By Georgina Brennan

An e-mail widely distributed to illegal immigrants announcing the recipient has won a green card has alarm bells raised in the Irish undocumented community. 

“Congratulations,” screams the headline of the e-mail. “You have won. Dreaming of a new life? You can become an American citizen by claiming your US GrRrReen CarRrRd (sic). Check your Eligibility NOW,” writes Sandy Connelly from Needler BioGenex Laboratories in San Ramon, California in the e-mail.

Immigration experts say the e-mail is making false promises, and the poor spelling should give it away as a fraud, but to the unsuspecting and computer illiterate it seems like a real award.

The e-mail links to a website that promises a green card for a fee of $99. The annual diversity visa lottery, or green card lottery as it is known, has always attracted fraudsters, from lawyers charging huge fees to process an application to e-mail solicitations like this one. 

The diversity visa lottery allocates 50,000 green cards each year to applicants from most of the world’s nations. Ireland and Northern Ireland usually win a few hundred of the visas, and the odds against winning are very high.

The 2006 visa lottery program is currently ongoing, and can only be applied for at the website www.dvlottery.state.gov, from noon November 5, 2004 through noon January 7, 2005. Previous to 2005, the visa application process was as simple as mailing a piece of paper with a name and address to the State Department and hoping your name would be drawn. Now that the State Department has streamlined the process and allowed applicants to apply only online, more fraudulent Internet sites have shown up.

“There is no fee charged for entering the diversity visa lottery. The Department of State does not endorse, recommend or sponsor any information or material from outside entities. 

“The department is aware that websites and email have masqueraded as official diversity visa lottery facilitators. Registration for the diversity visa lottery through the official, U.S. government website, www.dvlottery.state.gov is free of charge and notification of winning entries are sent by mail only,” says the site.

On the website, www.USAGIS.com, people are invited to enter the lottery for a minimum of $99, or send one application good for entry into the lottery for the next four years for $139. Says the website, “WINNERS will get a FREE Airline Ticket to USA.”

For the 2006 lottery, because of complaints of a less than ideal service last year, the State Department has tripled the number of servers hosting the registration website, and all correctly completed applications will receive an official receipt.