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US Mistakenly Tells 22,000 They Were Eligible for Visas

   VOA News  May 13, 2011
   American visa

Photo: photos.com

   American visa

   A computer glitch has caused the U.S. to mistakenly tell 22,000 foreign
   nationals they were eligible for a special visa program to enter the
   country.
   The U.S. State Department said Friday that it is abandoning the results
   of a computerized lottery drawing and would conduct a new drawing. It
   said it will announce the winners in mid-July.
   Last year, nearly 15 million foreign nationals entered a random drawing
   in hopes of eventually being one of the 50,000 immigrants selected for
   the visa without the usual sponsorship of a family member or employer.
   The lottery was intended to select 90,000 candidates for the slots
   before the list would be shortened after interviews based on strict
   educational and occupational criteria.
   But the glitch caused the overwhelming number of winning selections to
   be chosen from people who registered on the first two days of the
   month-long registration period (that started in early October).
   The State Department said the in-house computer programming problem has
   been fixed.
   The department apologized for the error and said the applicants do not
   need to re-register for the new drawing.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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