By Paul Arhewe, Online Editor
The hopes of many people world- wide that had nursed the dream to travel to God’s Own Country next year through the visa lottery programme were dashed last week as the United States government announced the invalidation of the released results due to computer glitches. About 22,000 entrants who were notified to proceed to the next level of the exercise would have to forfeit that opportunity, as the American government says the process for selecting them was neither fair nor randomly carried out.
The US Diversity Immigrant Visa programme began in 1994. The annual programme gives skilled and educated adults from selected countries across the globe the opportunity to travel to America on a work visa.
At least 100,000 applicants are supposed to emerge to proceed to the next stage out of the 14.7 million applications submitted for the 2012 exercise. About 50,000 Green cards are issued annually for the programme.
A call was made by National Mirror to the Information Specialist Media Officer, Joke Omotunde of the US Public Affairs Information office in Lagos. Omotunde said there is no new information regarding the cancelled visa, except those uploaded in the diversity lottery website.
The initial list of selected 22,000 entrants has been removed from the US dvlottery website.
Another fresh selection process would be conducted, based on the original entries for the 2012 programme submitted between October 5 and November 3, 2010. The new lists of those to be selected in the rescheduled phase would be published, July 15 on the same website (www.dvlottery.state.gov), as the computer error in the initial draw has been identified and corrected, a statement from the US government discloses.
The fates of those 22,000 entrants initial selected remain unknown as no favourable consideration would be accorded them. Hence, they would either be lucky to get reselected or miss out.
Harish Gupta, national editor of Indian Daily News and Analysis (DNA), who recently paid a visit to Nigeria, says the computer glitches or hitches are supposed to revert.
The US government says it was necessary to invalidate the list of those initially selected because its law requires that the Diversity Immigrant visas be made available strictly on a random process.
The computer programming error made the last selection not truly random, thus the outcome did not meet the requirements of the law. Hence, it would be unfair to many DV entrants if it is allowed to stand.
Already, some of those affected entrants have formed a group on a website www.petitionspot.com and on the social network site, Facebook, to sign petitions in attracting the attention of US government to their plight. In a message purportedly posted by one of the anonymous victims reads “US Green Card Lottery DV-2012 –22,000 winners can’t be ignored – join this Facebook group and sign the petition”.
Another new dimension the affected selectees are embarking to see that justice is done is seeking means to get a bill raised by the US congress which will make them get their status without recourse to the 50,000 DV visas.
Abdou Sizar, one of those selected said “on May 1, I saw the heaven; hope and future but on May 13, I saw life in black just darkness and hopeless, really the dv-2012 broke my heart so badly”.
Another selectee, Joe Ibrahim with a family of three who have applied for many years in order to raise their two children in the US, said “My elder child was the happiest person in the world when we told him that we won and after a while, we will be moving to the US. We are in a great shock since we got the notification that the lottery results will be ignored. My wife can’t stop crying, I almost stopped working and the big problem is we don’t have the courage to tell our eldest son that the lottery results have been cancelled. We won’t travel this year to the US. It was much pretty easier if we did not win from the scratch”.
Also, Ahmed Elekiaby, among those selected says “...when the results were cancelled I was very distressed, because I changed all my plans for life during these two weeks of happiness, I sold my property, turned down a good job proposal, paid $100 to DHL to sent my application forms to Kentucky”. “So when I heard the news I was so crashed, that I don’t know what to do next. I’ve already lost my confirmation number, as did many other participants, because it was said that for the further steps we need only “case number”. So if we are lucky the second time in July, we won’t have any chances to find it out. There are a lot of us who want to get our results back. We don’t know where to apply and nobody cares”.
