Thread: The Diversity Visa Program Makes No Sense

The Diversity Visa Program Makes No Sense

The immigration lottery epitomizes how far U.S. policies have drifted from any purpose.


David Frum

• NOV 2, 2017

• …

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Sayfullo Saipov did not arrive in the United States alone. In 2009, he was one of 3,284 lucky residents of Uzbekistan to win the green-card lottery. That same year, the lottery granted green cards to—among others—2,894 Albanians, 590 Australians, 1,154 Bulgarians, 4,307 Kenyans, and 2,331 Turks; for a total of 50,000 admissions.



The Diversity Visa Program Was Created to Help Irish Immigrants


Good and bad qualities are randomly distributed in the human population, and randomly is how the diversity lottery distributes its rewards. So it should not be very surprising that one member of the class of ’09 proved to be a mass-murdering terrorist. The lottery imposes no requirements of skill, not even knowledge of English. Convicted criminals are excluded, as are persons affiliated with known terrorist groups. There is a basic health requirement. Beyond that, the system is—as it says right in the title—a lottery, open to anybody with a working Internet connection and $30 for the entry fee.

You might wonder: Why do we do this? Why would the United States forswear the right to choose the people it admits, to assess them for what they can contribute to the welfare of the community to which they seek entry?


The answer lies in history, not reason.


The diversity lottery originated as an attempt to offset the unintended consequences of immigration changes since 1965.
The immigration law adopted that year unwittingly—indeed, contrary to the repeated insistences of its authors—reopened the United States to mass immigration. That law gave first priority to the relatives of the most recent immigrants: not only spouses, but also parents, siblings, and then those siblings’ children, including adult children. As a result, the 1965 law tended to bunch the sources of U.S. immigration ever more intensely in a comparative handful of source countries.


This bias strengthened after the Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986. That law conferred legal status on some 3 million unauthorized immigrants, almost all of them Mexican. The back-home kinfolk of the 3 million who received amnesty quickly advanced to the front of the immigration queue.

Among the groups most irritated by these changes were Irish Americans. Ireland in the mid-1980s remained a poor and depressed country. Many Irish wished to emigrate to the United States, but found the entrance blocked. Their friends in Congress—then Senator Edward Kennedy, then Representative Chuck Schumer—went to work to create a special Irish preference. The diversity lottery was their solution.

Only … it went into effect in 1995, precisely the year that Ireland at last revved into gear as one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. Why leave just as the party was getting good?


Instead, the diversity lottery discovered a whole new existence, as the favored way for urban Africans to escape their continent. In fiscal year 2015, 10 percent of the population of the Republic of the Congo applied for the US diversity lottery, 8 percent of the population of Sierra Leone, and 7 percent of the population of Ghana.

There may be some cosmic justice in an affirmative-action program for white people converting itself into a golden ticket for the world’s poorest continent. But what American purpose is served? After President Trump’s outburst on Twitteragainst the program, many people of goodwill scurried to develop an answer to that question. But as so often with U.S.-immigration policy, these answers are rationalizations after the fact, not arguments before the fact.

The story of American immigration since 1965 is a story of unintended consequences, yielding results that even their authors would have opposed had they foreseen them. It’s the story of a government program, almost all of whose costs are borne by Americans and almost all of whose benefits are collected by people who were not Americans at the time they received the benefit. It’s the story of a program where it’s considered somehow objectionable even to ask the question, “Why?” The program’s existence has become its own justification. The political clout of the program’s beneficiaries has become the all-purpose answer to questions about its merits.




This is true of immigration programs generally, but the truth is underscored most heavily in the diversity lottery. While Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and others choose their immigrants, the United States is content to let immigrants choose America. Other countries integrate immigration into human capital development strategies alongside prenatal-health programs, preschools, and K-12 education. The United States shrugs off the terrible and intensifying deficits of its native-born population—from obesity through drug abuse to gun massacres—and looks to the virtues of immigrants to compensate for the neglect of its own people.


Trump’s huge personal unpopularity has this perverse effect: When he endorses something (like Republican tax reform) it loses support; when he attacks something (like transgender soldiers), it rises. But not even Donald Trump can be wrong all the time. By reacting so strongly to him, the American political system forfeits its ability to think for itself. The diversity lottery epitomizes how far U.S. immigration policies have drifted from any purpose or sense.


As Sayfullo Saipov reminds us, when you admit immigrants without regard to suitability, you receive immigrants without regard to suitability. When you don’t care what you take, you will get what you don’t want. Just this one time, let American policy react to facts and logic, rather than Trump’s ill-considered twitterings.




https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...ration/544850/

Diversity Visa Program Entry Instructions

Important Notice


The information in this section refers to the processing requirements for the DV-2019 program. Instructions for DV-2018 applicants can be found below.


