CAPTION: United States Ambassador to Kenya Eric Kneedler addressing a past gathering
Winners of the 2021 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program are protesting the poor scheduling of interviews at the United States Embassy in Nairobi.
The worried group has now expressed fears of missing out on the September 2022 deadline due to delays occasioned by officials at the consulate who are accused of prioritizing other visa application categories.
At first, their excuse was the prevailing COVID-19 but even after a decrease in the infection rate, the embassy is still sluggishly carrying out the exercise.
In a message forwarded to our desk on Sunday 27th March 2022, the lucky contestants have now pleaded with the US Embassy to increase the number of interviews being conducted to ensure everyone gets a fair chance at greener pastures abroad.
“Dear Cyprian Nyakundi,
We are winners of the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Program 2022, which is a lottery that gives winners Green Cards to live and work in the USA.
The US Embassy in Nairobi has delayed the scheduling of interviews and has given out very few of them from October 2021 which is the start date for visa issuance up until September 2022 which is the deadline.
They started giving interviews in January 2022, three months late, and they are giving out very few at that.
They are prioritizing interviews of other visa categories that don’t have deadlines and not interviewing DV selectees who will be locked out come September.
We as the winners of DV-2022 are concerned that our chances are slimming as the days go by and the deadline approaches.
We kindly request that you come to our aid and help us campaign for the Nairobi Embassy to give out more interviews to Kenyans.
We thank you for your support.
DV-2022 Kenyan Winners,” it reads in part.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program provides individuals from countries with relatively lower levels of recent immigration to the United States an opportunity to apply for a visa and permanent residency (a green card).
About 50,000 diversity visas are typically issued each year.
During the last full year before the pandemic (2020), more than 8 million registrations were submitted for principal applicants; including spouses and children, more than 11 million people applied for the program.
Because of the substantial interest in the program, registered applicants are selected using a randomized lottery and are invited to formally apply for the visa if abroad, or to file an adjustment of status application if residing in the U.S.
We urge the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led by Cabinet Secretary Amb. Raychelle Omamo, to swiftly reach out to Ambassador Eric Kneedler and help smoothen the process for the desperate applicants.
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