'Blatant injustice': thousands of green card lottery winners are denied a chance to enter the United States

The ban, due to which thousands of winners of the DV-2020 green card lottery cannot enter the United States, despite fulfilling the requirements and even obtaining visas, changed the fate of entire families. Some never made it to the long-scheduled interviews, and some, along with children and animals, were not allowed to board a flight in a transit country en route to the United States.

Let us remind you that before receiving an immigrant visa, the lottery winner needs to go through a lot of lengthy and expensive procedures: from filling out forms to a medical examination and an interview at the US consulate. The winner must do this before the end of the fiscal year—September 30. After this, it is impossible to issue a visa, extend it or reissue it. In addition, each visa has its own validity period - no more than six months after the medical examination. The winners of the DV-2020 lottery faced a whole series of restrictions: while they were undergoing the procedures, the pandemic began and interviews were canceled one by one.

But it didn't stop there. In April 2020, President Trump issued a proclamation temporarily banning legal immigrants from entering the country. The deadline was only 60 days, and there was time until September 30 (the end of the fiscal year). But soon a proclamation extended until the end of the year, thereby depriving people of the chance to realize their dreams and move to the United States. A group of activists convinced lawyers of the need to fight. Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the State Department must continue to issue visas. Some people flew to transit countries on December 31, hoping to get to the United States the next day. But already on January 1, Donald Trump extended the validity of the proclamation until March 31, 2021 - this month the validity of all visas issued after the court’s decision expires. Thus, he actually canceled the DV-2020 lottery.

Many winners of the green card lottery are ready to tell the stories of their families in order to draw the attention of the current US President Joe Biden to the situation and achieve a decision in their favor. Here are a few of them.

“Fleeing the war in 2014, we left our home in Lugansk...”

Konstantin with his wife Yana and daughters Sofia and Karolina live in the city of Kamenets-Podolsky, Ukraine, where they moved from Lugansk. Here are their storynarrated by Constantine:

“I was selected for the DV-2020 program, and on September 17.09.2020, 12.02.2020 we received immigrant visas. The Kyiv Embassy received my case from KSS on 25/2020/11. I had an interview scheduled for March 15.03.2020, 16.03.2020. With my pregnant wife (first trimester) and two and a half year old daughter, we arrived in Kyiv by train. On March 14.03.2020, we passed the medical exam and returned to our city by train. A few days later, rail traffic across the country was stopped. Even later on social media, people reported that interviews were canceled and letters were sent, or the status on the CEAC website changed from ready to rejected. On March 17.03.2020, XNUMX, I wrote a letter to the embassy to inquire about my interview. On XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX I received a letter from the Kyiv embassy that as of XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX all scheduled interviews were canceled, and on XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX I received a response to the letter saying that my personal interview was canceled along with others.

On 05.09.2020/10.09.2020/11.09.2020 and 17.09.2020/14.09.2020/32 I wrote to the embassy with a request to schedule an interview, and on 3/2/18.09.2020 I received a letter with a proposal to choose a new interview date. I chose XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX, then signed up for a medical examination XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX. We again went by train to Kiev with my pregnant wife (XNUMX weeks pregnant) and our daughter, who is XNUMX years and XNUMX months old. After successfully passing the interview on XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX, we collected the passports with visas.

Fleeing from the war in 2014, we left our homes in Luhansk and moved to the safe territory of our country. We lost a lot, leaving only with documents and things for a few days. After a few years, we realized that we would never be able to return home, and began to take part in the visa lottery. In 2020, we were selected and we did our best to be invited for an interview. Our first child, born in 2017, almost died in the hospital. Doctors used vacuum extraction of the fetus when the pulse was already 2 beats per minute. We really wanted to have children, but we were afraid. Winning the lottery with a small number of cases gave us hope that we can have a baby in the USA, where the level of medicine is much better than in Ukraine. When an interview was scheduled for us, we were already mentally preparing to live in America and safely give birth to a child. We were able to undergo a medical examination, which cost us about $ 650, not counting travel around the country and living in the capital. For the United States, this may be very small money, but in our region you can earn no more than $ 200 a month, especially for those who are in the status of a forced migrant.

