Green Card Lottery Begins October 2013 (DV-2015)

Green Card & Citizenship, , , , , , ,

In the midst of US Congress dysfunction and a US Government shutdown, the Diversity Visa Lottery 2015 (DV-2015) or as it’s unofficially known, the Green Card Lottery began yesterday. In short the Green Card Lottery is an annual lottery run by the US State Department as designated by US Immigration law that is FREE to enter with the end result being Permanent Residency for 55,000 lucky winners around the world.

The lottery entry period begins on October 1, 2013 and concludes on November 2, 2013 so be sure you enter during this period as no exceptions are made and the last couple of days because of load there may be computer glitches. At the end of completing your online form, you will be given a confirmation number which you should record as that is how you can check if you won online around April/May 2014 when they announce the results. You will be officially notified by mail if you win.

It is called DV-2015 because the winners would get a Green Card commencing at the beginning of the US Immigration fiscal year 2015 which begins on October 1, 2014. Now while the lottery is FREE to enter (so don’t fall for all the various scams that try and charge you to enter as it is fully run on the US Government website) and it is only 10 basic personal questions to answer online along with uploading a passport size style photo, there are some important criteria to note which could disqualify your entry and/or make you ineligible to enter at all.

  1. You can only enter once for yourself (although you can enter once and your spouse could enter once and if either of you won, the other could be eligible as a spouse of a winner)
  2. Participants born in the following countries are NOT eligible to enter this year’s lottery. (the reason why they are ineligible is because the US Goverment has determined there were already enough people who became Permanent Residents of the US from these nations through other avenues as this lottery is intended to be about greater diversity for the US)
    • In Central & South America whose natives are not eligible for this year’s diversity program:
      Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica and Peru.
    • In North America, natives of Canada and Mexico are not eligible this year
    • In Europe, native from these countries are not eligible for this year’s DV program: Great Britain
      (United Kingdom). Great Britain (United Kingdom) includes the following dependent areas: Anguilla,
      Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St. Helena,
      and Turks and Caicos Islands. Note that for purposes of the diversity program only, Northern Ireland is
      treated separately; Northern Ireland does qualify and is listed among the qualifying areas. Macau S.A.R. does qualify and is listed above.
    • In Asia these countries are not eligible for this year’s diversity program: Bangladesh, China (mainland-born), India, Pakistan, South Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam. Hong Kong S.A.R. (Asia region), Macau S.A.R. (Europe region), and Taiwan (Asia region) do qualify and are listed here
    • In Africa, natives of Nigeria are not eligible for this year
      ——–
  3. There are a couple of exceptions to the above if you were born in a non-eligible country this year. This includes;
    • Was your spouse born in a country whose natives are eligible? If yes, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth provided that both you and your spouse are named on the selected entry, are issued diversity visas, and enter the United States simultaneously
    • Were you born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but in which neither of your parent was born or legally resident at the time of your birth? If yes, you may claim nativity in one of our parents’ countries of birth if it is a country whose natives are eligible for the DV-2015 program
      ———
  4. The primary entrant must have completed a high school level education (i.e. 12 years of schooling) OR have two years of work experience in the past 5 years where at least 2 years of experience or training was required to perform the job
    • If you are qualifying under the work requirement go to O*Net Online, you need to have a job that classified as Job Zone 4 or 5 with a rating of 7.0 or higher.1. Under “Find Occupations” select “Job Family” from the pull down;
      2. Browse by “Job Family”, make your selection, and click “GO”;
      3. Click on the link for your specific occupation.
      4. Select the tab “Job Zone” to find the designated Job Zone number and Specific Vocational Preparation
      (SVP) rating range
      ———
  5. For the online form itself the following information is required;
    • 1. Name – last/family name, first name, middle name – exactly as on your passport
    • Birth date – day, month, year.
    • Gender – male or female.
    • City where you were born.
    • Country where you were born – Use the name of the country currently used for the place where you were born
    • Country of eligibility for the DV Program – Your country of eligibility will normally be the same as your country of birth. Your country of eligibility is not related to where you live. If you were  born in a country that is not eligible then check the above comments about country eligibility to see if another method may apply
    • Entrant photograph(s) – Recent photographs of yourself, your spouse and all your children listed. You do not need to include a photograph for a spouse or child who is already a U.S. citizen or a Lawful Permanent Resident, but you will not be penalized if you do. Group photographs will not be accepted; you must submit a photograph for each individual. Your entry may be disqualified or visa refused if the photographs are not recent, have been manipulated in any way, or do not meet the specifications required
    • Mailing Address – this is where your winner notification and instructions will be sent so ensure it is correct
    • Country where you live today
    • Phone number (optional)
    • E-mail address
    • Highest level of education you have achieved, as of today: (1) Primary school only, (2) Some high school, no diploma, (3) High school diploma, (4) Vocational school, (5) Some university courses, (6) University degree, (7) Some graduate-level courses, (8) Master’s degree, (9) Some doctoral – level courses, and (10) Doctorate
    • Current marital status – Unmarried, married, divorced, widowed, or legally separated. Enter the name, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth, country of birth of your spouse, and a photograph of your spouse meeting the same technical specifications as your photo
    • Number of children – List the Name, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth, and country of birth for all living unmarried children under 21 years of age, regardless of whether or not they are living with you or intend to accompany or follow to join you should you immigrate to the United States. Submit individual photographs of each of your children using the same technical specifications as your own photo. Be sure to include; all living natural children, all living children legally adopted by you and, all living step-children who are unmarried and under the age of 21 on the date of your electronic entry, even if you are no longer legally married to the child’s parent, and even if the child does not currently reside with you and/or will not immigrate with you. (Married children and children over the age of 21 are not eligible for the DV. However, the Child Status Protection Act protects children from “aging out” in certain circumstances. If your DV entry is made before your unmarried child turns 21, and the child turns 21 before visa issuance, he/she may be treated as though he/she were under 21 for visa-processing purposes)

The official Green Card Lottery complete instructions are as per this US State Department link and may be worth reading if you are unsure of anything and to help ensure you don’t do things that would compromise your online entry.

