The computer was supposed to draw about 90,000 potential winners from among 14 million applications filed between October 5 and November 3 last year. But instead, the computer draw all the winners from among those who filed on October 5 and 6, ignoring all the other applications, according to David Donahue, the deputy assistant secretary of state for visa services.
As a result, Donahue said, the State Department will take another draw with all 14 million applications in the pot.
Names from the bad draw were posted by the State Department earlier this month. That posting is now invalidated. But all the names will go back into the pot for the second draw.
The corrected list of winners is expected to be posted by July 15, Donahue said.
The State Department said there is no evidence that anyone hacked into the visa lottery computer and tampered with it. The problem, it said, “appears to be solely the result of a computer programming error.”
The lottery has been held each year since 1994, with the applicants picked randomly by a computer. The program is called the “Diversity Lottery” because the goal is to bring people from more countries to the United States. People from countries that have sent the most immigrants to the United States—many of them coming under laws that allow US citizens to sponsor in family members—are not eligible for the visa lottery. These include countries like Mexico, Haiti, El Salvador, China and Vietnam. Iranians have been eligible in every year since the lottery began.
The lottery provides for 50,000 immigrant visas each year. Wives and minor children are additional to the 50,000. The computer normally draws about 90,000 names because some people change their minds and do not seek the visas while others are barred for criminal records or lack of education.
Donahue said the computer glitch was discovered last Thursday. The State Department announced Friday that the posted winners’ list had been invalidated and the drawing would be taken all over again.
No one needs to apply anew. All the applications filed last fall are still in the computer and all will be considered in the new draw, the State Department emphasized.