We were very upset when the interview was canceled, but we hoped that the pandemic would end soon and we would be in time for another interview. When the president introduced the first 60-day restrictions, we hoped that by the end of the fiscal year we could get this interview. The postponement of the ban until the end of the calendar year completely destroyed all our hopes. We fell into a deep depression, which we experienced in ourselves all this time. All our plans and dreams of a new life and the birth of a child in America were destroyed. When we recently had the opportunity to undergo a medical examination and interview again, we immediately agreed and were very happy. The new cost of $ 650 for a medical examination and $ 990 for an interview for our family was significant, but we got visas! But due to the extension of the ban, the child was born in Ukraine.

The fear of losing the opportunity to come to America before the visa expires is very frustrating and deeply depressing for the family.”

A visa is issued to the winners of the green card lottery for 6 months, if during this period they do not enter the United States, they will forever lose the green cards they won. That is, Konstantin and his family must get to the United States before March 14 (6 months from the date of the medical examination), otherwise their victory, in fact, will be canceled. But quarantine and bans make such a trip impossible so far.

On the subject: Thousands of winners of the green card lottery cannot enter the United States despite having visas

“How we tried to get to the USA”

Vadim, his wife Olga and their friends had a flight from Minsk, Belarus to New York (JFK Airport) with a connection in Istanbul, Turkey. The family took the cat with them. All of them were denied boarding on the Istanbul-New York (JFK) flight when the people had already arrived in Istanbul. Vadim told history this trip.

“I (Vadim Miterev) and my wife Olga Ganzha together with our cat, as well as our friends Alexander Nikita, Vera Nikita and their nine-year-old son Egor left Minsk on January 1, 2021 (7:55 Minsk time). when there was no official information about President Trump's ban being extended. As you know, approximately 12 families from Belarus are in the same situation.

As you know, the situation in Belarus is still very difficult, and the citizens of Belarus suffer from the repressions of the authorities. Our visas were valid until March 15, 2020 and we decided to give it a try despite the risk of the ban being extended. We bought tickets with the possibility of changing the flight date, but we could not even imagine that everything could change at the last moment. If the news about the prolongation of the ban 10014 was officially published on December 30 or even at the beginning of December 31, 2020, then we have no questions about this decision of Mr. Trump. But we cannot understand the necessity of such an action (prolongation of the proclamation at the last moment). This fact can only be explained by pre-planned meanness and inhuman treatment of DV holders.

I will briefly describe the situation at the Istanbul airport for your understanding. Many DV holders from different countries (Belarus, Ukraine, Albania, Moldova, etc.) arrived at Istanbul Airport for a transfer to the USA. Many families have children and / or pets and most have a lot of luggage. And all these people cannot fly to the USA, there is no way to return the cost of tickets from Istanbul to the USA or change these tickets and return home. I don't know how things are with flights to other countries, but we were unable to return to Belarus on the same day. Tickets from Istanbul to Minsk had to be bought at a higher price than tickets from Minsk to New York (JFK), which we bought earlier. Also, we had to book a room at the airport hotel because we were worried about our cat's health. And we only managed to get back 50% of the price we paid for an apartment in Brooklyn. I haven’t calculated the total cost of our additional fees yet, because I don’t know if the Turkish airline will refund the money for the tickets that we didn’t use, but I assume that in any case it will be around USD 2000 (the average salary in Belarus is about 350 US dollars, therefore the indicated amount is very significant for us).

It is difficult to describe all the details of this terrible day. People had to watch their children and pets suffer without realizing how long it could last. No one was going to help us or at least explain all the details of the situation. As a result, we had to agree on any conditions and pay any money to return home. I believe that people should be made aware of this fact of gross injustice towards DV holders."

“Fate brought me to the lottery”

And another one story from the first person.

“I first heard about the GC program in 2010, during one of the difficult periods - after a divorce, without work, with a small allergic son. At that time I did not have the capabilities of the World Wide Web - the Internet. I have just begun to explore the world of digitalization. The information was caught and forgotten. Since then, a lot has changed, I moved to one of the million-plus cities and, finally, did what I was striving for. I added a couple of red higher education diplomas to my existing education, one day I quit the gymnasium where I had worked in recent years, and the very next day I had an interview at the Federal Treasury Department. Yes, I started all over again.

