She was in her fourth year of university, living in Yemen, a newlyweds and soon to be pregnant when she found out she had won the American Diversity Visa Lottery, also known as ‘The Green Card Lottery’. Al-Doais seemed to be beating the odds – 12.4 million applicants applied for a chance at the 50,000 visas that could be issued for 2017.
But in 2017, then-President Donald Trump undertook a series of actions aimed at preventing individuals from Muslim-majority countries from coming to the United States. The one that was finally allowed to come into force – presidential proclamation 9645 – placed different levels of restrictions on foreign nationals from eight countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia and Yemen.
The road to a new life in the US for recipients of diversity visa lotteries like hers was completely blocked. Although she said she was not denied under the executive order, she could not obtain her green card before the time expired.
“After our dreams of traveling to the USA were shattered, everything changed completely and I think it was destroyed,” Al-Doais told CNN. “The simplest way to describe my life right now is that it’s a nightmare.”
Now, four years later, with the restrictions of President Joe Biden, Al-Doais and other visa recipients hope to have the chance to relocate to the United States again.
“Really lost”
The Diversity Visas Program was established as part of the 1990 Immigration Act to promote immigration from countries with fewer individuals to the United States.
“It offers individuals an opportunity to come to the U.S. who usually have no other way to get here,” Abed Ayoub, the policy director of the U.S. Arab Committee against Discrimination, told CNN.
Millions enter the lottery annually; only a fraction is selected.
Al-Doais said the winning of the visa lottery “was one of the greatest moments in (her) life.”
“It was a decisive moment that was full of happiness,” she told CNN.
The winners of the lottery can apply for visas to the United States – a process that can be very expensive and challenging.
Ayoub said it was common for “they have accumulated a considerable amount of debt” to try to get their green cards among the winners of the diversity lotteries he works with.
Al-Doais and her family sold their furniture and jewelry and borrowed thousands of dollars. Because the US does not currently have an embassy in Yemen, she said they had traveled thousands of kilometers to Malaysia to interrogate for the visas. Al-Doais said shortly after her interview, she received an email from the embassy informing her that her visa was ready to be issued, but that her husband’s visa was being processed. She experienced a series of problems with actually obtaining the visa, and before she could, her opportunity period expired.
She now lives in Istanbul with her three-year-old daughter, Sidra. Her husband fled to Europe on foot a year and a half ago to look for work; he is now in a refugee camp in Serbia.
“My husband is not with me. I am psychologically devastated. I am really lost; I do not know what to do or what will happen to me in the future,” she told CNN.
Ahmed, a winner of the Syrian Diversity Lotto, said he was asked in 2019 to conduct an interview at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan as the U.S. Embassy in Syria suspended operations in 2012. CNN only uses its first name for its security. Ahmed said he paid debts with fees and travel expenses.
Although he knew that Trump’s ban had been imposed, Ahmed said he was prepared to take the slightest chance that he could come out of Syria.
“If there is a one percent chance of getting out of this country that literally destroyed me as a young man with ambition and hope for a better life, I would accept it,” he said.
He told CNN that a consular officer told him that his visa application had been denied due to the presidential proclamation, and that he did not qualify for exemption.
‘Right what’s wrong’
Ayoub of the U.S. Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee told CNN: “the previous government could have said we were not providing these visas because of the ban.”
“But they did not do it. They did give hope. And it is now the responsibility of this current government to correct the wrong and give them the opportunity to come to the US,” he said.
“This review will consider whether to reopen the applications for immigrant visas imposed by PP 9645 or 9983 due to the suspension and restriction of access; whether it is necessary to charge an additional fee to process the visa applications; speeding up the visa applications speed up, ”it reads.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday that “recipients of diversity visas who hold valid and expired visas may now seek immediate access to the United States as it is covered by a general exception on national interest.”
Under current legislation, most of those who could not obtain visas before their window expired, or who have expired visas, must start over.
Pending the State Department investigation, applicants who have been denied Trump’s PP 9645 and do not qualify for exemption before January 20, 2020 must submit a new visa application … and pay a new visa application fee. , ” says the consulate affairs website says.
Al-Doais and Ahmed are hopeful that policy changes will give them another chance at green cards.
“I hope President Biden, his government and the Department of Foreign Affairs will return to us our rights, me and everyone who won the lottery since 2017, because we are living in a truly tragic state,” Al – said. Doais told CNN.
“I’m ready to do anything to get out of this hell,” Ahmed said.