Questions Still Loom Over Visa Lottery

By Sean O’Driscoll

COLIN Carpenter needs to live in the U.S. He is in the reception area of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center (EIIC) in Queens on Tuesday morning, hoping counselors there can help him out. He and his girlfriend want to get married, and he wants to live with her in New York. 

On Tuesday, he applied online for the annual green card lottery and on Wednesday he flies back to Ireland. 

“I would sweep the streets here if I had to, but I really have to come back,” he says.

The couple had considered using his girlfriend’s dual citizenship to allow him to get married, but that would mean a rushed fiancé visa and very little time to prepare for a family wedding. 

“A registry office isn’t good enough for my princess,” he says with a smile. His girlfriend, a researcher with MTV, grimaces and clasps his hand. 

Carpenter could be in luck – uptake on lottery applications has been achingly slow at the Emerald Isle despite help processing the photos and applications. Many thousands of undocumented Irish across the country are waiting to see how the new system works before going ahead.

The EIIC has seen more than a 90% drop-off in queries since last year, when the State Department did not have an electronic system that neatly recorded information.

New border checks introduced this year make it virtually impossible for undocumented immigrants to fly home for visa interviews without getting caught, another reason for the drop-off. 

Immigration counselor John Stahl has seen just five applications since the new system began on November 1. Two Leaving Cert, or high school, challenged bar managers had their hopes crashed when they learned that, without two years training on a relevant job, they could not begin the application process. 

Another illegal immigrant from the north of Ireland successfully completed the application but doesn’t know how he can get past immigration inspectors on his way home for a visa interview, if he is lucky enough to be called. 

Applications through the immigration centers are likely to greatly increase towards the end of the week as more centers explain the new system to the public.

The Woodside center was scheduled to host an information seminar on Tuesday night, when Stahl and lawyer Eamonn Dornan would answer the questions that have been buzzing in Irish communities across the U.S. – will the new system keep a record of applications? Will it pass on the information to immigration officials? Will it record which computer sent the application?

Early advice from Stahl is to go ahead and apply, even for those who don’t have any papers. 

“There is nothing to say at this point that it could lead to anything incriminating,” he says, but understands why people have concerns. 

We swap stories on the days when the DV lottery was mail only. Stahl recalls the days of the Morrison and Donnelly visas, when New York Irish would drive down to Virginia and post box loads of applications in a mailbox near the sorting center, just to make sure they arrived on time. 

I recall the day when a friend and I drove up to Dublin Airport and gave two envelopes to a complete stranger to post in Boston, in a last-minute effort to make the application deadline.

“This system is much better for procrastinators,” says Stahl. “You can send off your application just five minutes before the cut off point and it will get there.”

The new system is undoubtedly far smoother than the old, and nobody will ever again have to measure the side of an envelope to assess their suitability for entry into the U.S.

The new system also comes with an inbuilt pre-application scanner, which tells if the photo pixel quality is within limits and whether the required sections of the application system have been completed. 

It might be very reliable technology, but is it trustworthy?

“No f***ing way!” says Tommy, a kitchen appliance storeman who is on an “extended holiday” in the U.S. since 1998. 

Tommy, and his friend Mike, both sports fans, are in Woodside to buy the Irish newspapers on their way to a job in the Bronx. They both have a deep distrust of the immigration system since a group of GAA fans were caught on a train on their way back to Boston from a game in Chicago last year.

“I don’t trust the immigration system, there is no way I am going to give them my photograph or let them know my date of birth or anything like that. Why should I? I’m doing all right, I don’t need to risk it,” he says.

There are “ways and means” of getting home to see his family if he really has too, but he is happy to remain illegal, he says. He is not getting into specifics, but says that those who do want to get home might want to investigate the letters C-A-N-A-D-A.

In Shane’s Bakery, server Lisa has not really thought about whether to apply or not. She has only been in New York six weeks and has seen the adverts around for the big meeting in the EIIC. “I didn’t plan to stay in the U.S. long enough to need it, but I might go along to the meeting,” she said. 

Lisa doesn’t fear the system, and doesn’t seem to have any concerns about applying. 

Back out the street, a part time carpenter and sculptor named Peter has absolutely no problem with applying. “I am tired of being over here without papers. It’s all right while you’re young, but there is very little stability, especially nowadays,” he says. 

He has “no fears whatsoever” of the new system and will find “some way, some how” to get home for the visa interview if his number comes up. 

“Half the country is here illegally,” he adds. “I can’t see how they are going to track people down just from their visa application. I think it’s time to get into the system.”

Down the street, Tommy and Mike are loading up the van, Irish newspapers announcing France’s trouncing of Ireland tucked under their arms. 

They disappear around the corner and zoom off down the avenue, about as detectable as a pair of shadows. If the visa information is to be passed on to immigration officials, it’s going to be a long time before it gets any results.