Visa lottery gives immigrants chance to gain resident status
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Staff Writer
It didn't make them instant millionaires, but winning the "green card" diversity lottery was the next best thing for the Roud family of Makiki.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
With their new permanent resident status, Ukrainian-born Vadim and Elena Roud and their two daughters, Daria, 14, and Sophia, 5, have been able to plant roots in their adopted island home.
A visa lottery gave Elena Roud, right, and daughter Daria, 14, of Makiki permanent U.S. resident status.
"It meant a lot because after we got our green cards, we realized we could settle here for real," said Elena Roud, who has been in Hawai'i for about eight years. It also meant the family could travel to the Ukraine to visit relatives and not worry about whether they would be allowed back into America.
Immigration to the United States normally is based on petitions from family members already in the country or from employers. In response to concerns about an imbalance in the immigrant population caused when more and more families sponsor relatives from the same country, Congress in 1990 approved the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program to encourage a mix of newcomers.
The program, administered by the Department of State, annually makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas — commonly known as green cards — to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Applicants for diversity visas are chosen by a computer-generated random drawing.
For instructions on how to enter the diversity immigrant visa lottery, visit the State Department Web site.
"The odds are better than with any other lottery," said Honolulu immigration attorney David McCauley, who helped the Rouds process their visa applications. "Fifty thousand out of six or seven million — that's a lot better than Powerball. To the people who win it, it's a godsend."
Diversity visa registration
The visas are distributed among six global geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and no visas going to citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years.
The ineligible countries in this year's lottery are Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Mexico, Vietnam, the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and China, although people born in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan can apply.
The monthlong application period ends Nov. 6. People living in foreign countries or in the United States may apply. Those selected in the lottery will be notified by mail between May and July 2003. Visas will be issued between Oct. 1, 2003, and Sept. 30, 2004.
Most of the people who apply for the lottery already are seeking green cards — the first step toward U.S. citizenship — and the diversity visa program offers a shortcut to a process that can take 20 years or longer, said Honolulu immigration attorney Carmen DiAmore-Siah.
The majority of the people who apply for the lottery live outside the country, she said. Most of the applicants who are already here are college students or highly educated professionals, researchers, business people, high-tech workers and others with specialized skills.
Unlike other immigration processes, the diversity visa lottery is free and relatively simple. The eligibility requirement is either a high-school education or its equivalent, or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience. More than one person from a family may enter.
Although the process is simple, the entry rules are strict. For example, there are precise specifications for envelope size, mailing method and photo quality and size, and violating any of the rules means immediate disqualification.
Attorney McCauley said of the 9 million or so people who apply each year, about 30 percent are automatically rejected, increasing the odds for those who submit a proper application.
While applying for the lottery is free, some seek the help of an immigration attorney or agency to prepare the application. McCauley said his firm assists 50 to 100 people each year with the paperwork, charging $100 for individuals and $175 for families. DiAmore-Siah said 50 to 60 clients annually seek her help with the lottery for a $50 fee, and she hands out free applications to many more.
Others pay for help from a host official-looking green card lottery Web sites, some of which boast of improving the chances of winning.
According to the State Departmeny, a qualified entry received directly from an applicant has an equal chance of being selected by the computer as does an entry received through a paid intermediary who completes the entry for the applicant.
Winning the diversity lottery does not guarantee a green card. Because some people who are selected decide not to pursue a permanent resident visa, more than 50,000 names are picked and put on a waiting list. Still, "it's a wonderful window of opportunity," McCauley said.
The Rouds won their chance at a diversity immigrant visa three years ago. It took additional filings and another year before they actually received their green cards.
"It wasn't that easy," Elena Roud said. "You could be a winner but then you have to wait in line for your number to come up. For a whole year we were not certain."
The Rouds had just graduated from college when they left the former Soviet republic of Ukraine in 1994 to stay with relatives in Connecticut. After experiencing their first New England winter, they yearned for a warmer climate. Then a friend told them about Hawai'i.
"My husband loves fishing, and we were young and adventurous so we ended up just packing our things. We had no money," said Elena, 34.
Once in the Islands, Vadim, 36, worked as a limousine driver and Elena was a hostess at Zippy's before she and a partner started a travel company that brought Russian tourists to Hawai'i.
One day, when Elena was with a tour group at the Polynesian Cultural Center, she got a call from her husband.
"He was so happy. He said, 'Guess what?' I asked him, 'Did we win the green card?' I thought it was a stupid joke. We had filed every year and we never won before."
Before getting permanent resident status, Elena said she had thought about going to graduate school but figured it wasn't worth risking the price of tuition since she could be ordered out of the country at any time. But with a green card in hand, she enrolled at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa and earned her master's degree in organizational intercultural communications.
She now works as a financial services adviser for American Express, while Vadim is employed at a car repair shop.
This past summer, the Rouds took their daughters on a vacation to the Ukraine. "Before, our parents visited us here, but we couldn't go to see them," Elena said.
Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
