Dozens Mistakenly Told They'd Won US Visa Sue Government
MIAMI (CBS4) -- Dozens of people who were mistakenly told they'd won a spot to apply for a U.S. visa through the annual visa lottery system are suing the U.S. government.
French native Armande Gil is a psychologist in Miami who is among those seeking class action status in a federal lawsuit filed last week in Washington. Gil said Tuesday she spent time and money preparing for her new life and was devastated to learn it was just a bureaucratic snafu. She and others want to be reinstated as lottery winners.
Roughly 22,000 individuals were told in May they'd been selected though they would still have to pass background checks. Then immigration officials discovered the supposedly random selection was skewed due to a computer glitch. A new lottery is set for July.
(© 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
