CASE: Diversity Immigrant Visa
CLIENT: Cameroonians
LOCATION: Cameroon
Our client was in the United States on an F-1 status. He stopped school and stayed here anyway. In 2014 our client applied for the Diversity Visa program and won the lottery. The question for him was whether his F-1 overstay would allow him to get an immigrant visa when he goes home. He was hesitant at first, but we explained to him that being out of status is not equivalent to being unlawfully present. As an F-1 student, if you overstay, only if DHS or Court finds you unlawfully present would unlawful presence incur. Thus, he did not have a three or ten year bar.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa program is a United States congressionally mandated lottery program for receiving a United States Permanent Resident Card. It is also known as the Green Card Lottery. The lottery is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 to provide for a new class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants” (DV immigrants). The Act makes available 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to natives of countries deemed to have low rates of immigration to the United States.
Our client retained our office on May 14, 2014 for his and his wife’s immigrant visa packets. Our office prepared and filed the immigrant visa packets, together with all necessary supporting documents, on May 22, 2014. Our office also prepared and drafted a brief to explain the eligibility of his diversity lottery based immigrant visa DESPITE HIS F-1 OVERSTAY. Our argument was that since he came on an F-1 and was never caught overstaying, that he did not have a bar to coming back because he did not incur unlawful presence.
Prior to the interview, we thoroughly prepared our clients. On December 23, 2014, our client was interviewed at the U.S. Embassy in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The interview went well, and the Embassy issued immigrant visas for our client and his wife.