Oops!!!!  In embarrassing fashion, the U.S. State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs announced that all results for last year’s diversity visa program for DV-2012 were incorrect.

Tens of thousands of would-be immigrants to America are sure to be disappointed after a computer glitch prompted the State Department to invalidate results of the most recent green card visa lottery.  

According to the State Department this was the result of a programming error, not a hack. This software defect incorrectly awarded 90% of the winners to those who  registered in the first two days of the lottery (October 5 and October 6, 2010).  Clearly this was a non-random selection that required voiding all results until a fix could be applied.

So that's heartbreaking news if you checked your winning status, and you received a message that you won the lottery.  However, it provides hope to the nearly 19.6 million applicants who thought they missed out on this golden opportunity.  Your original confirmation number is still valid.  If you entered last year’s DV-2012, you do not need to reapply. Just check your status beginning July 15, 2011 at the ESC website.

The Bureau plans to have the status checking capability back up and running in approximately 60 days (July 15).  We will blog with instructions on How to Check Your Status.

The Diversity Lottery program is an annual lottery run by the U.S. Department of State. The DV Lottery offers up to 55,000 permanent resident visas each year to randomly selected applicants from eligible countries.