The "22,000" tears visa blunder

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kiryan
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The "22,000" tears visa blunder

Postby kiryan » Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:19 pm

This story was basically just one of those factoids, state department screwed up the visa drawing and picked 22k winners from the first 2 days worth of applicants and ignored everyone else. It was just information reading until I got to the end.

"We lived 2 weeks in the sky, only to fall down on the hard floor on Friday 13th," wrote Tervel Nyagolov of Bulgaria. "We are young and good educated people, that lived with their American Dream for 13 days. It's not our fault. We don't deserve these emotions... So please, help us!"

This is a prospectus immigrant, who was apparently one of the invalidated visa winners. What caught my eye... is the insinuation that there is something unfair and the hint of entitlement. "We don't deserve these emotions"; its your fault we were happy and now we are depressed so therefore you should give us a visa anyway.

Amazing. Yes it sucks, but it was never guaranteed to you in the first place. You don't have any rights with regards to this country period.

This ranks right up there with the NY Times food stamp thanksgiving piece, someone broke a rule and finally a food stamp recipient got their back food stamp money then went out and bought thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings including lobster. Supposed to be a feel good story, but the end where she buys lobster, just makes me angry.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... sa-blunder
Teflor Lyorian
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Re: The "22,000" tears visa blunder

Postby Teflor Lyorian » Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:46 pm

It is unusually cruel to tell people they can be American then take it away :)

Even more cruel when you tell them they have to keep on being European. Just kidding European readers of this forum!
"You see, the devil haunts a hungry man.
If you don’t wanna join him, you got to beat him."
- Kris Kristofferson (To Beat the Devil)
Corth
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Re: The "22,000" tears visa blunder

Postby Corth » Tue Jun 07, 2011 4:14 am

Reminds me of when I took the bar exam. They had a scoring blunder and several people who passed ended up being told they failed, and vice versa (I wasn't affected). Not quite the same as being told you cannot immigrate to the US, but still, it was a kick in the pants for some.

I look forward to the day that young well educated Bulgarians can immigrate to the US and help improve our country and culture. Any sane immigration scheme would legally allow young educated people in, and have very harsh consequences for people who illegally enter.
Having said all that, the situation has been handled, so this thread is pretty much at an end. -Kossuth

Goddamned slippery mage.
kiryan
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Re: The "22,000" tears visa blunder

Postby kiryan » Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:12 pm

Voided Green Card Winners Sue State Department

Of course, state deparmtent is being sued by these would be immigrants. I'm making hay, since the state deparmtnet hasn't disclosed extensive details on how the "glitch" happened, we don't really know whether it was a "bug" or a wierd, but valid statistical anomaly.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/0 ... 73920.html

The original results were voided by a computer glitch that selected about 90 percent of the winners from those who had entered in the first few days.

But the result was still sufficiently random because they were not manipulated by any party, wrote Kenneth White, the lawyer who is representing the people who were selected in the first lottery, in a letter to Harold Geisel, deputy inspector general at the State Department.

"Although the results were not as expected and seemed odd on first glance … they were still chosen by an entirely random process," he wrote. "Such results could have happened naturally, and even if there was a computer glitch, as the Department contends … there was a level playing field."
kiryan
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Re: The "22,000" tears visa blunder

Postby kiryan » Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:26 pm

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/21/green. ... hpt=hp_bn1

A Russian woman, who did not want to be named because the issue is still under review, said she's been distressed since the decision was revoked.

"I can't eat or sleep well, all my hopes are gone," she said.

== man that sounds rough, wonder what she would've done if she didn't win the lottery... I guess the only thing we can do for the other 14,950,000 people who also didn't win (not even in the screwed up one) is also give them green cards.

Kenneth White, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, said the decision constitutes a "broken commitment."

He filed a class-action lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court in Washington with plaintiffs from about 20 countries, including foreigners living in the United States.

In the suit, he urges the State Department to restore the winners.

"The basis of this case is deep-rooted in the simple and enduring American value that 'our word is our bond,' " he said.

== good principle. too bad decades ago they decided a "mistake" was exactly that and was not legally binding. A man is probably going to jail for spending $65k of a $110k IRS deposit that was accidently depsosited in his bank account a few months ago.

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