In the same vein, Andreea Thompson expresses his grief over the cancellation: “I am one of the selectees for 2012 DV Lottery and on May 2, 2011 when I checked the results, I was the happiest person in the whole world. I have applied for the lottery for many years and this was my lucky year. I couldn’t believe that they voided our results when I heard it, especially on Friday morning of May 13th I went to the USCIS office in San Francisco and confirmed that they could adjust my status in US from a visa to the green card. As soon I stepped out of the USCIS office, I mailed my letters to KCC and the cheque to DOS with my application fee as I was heading to Europe for work. When I landed in Europe, my mom called me crying (because she knew that this will be a big shock and disappointment for me) saying that she heard on the news that the 2012 DV lottery results were cancelled”.
The experiences of many of the 22,000 people across the globe are the same. Nigeria has continued to lead with the highest number of entrants and those selected to proceed to the next level in previous editions. For the 2010 edition there were 1,570,316 Nigerians that submitted entries; the figure rose in 2011 to 2,144,626, and there were 2,005,876 entries in the 2012 edition. Nigeria came second with 6,000 becoming the country with the highest number of those selected in the DV 2011 next to Ghana’s 6,002 selectees.
16 comments:
PART 2
Dear Zany Analyst,
The reason for the randomness is to ensure that every applicant gets a fair chance.
Please tell me how any applicant could have affected the outcome in favour of himself/herself.
They could Not have done it.
As a result everyone did have the same chance. The software could have chosen people who applied on “even hours” (like beween 2-3 and 4-5 etc.) of the day.
The people chosen would be more evenly distributed.
Do you know that the random() function in software programming runs with a “seed”. So
random(1) always produces the same results. so does random(2). So if some applicant knew which “seed” was run by the selection algorithm and if the same person could ensure that he applies at the correct time, he/she could make 100% sure that they are chosen.
I hear you shouting: “how could they have known which “seed” was used and what time they should apply so that they receive the winning ranking.”
This is exactly what I am saying.
They could NOT HAVE KNOWN.
The same goes for the current selection: “NOBODY KNEW!” of the selection process so nobody could do anything to gain an unfair advantage.
Assume that the software was supposed to choose selectees uniformly (in respect to Application Date & Time) from among all applicants.
There are 100,000 selectees. All applications happened in 30 days = 720 hours.
So this means that every hour (to ensure uniform distribution in respect to Applicaton date & time) -> 100,000 / 720 = 140 selectees must be chosen.
Would this mean that if I apply at 3am in the morning when there are less people applying, I have a greater chance of winning?
Or should the uniformity be by the “minute”.
It means that 2.3 people should be selected every minute.
Would this mean that if I apply for myself, my wife and my children within the same minute from paralel computers, I can increase my chance of winning?
Or should the uniformity be by the “day”.
It means that 3333 people should be selected every day.
So which day would the least number of people apply. I would guess ti would be on the 15th day.
Any kind of KNOWLEDGE can give you an unfair adantage. If there is NO KNOWLEDGE, than the selectees could not have manipulated the system. Hence, the outcome is a random group.
If someone were to check the current selectees, they would find that, all education levels, ages, etc are uniformly distributed which is the desired result.
PART 1
Dear Zany Analyst,
I thank you most sincerely for taking the time to read my comment below.
It is a very disappointing and sad situation. Especially, after making one think they have been chosen and getting a chance at your “dream”.
I believe that supporting the process for the declared “winners” and choosing a second batch of winners could have been a better move. It seems that proceeding this way would be more suiting of the USA as we imagine the USA to be. Standing behind their word even if it could cost.
I have been pondering on the voiding of the DV2012 Lottery results. I am an Electronics Engineer and my occupation is Software Consultancy.
I understand from the explanation given on the web site that, due to an “error” in the software used for the selection process, the selection has not been “random” and selectee determination was biased towards the early applicants. I would kindly ask you to review and let me know your thoughts on the following 3 points:
1- As the problem stems from a software “error”, it was unintentional. Being unintentional, no one had prior knowledge of the selection algorithm’s detail workings. Consequently, nobody could have benefited from this situation. For all intents and purposes the selection is still Random. Hence there is no need for cancelation.
