US State Dept. screws up visa lottery, smashes thousands of would-be immigrants' dreams

"We regret to inform you that, due to a computer programming problem, the results of the 2012 Diversity Lottery that were previously posted on this website have been voided."—The State Department, explaining a major herp derp to some 22,000 people.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Dudette

I was among the 22,000 chosen, crying with joy when I read the confirmation that I was in the running for a visa provided my personal history was up to US standards. Having spent the past 12 days trying to piece together dates for every visit to the US since I was a child, I learned about the glitch today when calling a wonderfully helpful lady at the Kentucky Consular Center for assistance. It’s tough to describe the crushing sense of loss and disappointment I felt when reading the message on the website she directed me to. I am an EU citizen with a university degree, running a successful business with my husband. Due to the nature of our business, we could easily work from the US, and given that we are currently working to full capacity, we were thinking of employing US citizens once we got there. Oh well, back to square one. Tonight is a sad night for us and our teenage kid. I wish I could think of a joke about computer glitches, but somehow, nothing comes to mind.
- Satan Ate My Ears
  
  Have you thought about moving to Canada? We can always used skilled immigrants in our neck of the woods.
  - Anonymous
    
    I’ve heard Canadian visas are very easy to get a hold of too, how true is this?
- Xeni Jardin
  
  Wow, thank you for sharing your story. That sucks and I’m so sorry for you.
- Anonymous
  
  While green card is helpful in some situations, I would still prefer EU, To where I will return within the next couple of years after wasting big part of my life in US.
  - Zadaz
    
    Anon #5: I’m truly sorry to hear that you’ve spend a large part of your life where you’re unhappy, and glad to hear that you’ll be able to remedy that situation in the near future. However your comment comes off as incredibly disrespectful to Dudette who my heart truly goes out to. I think you were just trying to hate on the US or simply vet or something, but it didn’t come across that way.
    
    Dudette #1: I am so sorry to hear your story. Having been ‘asked’ to leave a country, and having had friends (all who created much more benefit to their host country than they consumed) forced out of the country, I understand how world shattering this can be. I hope that you are able to use every resource to get the visa you’re after. As far as I’m concerned you’re welcome to stay in the US as long as you want.
  - Stooge
    
    As you say, you wasted a “big part” of your life in the US: that your written English is still so poor suggests your effort levels were not all they could have been.
egoVirus

No “have a nice day” tacked on to the end? This is B.S. The DoS should definitely have to wear this mistake, not the people they’ve already notified. Investigate and terminate, and let these people in who have a) waited for effing ever b) actually followed our laws and procedures for legal entry.
- EH
  
  That would imply that this situation is due to an error and not a “problem.” Can’t have that!
bascule

Crazy. I checked my entry a few weeks ago and didn’t gain a place. I’ll recheck in July if I haven’t trashed the serial number that they gave you when you registered last year.

I was just discussing the website for the Diversity Lottery with another web developer yesterday and it truly is the most appallingly bad webside both in design and operation that I’ve ever seen. It’s a bit weird since a website like that could be whipped up in a weekend by most web developers. And it would be prettier, quicker and make more sense.

Dudette my heart goes out to you. That sucks an incredible amount.
bascule

Oh and I’ll add that due to the crap website not asking for or storing email addresses it’s very likely that some of the second change winners are not going to know that they’ve won.

Sure the website might have 20,000,000 visitors in 30 days but really that’s no excuse.
johanna fausta

dudette: that so sucks that i researched starting a petition, and i started one — perhaps some good will come of this. i know its a small thing on a global scale, but it would be nice wouldn’t it to have such a huge disappointment turned around…

so here it is:

petition @StateDept to reinstate/bump up greencard visa glitch victims in apology! http://act.ly/3oa RT to sign
Anonymous

As someone who checked and had my entry denied, put me in the ‘happy to read this news’ basket.

However I can only imagine how dissapointing it would be to read you had won, only to discover a week later that no, you actualy hadn’t won at all.

Fingers crossed for the next draw!