“You can and should change something when you understand that you are suffocating from despair” - these words were my motto in life. With them I filed for divorce and left home, quit my job and changed habits, “kicked” other people and made promises, primarily to myself.

In the fall of 2018, the article "How to correctly fill out a Green Card lottery application" came across, scrolled through. A couple of days later, in the video of an acquaintance (they studied at one school), information about the lottery flashes. At that time, Sasha already lived in the USA, got married. A week later, in one of the city's copy centers, I hear “I have to take a picture with a Green Card”. The universe has already "kicked" me.

The phone has firmly registered tabs with forums and other articles about this intriguing lottery - I studied the information, until the moment when the opportunity to apply was closed, there were a couple of weeks. The most difficult thing was to take photos. There was nothing difficult in the process of taking pictures, but catching my son between workouts turned out to be almost an impossible task. The week before the life-changing opportunity closed, I had almost everything ready. Two photographs and a couple of sheets with the necessary data. Nothing supernatural.

It turned out to be not so easy to fill out the application, the Internet stubbornly threw it out of the site, the time was running out or the second part of the application did not open. There were a couple of days left until the X hour. I filled out a questionnaire at work, in a minibus, at home. The result remained the same. Taking my laptop and notes, in the evening I came to the gymnasium, from which I quit a year ago, connected to the local WiFi the first time I got the coveted ticket number. It remained to wait until May.

Nobody knew about the ritual I performed. There was tension in thematic chats, people were counting the days. I worked, studied and continued to read. The closer the lottery results got, the more intense it got in the chat rooms. In the morning, WhatsApp received a message with a photo. My apartment was robbed. They took out everything, including the son's dog. The day was spent in the police, which really did not want to work, accept a statement and, in general, a "tyrant". At 19:00, for the first time that day in my mother's apartment, I poured myself a cup of coffee and entered the chat:

— The site is down

- I can not enter

- AAAAAAAAAAAA

- Who came in?

Passions seethed, joy seethed and evil words hissed. At that moment, I realized that my application had won. The universe cleansed my life of things and people, but I felt sorry for the dog. I went to the site without problems and the first time, my application was selected for a new life and opportunities.

After the holidays, I contacted my friend: “Hi. I need to learn English. Shall we work out? "

Again forums, sites, groups, mountains of information and a notebook covered with biographical data of my life. It helped that when applying for the civil service, I filled out a lot of papers, where I lived, when I studied and who I worked as. I also requested this information in the personnel department, omitting the reason.

Filling in the DS-260 was not easy. The data was not saved, the Internet did not work, the site was buggy. Solid Déjà Vu. In the fall of 2019, I sent a questionnaire. After analyzing the information of past years, I calculated when to wait for an interview and started preparing the documents. Power of attorney to manage my affairs and represent me in all sorts of situations, copies of documents, translations and assurances, new passports and medical procedures, inclusion in the vacation schedule for the required periods. Everything to be ready. In February, I checked the site again, there was information about the appointment of an interview. For April, as it was calculated by me earlier. And already in March we passed a medical examination. I know, early, but my son was running out of a certificate of withdrawal from vaccinations, it was too late to endure the vacation and I did not plan to stay until autumn, the school year was supposed to start on a new land.

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On March 26th, my interview was canceled. Long days of waiting, hanging on thematic forums, chats on social networks dragged on. I couldn't light up, civil service, checks, including our profiles. People went to Telegram, for me it was banned. Sometimes information about the petitions that I signed came from all possible and accessible addresses. As it turned out later, information about the ships was deleted. But this function was still not available to me - I could not shine my name. After the ban of Rospotrebnadzor was lifted, I registered on Telegram, but I could not find a group of activists. I got into the group of petitioners from the WhatsApp group, when the plaintiffs were already writing their stories for the court.

Covid, restrictions, reading forums and chats, information and eternal lack of sleep (time difference and night courts for Russia), spreading information and attracting attention. My twitter account has been blocked. New courts and the end of the fiscal year. Expectation. Reading chats. New petitions and many letters to bloggers. My Instagram no longer works.

New Year, change of power, unrest, Covid, reading forums and chats, eternal lack of sleep and waiting for the final decision.”

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