16 October, 2017
A technical problem has caused the loss of all requests to enter the U.S. Diversity Immigrant Visa Program between October 3 and October 10.
People who sent such entries to the so-called green card lottery in that period will have to do so again.
The U.S. State Department posted a message about the issue on its website. It said the entries were not valid and were removed from the system.
The State Department also said the technical problem has been fixed. It announced that the new "entry period will begin at noon, U.S. Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday October 18, 2017 and will run until noon Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday November 22, 2017."
The lottery is the only way to get permission to live in the U.S. for non-refugees who do not have family in the country or an employer to sponsor them. Admission to the lottery requires a high school degree or work experience to qualify.
The lottery is open to natives of most countries and the territories of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, can apply for the green card lottery.
Natives from some countries are barred, however. These countries include Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, mainland China and Colombia. Also barred are the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica and Mexico. People from Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea, the United Kingdom and its dependent territories, except Northern Ireland, and Vietnam also do not qualify.
In 2015, the U.S. issued 48,097 diversity visas out of 531,463 total immigrant visas. Millions of people apply to enter the green card lottery.
I'm Jonathan Evans
Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on VOA News report. Caty Weaver was the editor.
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Words in This Story
sponsor - n. someone who takes the responsibility for someone
apply - v. to ask formally for something usually in writing