This archive report was first published on 4 July 2020.
On July 4, 2020, the White House announced that President Trump had extended a ban on many green cards issued outside the US to the end of the year, citing the need to free up jobs for American citizens in the wake of the economic turmoil created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ban, which affects some 170,000 green card winners, has dealt a significant blow to many Diversity Visa Lottery winners, including Noha, an Egyptian engineer who was among the 55,000 DV-2020 entrants who received a chance to live permanently in the US.
Noha and her family had been preparing to move to the US, but their plans were dashed when the ban was extended. Her husband, Ahmed, is still waiting for his visa, and the family fears it may never come.
"All my plans were collapsed in an instant. I felt that all what we have achieved went for nothing," Noha told the Associated Press.
The vetting process, which cost Noha's family about $10,000, has been put on hold, and many winners are facing a difficult decision: to go alone to the US or remain in their home country with their families.
According to Simon Paul, a diversity visa recipient who runs a blog helping other immigrants, only about 13,000 of the roughly 55,000 lottery visas have been issued so far this year, and even those who obtained a visa are experiencing difficulties in traveling to the US due to the Covid-19 travel restrictions.
