February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Stephen McKinley
The number of people immigrating to the U.S. is falling, according to latest figures from the U.S. Department of State’s Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division.
Speaking last Thursday at an Independent Press Club briefing in Manhattan, the Reporting Division’s chief, Charles W. Oppenheim, said the drop was mostly due to the effects of Sept. 11’s terrorist attacks on the U.S.
Oppenheim was in New York to address the shifting requirements for the annual visa lottery, and he noted that Irish immigration was dropping off in recent years.
“Polish demand is still fairly high,” he said, “but Irish applications are down, compared with the ’80s and early ’90s.”
No new countries were added to this year’s list of countries from which people are eligible to apply for the lottery, which could lead to a green card and legal residence in the U.S. Most recently, Oppenheim said, Pakistan was brought on board.
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“By law, if a country has sent more than 50,000 people to the U.S. in the preceding five years, it is considered a high admission country and it would be removed from the list,” he said.
For the 2004 Diversity Visa lottery (DV 2004), citizens of the Republic of Ireland and of Northern Ireland are still eligible to apply. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that is eligible for DV 2004.
At the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in Queens, director Anne-Marie Scanlon noted, “People should know that the only cost associated with applying for the visa lottery is the 37 cent stamp. It is a lottery — nothing will give you an edge in it,” she said, referring to the incidents in which people have been ripped off by bogus organizations asking for money to “expedite” or streamline lottery applications.
Oppenheim told the Echo, “I would tell anyone who thinks they have a chance, to apply.”
Scanlon said: “People should get the application form ready in September and the Emerald Isle Immigration Center will be holding seminars about the 2004 lottery, and will help people fill out the application form.”