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Green Card hopefuls to wait till June, delay attributed to Covid-19 pandemic


The US State Department has pushed the opening of the DV-2021 Green Card lottery Entrant Status Check to June 6, 2020.

The State Department says that due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the opening, which were expected to be available online at the State Department website starting on May 5, will be postponed to June 6, 2020.

The delayed opening “will not negatively impact our ability to pre-process and schedule DV-2021 interviews, which are scheduled to begin on October 1, 2020,” the State Department said.

The DV-2021 lottery registration period ran between October 2, 2019 and November 5, 2019.

Last year the US government said that the number of Kenyans who tried their luck with the US Diversity Visa lottery (green card lottery) grew to 442,966 in the Fiscal Year 2018.

This was a 23 per cent rise compared to 2017 when 360,023 Kenyans entered the lottery.

VISA PROCESSING

The Diversity Visa lottery system makes 55,000 permanent visas available each year to nationals of countries with small populations of immigrants in the US.

Last week President Donald Trump announced that he will be placing a 60-day pause on the issuance of certain immigration green cards in an effort to limit competition for jobs in a US economy wrecked by the coronavirus.

“To protect American workers I will be issuing a temporary suspension of immigrating into the United States,” Trump said at a White House briefing after tweeting about the order.

Trump said that the move would not impact those in the country on a temporary basis and would apply only to those looking for green cards in hopes of staying.

Almost all visa processing by the State Department has been suspended for weeks while travel across the globe has been restricted by the coronavirus pandemic.