MyUSGreenCard.com Blog

Q. Should I give up or fight? I won the green card lottery for 2007-2008. I came here as a visitor. Is it true that because I overstayed more than one year that I can’t get a lottery green card? Name withheld, Manhattan A. It may seem like a cruel joke, but it is unlikely you’ll ever get a lottery green card. Here’s why. As a 2008 Diversity Visa lottery winner, you must get your immigrant visa by the end of the 2008 government fiscal (recordkeeping) year, Sept. 30, 2008. If you don’t, you lose your rights as a 2008 lottery winner.

Because you are an “overstay,” you must interview abroad unless you qualify to interview here under the “245i” law. Having overstayed so long, once you leave, you become subject to a 10-year bar to permanent residence. With your rights under the lottery program expiring on Sept. 30, 2008, the bar effectively makes you ineligible for a lottery visa.

What about a waiver of the 10-year bar? The law provides for a waiver of the “unlawful presence” bar if you can show hardship to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or parent. But even if you qualify for the waiver, it would be hard to get it before your lottery eligibility expires.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) won’t consider your waiver request until you are found ineligible for the visa. So you would have to go to your interview abroad, get denied because of your overstay, and only then could you apply for your waiver. If the waiver isn’t decided by Sept. 30, 2008, or the USCIS denies it, you are stuck abroad.

If you were to be called for a visa interview early in the fiscal year, you could possibly be interviewed and get a waiver approved in time. Few lottery winners however, want to take that risk.

As for interviewing here, out-of-status lottery winners can do that only if an employer or relative started an immigration case for them by April 30, 2001. The lottery winner can then use his or her right to interview here under the 245i law. Because 245i applicants don’t have to leave the U.S., the 10-year bar doesn’t apply.

Partial recall on time outside of U.S.

Q. I’m filling out my naturalization application and I am stuck at the “Time Outside the United States” section. The form asks me to list all travel outside the U.S., but I can’t remember my exact travel dates prior to 2001. I traveled to Germany once a year during that time - never for more than 10 days.

Author: Allan Wernick From: http://www.nydailynews.com

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