Calls to 40,000 Visa Lottery Winners Begin

Government officials have a message for the 12 million hopeful immigrants around the world who entered the first permanent visa lottery drawing held last month: Don’t call us. We’ll call you.

The State Department began notifying 40,000 lucky entrants Thursday that they had won permanent residency in the United States through a unique program that provided immigrant visas by the luck of the draw.

The lottery drew more than 12 million entries during the one-week filing period that began at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 14, exceeding all expectations for the program. Another 7 million applications arrived at the facility before the filing period and were discarded.

State Department officials said most winners will be notified within nine weeks and could receive their permanent resident “green cards” in a matter of months.

As for the losers?

“If you don’t hear from us, you weren’t selected,” said one State Department spokesman. “We’re telling people: ‘Don’t call us.’ ”

The visa lottery program, known officially as AA-1, was created by Congress last year to “diversify” the flow of immigrants, which over the past three decades has become dominated by Asians and Latin Americans.

The lottery was opened to residents of 34 countries--largely in Europe--that have been “adversely affected” by the current immigration policy that favors foreigners with immediate relatives in the United States. Entrants could apply from overseas or the United States, regardless of whether they were here legally or not.

In a special concession, at least 40% of the 40,000 visas were guaranteed to go to the Irish, which led to the nickname “Irish Sweepstakes.”

Ostensibly, the rules of the lottery were simple. Entrants could submit as many applications as they wanted. There was no official application form and no filing fee. The first 40,000 people whose letters were received at a post office in Merrifield, Va., would be granted visas.

But within a few months of the law’s passage, unscrupulous attorneys began offering to prepare applications for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

Some companies charged exorbitant fees, promising personal delivery of an application to Washington, although the Postal Service said that would not improve the odds because of the unpredictable time it takes to deliver and sort the mail.

On the weekend before the lottery, thousands of prospective immigrants mobbed the Merrifield postal facility, toting bags, boxes and suitcases stuffed with applications, in an attempt to increase their chances.

In the end, most of the efforts were in vain.

Even for those whose letters arrived during the filing period, the odds were literally stacked against them.

Postal Service spokesman Robert Faruq said about 300,000 letters were turned over to the State Department in the first four hours of the lottery. More than 1.6 million entries were received in the first 24 hours.

Faruq said the flood of mail taxed the resources of the Postal Service. But on the bright side, he added: “I know we made 29 cents on each of those letters”--or about $5.5 million all told.

Losers in this year’s lottery will have another chance to win a visa in identical drawings to be held in each of the next two years.

After that, a new lottery offering 55,000 visas will begin. The lottery will be open to residents of most countries in the world with the probable exception of those from “high admission” nations, such as Mexico, China, El Salvador and Haiti.