The number of Egyptians applying for a diversity visa increased last year to 800,000.
Consul-General at the US embassy in Cairo, Lisa Vickers, said that Egypt ranks second globally only following Cameroon in terms of number of applicants. She said that 800,000 Egyptians applied for the visa, of which 3,400 were initially selected. The US State Department has given about 50,000 diversity visas to individuals from different countries of the world during the past year.
She added that the US consulate in Cairo granted 77,000 visit visas to Egyptians during the past year to journalists, students, tourists, businesspersons, and others.
The US consulate in Cairo is reopening until 22 November the diversity visa lottery programme for 2019, following a technical error in the registration programme caused by failure to observe the country of eligibility correctly, according to Vickers. She noted that the technical error did not result from any outside interference or attempted piracy.
During a round-table meeting held at the embassy, Vickers said that the technical problems hinder estimating the number of eligible applications, which prompted the embassy to change the period to protect integrity and fairness.
She noted that all applications have to submit their applications again starting from 18 October to 22 November, as applications before that period will be dismissed.
The Diversity Visa Programme was approved by Congress in 1990 and adopted across the world. Visas are granted by a random lottery system for those wishing to immigrate to America.
The US Department of State has received 14 million applications in the 2018 programme.
The random selection of applications for the 2019 Diversity Visa Programme is scheduled to begin on 15 May 2018. Applications are only accepted via the official website of the US State Department. Winners of the lottery are chosen randomly and do not need to pay any fees for application.
Candidates for this programme must have a university degree or a profession that required at least two years of training during the past five years.
