In our previous column we reported that the U.S. State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs announced that Electronic Status Checking for DV-2012 applicants was delayed until July 15 due to a progamming error. This error mistakenly notified 20,000 green card lottery applicants that they were winners, when in fact they were not.

Although some of these 20,000 may still win the lottery, they (and all other applicants) must recheck their status on or after July 15, 2011 when the software update is complete and fully tested.

All they need to check their winning status are three pieces of information from their 2010 green card lottery registration: 1) CONFIRMATION NUMBER, 2) FAMILY NAME (Last Name), and 3) BIRTH YEAR.

A confirmation number was provided if you successfully entered last fall. It is a16-character number, similar to this: 2012lO0DZWY1DOV9.

But what if you lost your confirmation number?

We previously reported (incorrectly) that you can email or call the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) and ask them to look up your number given the Principal (Primary) Applicant's full name and birth date. However, this is no longer true (or perhaps it was never possible). Regardless, if you lost your number you cannot determine if you won. In this case, you will be unable to check your winning status at the ESC site above.

Therefore you will have to wait until this year's upcoming DV-2013 lottery and reenter if you have any hope of winning. But as the graph shows, more applicants are registering each year which reduces the chances of winning one of the 50,000 available visas.

In the last few days I received dozens of emails from DV-2012 "winners" (including one from a temporary visa holder here in Albuquerque, New Mexico) who discarded their confirmation numbers after they were mistakenly notified that they won. Although they were issued a "case number", these case numbers are now invalid, and cannot be used to check status beginning July 15. Here is an excerpt from one letter:

To find out the results, each applicant needs a "confirmation number." But when notified, you need a "case number" which they provide. Therefore, most of us thought that we won't need our confirmation number and threw it away, so if we are lucky [and win] the second time then we won't be able to see the results.

Bottom line: do not lose your confirmation numbers. (Actually, this may be one reason to use a paid lottery service since they would not misplace your number.)

In response to these and other concerns from "the 22,000" I sent a letter to the Department of State summarizing this and other issues. They are:

1) From a probability perspective, the initial selection was still random. That is, the software could just as well have chosen those who applied on the last three days, or on odd/even numbered days, or on Saturday/Sundays. Or the system could have even selected the very last 100,000 applicants. Hence there is no need to cancel the results.

2) Those who were declared "winners" and successfully submitted their paperwork prior to the announcement should be in a "special category" and kept in the review process for a green card. Then a second batch of winners could be selected beginning July 15.

3) After the results were announced, the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC), responding to e-mails and phone calls, urged the "winners" to send their forms for processing as soon as possible, even though they must have suspected something is wrong with the results.

4) Arguing for financial loss, some "winners" paid attorney fees, turned down job proposals, and paid money to mail application forms to the KCC.

5) Many are arguing for an independent investigation to determine how this occurred.

Besides the lost money, lost confirmation numbers, lost opportunities, and a mathematical argument that the 22,000 "winners" were chosen randomly anyway, there is the basic notion of fairness (espoused by the U.S.) which seems to have been overlooked by voiding the initial lottery results.

What do you think?