For the third year running, the number of registered applications from Latvia for U.S. immigrant visas has decreased, according to the latest results of the diversity visa lottery announced by the U.S. Department of State.
A total of 75 applicants from Latvia have been registered for the 2007 U.S. diversity visa lottery and may now apply for permanent residency, the department announced July 18. They are among about 82,000 applicants—from a total of 5.5 million entries—who have been notified they may apply for permanent residency.
Only 50,000 of the applicants will receive immigrant visas.
Last year, 97 applications from Latvia were registered for the 2006 lottery. Applicants for the 2005 lottery numbered 158, compared to 172 for the 2004 lottery.
Applications for the 2007 lottery were accepted from Oct. 5-Dec. 4.
A total of 40 applications were registered from Estonia, the State Department said, while 298 were registered from Lithuania.
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The reason for decline in requests for visas is the fact that the US Embassy in Riga is rejecting the requests.
My relatives only wanted to come visit for two weeks and their visa requests were rejected for no good reason. They can’t afford to keep applying and paying the fee. If quotas are in place, it would make sense to put this year’s applicants on the list for next year. Ellie
The reason might be because the US Gov doesn’t like the Latvian Banking system and is using this tactic as a strong-arm solution. The Latvian Banks are really great about anonymity of their clients(which I support) and that p1ss3s of the NSA, IRS and Treasury Dept. They want to track all the money in the world to find tax havens and suedo terrorists. A lot of Caribbean Tax Shelters use Latvian Banks. Hence, the animosity of the US Gov. Not to mention the USA is more interested in r@ping and secluding it’s own people rather than living in a harmonious relationship with the world.