Another tip I would give all readers is to do the application in Internet Explorer or Firefox as browsers as it tends to work best without errors. Also remember to save a copy of your confirmation page which you will give you a confirmation number to check your results later.

To get an idea of how many people from each country applied in past years you can look at official country statistics from the US Government here for the DV-2013 Green Card Lottery which ran in 2011 with winners announced in 2012.

Because of current proposed US Immigration reform 2013, which has already passed the US Senate, and has general acceptance on both sides, this may be the LAST EVER GREEN CARD LOTTERY. Although if no immigration reform is passed the Green Card Lottery will remain in future years.

Good Luck,
Cj

Chinese Having American Surrogate Babies For Future Green Cards

Green Card & Citizenship, , , , ,

The hard right and other fringe elements in the US bemoan the fact that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution confers automatic US Citizenship upon any child born in the United States. They do this selectively of course and have coined the phrase ‘Anchor Baby‘ to describe foreign immigrants both illegal and even temporary legal immigrants on non immigrant or tourist visas who have children born in the US with the hope that the child will be able to keep the parents (and others) in the US legally.

There is one major flaw in this argument which is of course overlooked by those that espouse this theory in that they are fundamentally misunderstanding US Immigration law. Of course people can choose to stay in the US illegally and risk the consequences to all aspects of their life, but you don’t need to have a baby to do that. In US Immigration law that child can only legally sponsor his parents once he has reached 21 and even then based on current Immigration wait times that still may be a further 3-5 year wait at least not to mention thousands of dollars in costs.

So in terms of both a timing efficiency and cost efficient way of trying to get legal long term status in the US, this is a very poor route to go down with lots of uncertainty, large costs and potentially a 25 year wait. On top of that, the medical costs of having a baby in the US are very large, particularly without proper health insurance, and if the illegal immigrant or overstay visa parents stay on in the US after the child is born waiting for the age of 21 of their child, then b/c of their non-compliant actions they face the real risk of the parental sponsorship petition being denied.

The situation described above is in reality a very small proportion of people and tends to focus more on lower socioeconomic, impoverished and persecuted foreigners to the US. All of these groups are common targets of the staunchly anti-immigrant brigade already.

However on the higher socioeconomic end of the spectrum, we have a different recent phenomenon largely being taken advantage by Chinese nationals but also other wealthier foreigners as well. Due to China’s strict one child policy it means that many couples who want more children are forced to seek other legal means to have other biological children. Surrogacy is illegal in China, however there are many agencies and willing surrogate mothers in the US both legally able and willing to logistically organize and carry to term the child of Chinese parents.

Generally when surrogacy occurs in the US it is an expensive proposition resulting in $100,000 or more total bill for the parents when just the mandatory costs of medical, any agency fees, stipend/loss of earnings compensation to surrogate, legal fees and delivery costs are factored in. For a Chinese national couple this can easily magnify to double or triple that amount with increased travel costs, magnified legal and medical expenses and additional immigration issues.

Now the original intention of this was to circumvent the Chinese one child policy and surrogacy prohibition but now this is seen as almost a down payment on the child’s future now having full access to US living, social, education, political and other benefits in the future as well as potentially being able to sponsor the parents over in retirement years. Many upper middle class Chinese families uncertain over the medium term future of the country with potential political unrest and changing rules around financial and asset ownership see countries like the US as a safer option if necessary for maintaing their wealth and lifestyle if necessary.

They view this as a cheaper and more desirable option all round than the EB-5 Green Card / Investment Visa route, whereby a minimum of $500,000  and up to $2 Million is required to be invested in the US with other conditions met. The interesting thing is that at least from a political and thus media perspective less is ever mentioned about this end of the US Immigration system b/c it ultimately involves money, wealthy influential people, business interests and lobby groups.

Therefore a US Senator or Congressman who is directly/indirectly getting campaign contributions from entities and people connected to these people and/or has investments themselves in China and other parts of the world does not want to disrupt the hands that feed it. Additionally with the large sums of money the medical industry, immigration attorney, travel companies, surrogacy agencies, surrogate mothers and others who help facilitate all of this, no-one wants to see this top while they are making a growing large stream of revenue of each year. Many US surrogate mothers, deliver multiple children for the same Chinese parents.

Ultimately this is an area of US Immigration that will largely not be reformed and currently has no alteration or regulation in the current US Immigration Reform Act of 2013 passed by the Senate. Unless the money flowing towards an opposite outcome increases, noone will want to alter the status quo.

Now whether there is anything wrong with this at all is a debate on many fronts and there is a strong argument to say all of this is perfectly fine morally, legally and in the interests of the US as no-one directly loses out as a result of this seemingly. However in the medium term, the loser in the end are the current immigrants, non-immigrants, illegal immigrants and prospective visitors and immigrants to the US because policy and quotas are not made in a vacuum.

If there are evermore Chinese nationals being naturalized in the US under this scheme that indirectly might lengthen the wait for Chinese students studying in the US on the F-1 visa hoping to get an H-1B visa to work and eventually a Green Card via the EB-2 or EB-3 visas. This might add years to their wait, hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs and lost earnings and importantly a change in their deisred life path.

Cj