An Unfortunate Computer Glitch Puts the 'Visa Lottery' on the Map

multiamerican.scpr.org (Southern California Public Radio) reported that: Last week, a computer glitch dashed the hopes of tens of thousands of immigrants who had hoped to come legally to the United States - and put one of the quirkier programs within the U.S. immigration system on the map. It's called the Diversity Visa Lottery Program, a U.S. State Department program often referred to simply as "the visa lottery." The congressionally-mandated program makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year to people who apply for them via random selection, with results selected electronically. It was announced late last week that the results of the 2012 lottery would have to be scratched because of a computer programming error. "The results were not valid because they did not represent a fair, random selection of entrants, as required by U.S. law," read an announcement on the State Department website. "If you checked this website during the first week in May and found a notice that you had been selected for further processing or a notice that you had not been selected, that notice has been rescinded and is no longer valid." It's sad news for those who thought they were lottery winners, if good news for those who weren't. New winners will now be drawn from the existing applications. The Diversity Visa Lottery Program program was established in 1990. The idea was to diversify the pool of immigrants coming into the country, bringing in people from underrepresented developing countries and from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. Unlike with traditional immigrant visas, for which applicants need to be sponsored then wait in line - often for many years - visa lottery applicants needn't be sponsored by a relative or employer.