DV-2019 Program: Online Registration

DV-2019 Program: The revised online registration period for the DV-2019 Program begins on Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at 12:00 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), and concludes on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 12:00 noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-4). All entries made prior to October 18, 2017, will need to be resubmitted for the entrant to be considered. We regret the inconvenience to Diversity Visa entrants. In order to ensure fairness and protect the integrity of the process for all those concerned, however, we must restart the entry process for this year (DV-2019). If you entered before Wednesday, October 18, 2017, that entry will not be considered, and you will need to submit another entry during the new registration period. You may submit one new entry without being disqualified for submitting multiple entries. Individuals who submit more than one entry during the new registration period will be disqualified.

DV-2019 Program Instructions

The English version of the DV-2019 Program Instructions in PDF format are provided for your convenience and required use. The English language version of the DV-2019 Program Instructions is the only official version. Unofficial translations in additional languages will be added to this webpage as they become available.
Note: As indicated in the instructions, for the purposes of eligibility some countries include components and dependent areas overseas. If you are a native of a dependency or overseas territory, please select the appropriate country of eligibility. For example, natives of Macau S.A.R should select Portugal, and natives of Martinique should select France.

DV-2019 Translations (unofficial)

Hungarian/Magyar	Romanian/Românã
Turkish/Türkçe	Polish/Polski
BULGARIAN/Български	Khmer (Cambodian)/ខ្មែរ
Tamil/தமிழ்	Ukrainian/Українською мовою
Spanish/Español	Portugues/português
Italian/Italiano	Sinhala/ෂින්හල​
Nepali/नेपाली​

Please view our video for an introduction to the Diversity Visa program, and step-by-step guidance to help you submit an entry. (Note: minor changes have been made to the DV-2019 entry form, but the instructions provided in the video are still valid.)

---

DV-2018 Program: Online Registration

DV 2018 Program: Online registration for the DV 2018 Program began on Thursday, October 4, 2016 at 12:00 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), and concluded on Monday, November 7, 2016 at 12:00 noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-4).

DV-2018 Program Instructions

Select the English version of the DV-2018 Program Instructions in PDF format for your convenience and required use. The English language version of the DV-2018 Program Instructions is the only official version. Unofficial translations in additional languages will be added as they become available.
Translations (All translations are in .pdf format)
Note: If you do not see instructions in your native language, please see the U.S. Embassy or Consulate website to find out whether your country may have additional Diversity Visa information.
Note: As indicated in the instructions, for the purposes of eligibility some countries include components and dependent areas overseas. If you are a native of a dependency or overseas territory, please select the appropriate country of eligibility. For example, natives of Macau S.A.R should select Portugal, and natives of Martinique should select France.

DV-2018 Translations (unofficial)

Armenian/Հայերեն	Bulgarian/Български	French/Français
Italian/Italiano	Japanese/日本語	Khmer (Cambodian)/ខ្មែរ
Nepali/नेपाली	Polish/Polski	Romanian/Românã
Russian/русский	Sinhala/සිංහල	Spanish/Español
Tamil/தமிழ்	Turkish/Türkçe	Ukrainian/Українською мовою
Uzbek/O'zbekcha

Uzbek/O'zbekcha

Uzbek/O'zbekcha

Uzbek/O'zbekcha

Tamil/தமிழ்

Tamil/தமிழ்

Tamil/தமிழ்

Tamil/தமிழ்

Tamil/தமிழ்

Tamil/தமிழ்

Diversity Visa Program Information




https://travel.state.gov/content/vis...tructions.html

The Diversity Visa Process

• Entry
• Submit an Entry
• Selection of Applicants

• If You Are Selected
• Confirm Your Qualifications
• Submit a Visa Application
• Prepare Supporting Documents

• Interview
• Prepare for the Interview
• Visa Applicant Interview
• After the Interview

travel.state.gov > Visas > Immigrate > Entry

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Entry

This section of the website explains the entry process (also called “registration”) for the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Program, which is the first step in pursuing a diversity immigrant visa. Additional steps are covered in subsequent pages, and are displayed on the visual flow chart above.

Please view our video for an introduction to the Diversity Visa program, and step-by-step guidance to help you submit an entry. (Note: minor changes have been made to the DV-2019 entry form, but the instructions provided in the video are still valid.)


Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants,” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. A limited number of visas are available each fiscal year. The DVs are distributed among six geographic regions and no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.
For a list of countries/areas by region whose natives are eligible for DV-2019 and DV-2018, please refer to the DV Instructions.
The requirements for the DV program are established by U.S. immigration law. If you are planning to register for the DV program, be sure to look closely at the requirements for this type of visa.
Note: There is no cost to register for the DV Program.

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https://travel.state.gov/content/vis...sity-visa.html