More than 15 million people applied for the United States'
green-card card lottery this year, the highest number ever on
record, the Wall
Street Journal reports.
Under the twenty-year-old Diversity Visa Program, 50,000 winners
are fast-tracked for U.S. citizenship, regardless of whether
they have any connections to the United States. Thanks to
word-of-mouth advertising and free online entry, applications
have skyrocketed in recent years: Only 5.5 million people
applied five years ago, and the number is growing as more people
learn of the program. (This year, the majority of
applications came from Bangladesh and Nigeria). But the
program has also raised eyebrows among conservative lawmakers,
who say that it courts terror threats and adds an unneccessary
element of randomness to the immigration process. "More and more
people are learning about this program and are dumbfounded that
we have it in the first place," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.,
who has proposed legislation to kill the program. The next step
will in the lottery will happen this May, when 100,000 randomly
selected applicants will be notified and called for interviews,
medical exams and background checks. After that, half will go on
to receive green cards.
Read original story in The
Wall Street Journal