15 Million Apply for Visa Lottery
Most visas are issued to foreign nationals who have existing relationships with lawful U.S. residents or employers. However, the visa lottery awards permanent resident visas based on pure luck. This leaves open the door to those who want to enter the United States to harm our citizens.
For example, the gunman who killed two people at the Los Angeles International Airport on July 4, 2002 was allowed to legally reside in the United States because his wife won the visa lottery. Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, reportedly applied for the lottery at least once but did not obtain one.
The visa lottery also is unfair to law-abiding immigrants. Family-sponsored immigrants currently face waits of years to be reunited with their families. Each year, the visa lottery program pushes 50,000 random immigrants ahead of these family-sponsored immigrants waiting to be reunited with their families.
Also, the visa lottery program is wrought with fraud. A Center for Immigration Studies report states that foreign nationals commonly apply for the lottery program multiple times under many different aliases. In addition, the visa lottery program has spawned a cottage industry featuring sponsors in the U.S. who falsely promise success to applicants for a large “fee.”
"More and more people are learning about this program and are dumbfounded that we have it in the first place," said Rep. Goodlatte. "Our chances have never been better to kill it." The record 15 million applicants this year is about 25 percent above last year’s total and 2.5 times greater than five years ago.
For more information, read the Wall Street Journal article and Rep. Goodlatte’s related web page.