Carl Shusterman

In a new twist, the State Department seems to have updated the poem on the
base of the Statue of Liberty: Instead, of "Give us your tired, your poor."
, the new mantra seems to be "Give us your wired."



In interim regulations published on August 18, 2003, the State Department
caught everyone off-guard by requiring that the all applications, complete
with digital photos, be submitted online on a special governmental web site.



Obviously, e-filing is the wave of the future. However, not accepting paper
filing seems a trifle elitist to us. Imagine if the BCIS suddenly published
regulations requiring that all immigration petitions and applications be
filed online. "Let them eat code!"



Of course, the State Department's press release cited "security" and
"efficiency" in attempting to justify the interim regulations, it is
difficult for us to see how accepting applications online is more secure
than accepting them by mail. What's to stop a person from establishing 100
different HotMail accounts and making multiple online applications?



And isn't the government helping to grow the ever-growing industry of
immigration consultants (aka "rip-off artists") who charge fees to gullible
persons eager to "increase their chances" of winning the lottery? Have
Laptop and Scanner, Will Travel!



Our comments seem to resonate. We were quoted in several dozen newspapers
including USA Today, the Washington Post, Newsday and internationally.



Let the State Department know what you think by sending your comments
regarding the interim regulations to them at [email protected] on or before
October 17, 2003.



This year's green card lottery is set to begin on November 1 and end on
December 31, 2003. Generally, persons born in CANADA, CHINA
(mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, HAITI, INDIA,
JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, RUSSIA, SOUTH KOREA, UNITED KINGDOM
(except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and VIETNAM are
need not apply. However, persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and
Taiwan are eligible.



We link to the official instructions, the interim regulations, the State
Department press release, the USA Today article and more from our "Lottery"
page at



http://shusterman.com/toc-lottery.html



Once the lottery begins, we will link to the State Department Lottery Web
Site and to the Official DV-2005 Lottery Application form. We offer this as
a free service to the public.



Do you need an attorney to apply for the lottery? We don't think so. Do
you need an attorney if your application is selected? It is a good idea
since of the 100,000+ "winners" notified by the State Department, only
50,000 can actually become permanent residents under the law. We are
pleased to assist any of the "winners" in obtaining permanent residence.

*********************



Carl Shusterman served as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Immigration Service
(1976-82) before entering private practice. He heads a four-attorney firm
specializing exclusively in immigration law. He maintains an extensive
website entitled "Immigration: A Practical Guide to Immigrating to the U.S."
containing over 1,000 articles on all phases of immigration law. He is the
author of SHUSTERMAN'S IMMIGRATION UPDATE, a free, monthly e-mail newsletter
on immigration laws and procedures. You can subscribe online at
http://shusterman.com/subscribe.html

mbongo

I wonder how those companies already possessing offices and used to make huge some of money will be doing this time!! probably they are now in summer holidays to re-think on the new strategy of getting money from people so as could be helped with DV2005 application. Hey guys, you only need an email address this time, follow instructions and simply click send!!!.

Memememe

I bet they are going to tell their customer that its hard to save files as
jpegs and most customers will believe them, hmmmm maybe I should setup a
company that takes pics and saves as jpegs for the green card lotery....
hahahhahaha

"mbongo" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > I wonder how those companies already possessing offices and used to
    > make huge some of money will be doing this time!! probably they are now
    > in summer holidays to re-think on the new strategy of getting money
    > from people so as could be helped with DV2005 application. Hey guys,
    > you only need an email address this time, follow instructions and
    > simply click send!!!.
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Nicos

On 8/21/03 8:18 AM, in article [email protected],
"memememe" <[rem]casolorz[rem]@hot[rem]mail.com> wrote:

    > I bet they are going to tell their customer that its hard to save files as
    > jpegs and most customers will believe them, hmmmm maybe I should setup a
    > company that takes pics and saves as jpegs for the green card lotery....
    > hahahhahaha
    >
    > "mbongo" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    >>
    >> I wonder how those companies already possessing offices and used to
    >> make huge some of money will be doing this time!! probably they are now
    >> in summer holidays to re-think on the new strategy of getting money
    >> from people so as could be helped with DV2005 application. Hey guys,
    >> you only need an email address this time, follow instructions and
    >> simply click send!!!.
    >>
    >>
    >> --
    >> Posted via http://britishexpats.com
    >
    >
You bet... State Department gave now more reasons why DV services will be
charged heftily. For marketing (read "scaring") purpose the DV rippers will
exaggerate importance of:
1. Access to "secure" web site.
2. Avoidance unintentional double submission of the same form (web sites
have this problem)
3. Tricky formula for digitized picture (color depth, JPEG, file size etc)
...to name few.

But biggest blow is for the Russian audience. Too bad...

Overall though the new way of forms submission will increase the chances for
average audience (who were not creative enough in beating the manual
screening system, which easily could miss not so obvious duplications in
paper submission). With the end-to-end electronic system though the
duplicates will be much easier to catch, and practically all 7mln
applications processed. So here I disagree with Carl - this system will be
safer in terms of preventing frauds.

But on the other extreme edge the whole system may crash if someone being
inventive beats the system through electronic means. Like well orchestrated
denial-of-service may bring DV server down in periodic times and in
predefined fashion submit only one's clients when server is up. In other
words one can make the system to accept one's clients only not someone else.
Since we are dealing with the electronic system massive and malicious
information submission may cause the new system to be ineffective.

Carl,
In this sense I think it makes sense to question DV officials how
reliable and how well tested the system is. I know your voice is heard in
congress and you are respected there...:-)

Regards,
- NK