NEW YORK, N.Y., Tues. Dec. 7: Caribbean immigrants seeking to secure a green card through the Diversity Visa Lottery, have exactly one more month to get those applications in. To apply for the free lottery, an electronic application must be filled out and submitted via www.dvlottery.state.gov before midnight of January 7, 2005. Fifty thousand permanent resident visas are up for grabs but like any lottery, winners will be randomly selected. To qualify, applicants must be a native of any country EXCEPT the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica in the Caribbean; and Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, El Salvador, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, United Kingdom (Except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories and Vietnam. However, if your spouse is from a eligible country, then they can include you on their application. Applicants must also have EITHER a high school education or have completed a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education OR have two years of work experience within the past five years. Only one application is allowed per person or family and paper entries will not be accepted. Ensure you include your full, legal name, birth date, gender, city and country of birth, mailing address and your spouse and children’s information, if you are married. A digital photo of each applicant, spouse and children under 21, if applicable, must be included in the on-line entry form. The photo must be 320 pixels high by 240 pixels wide or 24-bit color or 8-bit color or 8-bit grayscale with the applicant directly facing the camera in front of a neutral or light-colored background. Photos with sunglasses or hats, unless it’s of religious significance, will not be accepted. Be warned that if you are an undocumented immigrant living in the U.S.; and you had no immigration sponsorship or petition filed before April 30, 2001, then you may not be able to claim your winnings even though you can enter. This could put them at risk of exposure to the Department of Homeland Security while subjecting you to either a 3 or 10-year bar. Meanwhile, New York City’s Immigrant Affairs Commissioner, Guillermo Linares, is urging qualified immigrants to use public libraries and community-based organizations to access the online applications through the official state department website. A list of these organizations can be found on the website of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs at www.nyc.gov/immigrants. Applicants can also call 311, the City’s 24-hour service information line, to learn how they can file their applications, request names of these organizations, or file a complaint regarding potential scams. Operators at 311 can speak 171 languages and are available seven days a week, 24-hours a day. “New York City immigrants need to be well-informed about the Diversity Visa Lottery,” said Commissioner Linares. “Immigrants are particularly vulnerable because of language barriers and their unfamiliarity with U.S. laws. Lottery applicants must be aware of the many eligibility requirements, including whether their country of origin qualifies, and must be careful about how they file applications.” Reprinted from Hardbeatnews.com