The software could easily well have chosen the applicants who applied on the last 3 days Or on odd/even numbered days Or on Saturday/Sundays. Or the system could have even directly selected the very last 100,000 applicants Or have choosen all selectees from amongst applicants who applied on a specific date.
As this was an “error” and was not known to anyone before the selection; the Randomness of the selection is not affected.
As an applicant I had no way of manipulating the system to favour my application to be chosen. For any applicant, this is the case. For anybody, the selection software is a “black box”. This is true for the software whether there is an “error” in the code or not (incidentally, even the random() function used in software programming is not “truely random” itself). As the selection process is only done once, the content of this “black box” is irrelevant.
Hence the Randomness is preserved and cancelation is actually Not required.
2- In ANY case, I would have expected that, once declared by the USA, the “winners” would have been supported and kept in the “review for a greencard” process. Especially, those selectees who filled out their necessary forms and applied as was expected. If desired, a second batch of random “winners” could be selected (without – so traumatically – affecting the declared “winners”) as an additional group.
3- Does having been declared a “winner” and consequently having sent in the necessary forms to KCC before the declaration of the voiding of the DV2012 Lottery results, entitle a declared “winner” to the right of being “reviewed for a greencard”?
I just wanted to share with you a very simple logic someone put on the internet.
1- There is a train with 10 wagons. Each wagon can hold 100 balls.
2- I tell you to put one ball in any one of 10 wagons of this train.
3- When everyone has placed their ball in the train, I will choose 100 balls.
4- The probability of any ONE ball to be chosen is 100/1000 = 1/10.
5- It does not matter if I choose all balls from 1 wagon or 10 from each or 20 from 5 wagons.
6- Each ball still has a 1/10 chance to be chosen.
7- As all this was an “error”; nobody knew which wagons would be chosen from, so noone had any unfair advantage. Consequently, the selection is a fair and random selection.
(wagons correspond to “application dates” & balls are the “individual applications”)
Thanks and Best Regards,
Zihni
Help us ex-selectees!
Thanks in advance.
Are u saying the 22,000 selectees got unfair means for their selection?
I dont think people can cheat in the selection stage. The software was built by US government.
Dear Obama,
I know its not our right do order your administration around but my humble cry is that please let those who were notified and sent their Documents,photos,sign to KCC who meet the qualifications allowed to proceed with their cases,may God bless America and Africa
John Mbugua
Kisumu,Kenya
I found a wallet. I'm very used to the money and credit cards inside. It's totaly unfair to take it away. If you take it away I will have so much pain in my soul, so be kind to me. I don't care that it's against the law. I will sue you otherwise and write to media. cry cry
THIEVES YOU WON'T GET A SINGLE VISA EVER!
funny, I have been trying since 2001 to get into the green card lottery, but seems they loose my application every year. 10 years and nothing, how can this be??? I'm in South Africa and have noticed that only about 300 ppl get chosen every year fro the green card, but the rest of Africa over 5000 people go through to the next step per country...why is that?
How can you try for over 10 years and and still never get a green light from USA? Very sad for me.
what is the correct web site for the green card lottery? There's so many scams going around and people asking money up front that nobody knows where to go anymore. Pls let us know?
" Anonymous1: Dont worry when the time is set for you, it will be the US government that will be appealing that u take her Green card. Be patient Man.
@Anonymous 2:
the correct website is inside the article I wrote.
www.dvlottery.state.gov
Cheers.
Thank you for sharing. Things happen, its fate we cannot do anything for it. Lets hope that we get selected in the second round of lottery.
Greeting ...I was among winner in immigration DV Lottery I was very happy and now We are disappointed we need to justice of heaven
@Nadooor, lets keep our fingers cross, maybe the US govt would react on the ongoing petitions. You may be lucky to get reselected.
@Green Card Lottery, thank you for comment.
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