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Q. I won the green card lottery in 1998. My wife and I applied for permanent residence, but the USCIS never approved our case. Do I have a chance to get my residence based on that lottery win or should I just forget it? Though we were never called for an interview, we got the authorization for several years. Eventually the USCIS denied our request to renew our employment authorization. Marcelo Santos, Sunnyside

A. It is extremely unlikely you can revive your old lottery case. When the U.S. Department of State picks a lottery winner for a particular year, the winner must get residence within that year.

If he doesn’t, he loses his right to residence based on that lottery win. That’s true regardless of whether it is the fault of the applicant or the government. The fiscal year for which you won began on Oct. 1, 1997, and ended Sept. 30, 1998.

Some winners have sued the USCIS because the agency failed to decide their cases in time. Most of these cases are unsuccessful. You could sue the government, but the effort would be costly and likely to fail.

In recent years, the New York USCIS office has done a good job of calling qualified winners in for interviews before the Sept. 30 cutoff. Lottery winners applying for permanent residence in the United States should attach a sheet with the words “DV Lottery” in big red letters.

From: Allan Wernick’s immigration law column, Thursdays in The Daily News.

Apply NOW for the 2009 DV Lottery!

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We are not affiliated with the US Government or US Citizenship and Immigration Services and do not guarantee applicants have a better chance of winning a US visa by applying for the Diversity Lottery using our service. We are well-versed in the terms and conditions for application to the US Diversity Lottery. Our service provides the electronic submit needed to enter the green card lottery on your behalf. You provide the information, and for a fee we review and submit your application.