U.S. sued by 22,000 would-be immigrants

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/2...e+Raw+Story%29

WASHINGTON — A lawsuit has been filed against the State Department alleging it unfairly denied 22,000 would-be legal immigrants the right to permanent residency in the United States, their lawyers said Monday.

White and Associates said it filed the lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Colombia charging the State Department committed a "blunder" in holding a lottery granting them the permanent resident "green card."

In a statement, the firm alleged that the State Department had informed the lottery "winners" that in fact they had to be disqualified because a "computer glitch" meant they had not been randomly selected, as required by Congress.

However, the firm insists the process was indeed random.

State Department officials were not immediately available for comment about the class action lawsuit which the firm said names plaintiffs from more than 20 countries.

These are Belgium, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

"In this case, our government has let these individuals down," the firm's Kenneth White was quoted as saying.


"They have broken a public and written commitment to 22,000 friends of America," he said.

"Real people have had their dreams unfairly shattered, and as a result, the public image of the United States as a fair and honorable country has been damaged around the world," White charged.

The "green card" visa grants immigrants the right to permanent residency in the United States and puts them on track to becoming US citizens.

My friend might be apart of this I think.. She is from South Africa....

Wow... a glitch is no excuse to toy with those people's emotions. Most of those countries suck, I can imagine the heartbreak

Hopefully this lawsuit will get tossed, as it's acceptance could well mean that the new results due to be published on July 15 will be cancelled.

I have been participating in the DV lottery, as I was told by my lawyer I could since my country of birth is not on the list of disqualified country, and I fall under 245i and I'd be able to adjust status in country if selected.

Hopefully, come July 15 I'll be one of the winners.

Cheers! I hope you are one of those winners.

Hey are you 100% sure? Or your lawyer sure? I think you should get a second opinion.

There can be a serious problem for lottery selectees who are the US in unauthorized status. The law which allowed out of status people to apply for the DV green card in the US (Section 245i of the Immigation law) is no longer in effect. The DV "winner" who is out of status can no longer apply in the US for the green card. If they go back home to apply, they will be subject to the 3 year and 10 year bar to re-entry if they were out of status for 6 months or more. They cannot get the green card here and they cannot get it at home. The DV lottery has become unavailable for those out of status in the US for 6 months or more.

In case of DV lottery - you may be able to adjust your status if you was out of status for less than 180 days. Please see pages 60-62 in this publication - http://www.mygreencard.com/downloads...ardDV2010b.pdf

Read more: I won DV lottery for last year but , i,m out of status - JustAnswer http://www.justanswer.com/immigratio...#ixzz1PyG7aC00

On the DV Lottery application it clearly states you have to be of legal status to win. I've heard of people that were out of status and won then went to the interview and got BOOTED... Don't know how true that is but it does say on the site that one needs to be of legal status even if you country of birth is in the green light.Be careful if you do win though. And you might want to bring this up to your lawyer I don't think you got a good one just eating your money man be careful

Yes, my lawyer is sure. He has helped others in my same situation when they won the DV lottery. You are right in that 245i is no longer in effect, but if you are grandfathered into it, like I am as well as other dreamers on this site are, then you can participate and process it here when/if you are selected.

If you are here undocumented and are not grandfathered into 245i then no, you can't apply for adjustment of status under DV lottery.

And no, I am not worried about my lawyer eating my money. He is famous throughout NYC, mainly from his radio show. I was always skeptical about lawyers and what not but after seeing what he did for my uncle who was about to get his green card revoked and under threat of de oration due to his long rap sheet, I changed my mind and went with him.

I'm not going to post the specifics of my case here as it's a long story but what he has done so far has been more then we have done since I came to this country.

Ok Good Luck! Let us know how it goes Still think you should be careful with that though

What country are you from??