The U.S. State Department still terms the bungling of thousands of diversity visa applications as a "computer glitch," but wants applicants to hold on to their original confirmation codes because there's still a chance they may win a green card.
Despite this position, however, a Los Angeles-based law firm is proceeding with a series of legal challenges on behalf of 36 named individuals, several of them Irish, who were informed that they had won a diversity visa only to be told later that there had been a mistake resulting from a computer glitch.
The three-pronged legal action includes an injunction motion seeking an accelerated court hearing, an interim judgment ahead of the scheduled July 15 diversity visa drawing, and a for class certification.
A State Department official would not comment on the legal action taken on behalf of 22,000 diversity visa applicants who were told in May that they had won a coveted visa, but only days later received another email from the State Department telling them there had been a technical error and they had not in fact won.
California attorney, Kenneth White, has brought suit against the State Department on behalf of many of those the 36 named individuals and in the class certification portion of his suit is seeking to secure agreement from the court to allow all 22,000 applicants join with the 36 in a class action.
The State Department official referred queries about the lawsuit to the Department of Justice, but also offered further advice to applicants already in the system
"A new random selection process is being conducted based on the original entries," said the official.
"All qualified diversity visa entries that were received during the original October 5 to November 3, 2010 registration period are included in the new random selection, and individuals who submitted qualified entries do not need to reapply."
Most importantly, the official said, "confirmation codes received at the time of registration are still valid."
This means that those who previously applied should check the State Department's website http://www.dvlottery.state.gov starting around July 15 to see if this time around they truly have been selected.
This, of course, assumes that there is no legal impediment in the meantime as a result of attorney White's action.
Several Irish applicants who have signed on for the action have expressed their bitter disappointment over their early joy being turned to bitter disappointment.
"I was absolutely gutted. This was my dream smashed to pieces," is how one Irish applicant, who gave his name as Damian, put it.
"Should the State Department be unrestrained and go forward in running the second drawing in the way it plans, it would be irreparably harming the interests of the class of 22,000," said attorney White in a statement.
"By pressing on with its plan to allocate the available visas to an entirely new set of winners ahead of the outcome of the class action lawsuit, this could render any favorable verdict for the plaintiffs meaningless, and result in a travesty of justice," he said.
