Of the 15 million people around the world who entered their names in the U.S. green card lottery this year, Tarik Ansari was one of the lucky minority, fewer than 1 percent, who made it to the final stage. The 24-year-old French computer engineer was in his San Francisco apartment May 1 when the State Department announced the results of its annual giveaway of 50,000 diversity visas, awarded to people from countries with relatively low levels of immigration to the United States. The State Department voided the lottery results and promised a redraw in the summer. As the State Department prepares to announce the results of its redraw Friday, some of those angered by the bungled lottery have sued to demand that the government reconsider its original results. The Russian software engineer moved to the Bay Area on a temporary work visa four years ago, but getting permanent residency - a green card - has been difficult, he said.




This year was his third applying for the diversity visa. The chances of being randomly selected for the diversity visa are slim, so Kuraev was overjoyed to find out that he was picked to apply. Unlike most of the lottery entrants, applicants such as Kuraev and Ansari already live in the U.S., but their stay here is temporary. Some lawmakers are pointing to the lottery glitch as a reason to abolish the program entirely, arguing that it does not make sense to give people green cards purely on the luck of the draw. Gallegly this week is marking up a Virginia Republican's bill that would eliminate diversity visas.

The diversity visa lottery is one of the few methods for people without existing connections in the United States to settle here. The visa is for those from countries that have not already sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the last five years. The top countries for diversity visa applicants include Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Receiving so many green card applicants from those countries is not a priority for Gallegly, who said the U.S. already welcomes far too many immigrants annually. He pointed to a 2002 fatal shooting at Los Angeles International Airport committed by an Egyptian man who was able to migrate to the U.S. because his wife won a diversity visa several years earlier.