By ANTONY KARANJA in DALLAS, TX
Kenyans who received notices last week informing them that they have been selected for further processing in the 2012 Diversity Visa (Green Card) should disregard them as the results have been voided.
The results of the 2012 Diversity Lottery (DV-2012) were posted earlier this month on the US Department of State website and have since been deleted.
According to David T. Donahue, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services, the results which were posted online were not valid and were posted in error.
A computer programming glitch was said to have occurred during the selection process prompting the State department to declare that “the results do not represent a fair, random selection of entrants as required by US law.”
According to Mr. Donahue, the glitch resulted in about 90% of those selected to be drawn from those whose applications were received in the first two days of the registration period.
The registration period began onOctober 5, 2010 to November 3, 2010.
Mr. Donahue who apologized on behalf of the State department for the error advised those who got a notice that they had been selected for further processing to disregard it. Those who received notices that they had not been selected were also advised to disregard them.
A new selection process will be conducted based on the original entries for the 2012 program and new results posted on http://www.dvlottery.state.gov on or about July 15, 2011.
The State department will select approximately 100,000 for further processing but only 50,000 will ultimately get the migrant visas.
Last year, approximately 4,600 Kenyans won a chance to migrate to the US after being picked in the Diversity Visa 2011 (Green Card) lottery.
Kenya had the seventh highest number of winners picked among the more than 16.1 million entries.Ghana had the most number of winners with 6,002.
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