that Romney lost among Asian voters in a slightly larger margin than he did among Latino voters.  This is despite the fact that Romney generally won the vote among Americans with incomes of greater than $100,000 per year, and that on average Asians earn more than caucasians.  The argument here is that the Republicans' stand on immigration issues gives the appearance that the party is not so very tolerant of ethnic minorities.  But, immigration reform alone would not be enough to sway minority voters.

Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg argues that Republicans place too much emphasis on Christian values, which can alienate Buddhists and Hindus.  Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post wrote that among the thing Republicans need to consider is running ads in languages other than English, and Democrats do.  A similar thing can be said about campaigns aimed at legislating English as the official language, either of the federal or state governments.  Such actions are insensitive to the diverse population of the United States, and communicate a lack of tolerance to minority groups.

Immigration reform itself may not be a panacea for the Republican party.  But, it can be the first step to changing the party's image provided that harsh-toned rhetoric that appears intolerant of anyone who isn't an English-speaker of European descent is also eliminated.

By:  William J. Kovatch, Jr.
(703) 837-8832
info@kovatchimmigrationlaw.com