Tara J. Goldsmith Immigration Law Blog on Lawyers.com

A lawsuit was filed last week against the State Department in federal court seeking to reinstate 22,000 potential green card lottery winners because of a government computer error. 

The United States established the green card lottery in 1990 to promote diversity in the immigrant population.  It works like any other lottery system – each year 50,000 people are selected by random draw and ultimately, if eligible, are granted a green card.  There is no cost to apply and the application is submitted online over a 30-day period.  In light of the difficulties and long delays that it can often take for someone to secure a green card usually through a family member or employer, winning the green card lottery can often feel like winning a million dollars.

This year a record 15 million people from around the world submitted entries.  On May 1, 2011, the State Department notified 22,000 people they were chosen. One of my clients, a woman from Japan who has been working in the United States for five years on an H1B visa and has been in the green card sponorship process for almost four years, called to tell me she had been chosen.  I could barely understand her, she was crying so much.  But on May 13, 2011, a message was posted on the State Department’s website notifying the “winners” that the draw would have to be held again because a computer glitch caused 90% of the winners to be selected from the first two days of applications instead of the entire 30-day registration period. Because it was determined the selection had not been “random,” which is required of any lottery, the selection results were voided.  The government advised the affected individuals they would be re-entered in a new drawing.

My Japanese client called me after the State Department’s announcement of their computer glitch (this time crying for a different reason) and asked if there was anything we could do.  I wondered if we could have a claim to sue the government.  As an immigration lawyer practicing now for over ten years, I have seen the government make many mistakes, often with little recourse.  Computers are certainly not perfect but this was a pretty major mistake to make.  The lottery takes place in October/November and the results are announced in May so surely there is ample time to review the results and ensure they are fair and random, before notifying the public.  While it might be difficult to argue that the winners relied on the results to their detriment, surely the winners have suffered a harm.

So with the lawsuit filed on Friday, we will see what happens.  The lawsuit, seeks class-action status and names plaintiffs from more than 20 countries. The suit asks that the U.S. government restore its "broken commitment," stating that chosen individuals had "lawfully and properly" followed rules set forth by the State Department and thought they were among the "lucky few" selected to proceed with the green-card application.  We hope that the government will do the right thing and in the future, take extra precautions to ensure that these types of mistakes do not happen in the first place.