February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
And, consequently, applications by standard mail will no longer be accepted by the processing centers.
Those with plans to apply for the popular 2005 Diversity Visa lottery this year will now have to visit a government web page to fill in details.
For those who don’t own a computer and/or are unfamiliar with an online application process, the staff at the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in Woodside and the Aisling Center in Yonkers will shortly announce their plans to help applicants through every step of the new process.
The Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers in the U.S. is meeting next week to coordinate its response to the newly announced application procedure. Each center promises to provide applicants with clear and simple guidance, including providing them with essential access to computers, cameras and scanning equipment, in line with the new requirements.
The diversity lottery’s website will be located at www.dvlottery.state.gov although it will not open for registration until Nov. 1. The lottery makes 50,000 permanent-resident visas available annually, with 305 places last year going to people born in the Republic of Ireland and 51 to people born of Northern Ireland.
Rumors circulating in the Irish community that applicants who have already applied three times stand a better chance of securing a visa this time are unfounded, according to Siobhan Dennehy, executive director of the Irish Immigration Center in Woodside.
“There’s no evidence to suggest that that’s the case at all,” she said. “Every year we see advertisements and websites that suggest that for a small fee they can increase your chances of success — but since they can’t circumvent the selection process it’s hard to see how they can make those claims.
“Here at the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, we always tell people that the DV Lottery should only cost them the price of a stamp.”
Many of the rumors surrounding the selection process are examples of wishful thinking, according to immigration advocates, rather than actual fact. The reality is that the diversity lottery is difficult to win. And, at present, it still represents one of the few routes to a full life in the United States open to Irish immigrants. The proposed visa amnesty signed by President Clinton that would have secured the immigration status of thousands of undocumented — including the Irish — living and working here was hastily shelved in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. There have been suggestions that Mayor Bloomberg is now considering revisiting that proposal, but to date he has made no public commitment to do so.
Said Dennehy: “The latest census data shows us that 1 million immigrants arrived in New York between 1990 and 2002. The Irish are obviously well represented among that number. But the climate for the undocumented is harsher than ever now and we’re not seeing them coming to the center in large numbers. Perhaps it out of fear, or perhaps they’ve seen the dramatic rise in prosecutions and deportations in the papers.
“In the 1980s and early 1990s it was the sheer numbers of Irish immigrants that led to a visa program. But now many of the people who live and work here have been driven underground. There are a lot of people living in Woodside and Woodlawn who can’t go back to Ireland now under any circumstances. It’s causing a lot of heartache, as you can imagine.”
The Emerald Isle Immigration Center in Woodside will shortly announce its plans to assist with the new application process for the 2005 DV diversity lottery program.
Visit their website at www.eiic.org for the latest updates and bulletins.