How to Enter the USA Green Card Lottery

The Diversity Visa Program, or “Green Card Lottery,” is an annual lottery run by the U.S.

Department of State to allow about 50,000 people a chance to get a permanent resident visa to the USA. The visas provided under this program are reserved for natives of countries that have a traditionally low rate of immigration to the U.S.

The application period for each year’s lottery is only about one month long, and there is very little opportunity to correct mistakes made when submitting documents – in fact, you can be disqualified for not filing the forms correctly.^[1] Therefore, it is very important to fill out your forms correctly and quickly. Here is how to apply for the Green Card Lottery.

Part1

Determine Eligibility

1. 
   

   
   1
   Consider if you want temporary or permanent admission into the United States.The Green Card Lottery is only for people who want to become permanent residents of the U.S. If you only want to stay in the U.S. temporarily – for example, for a vacation, to visit relatives, or for business -- the Green Card Lottery isn’t for you. Instead, you may need a temporary visa for nonimmigrant stay^[2] or, if you are from an eligible country, you may qualify for the visa waiver program^[3]. Citizens of Canada and Bermuda, subject to certain restrictions, don’t need a visa for a temporary visit the U.S.^[4]
2. 
   

   
   2
   Consider whether you qualify for another form of immigrant visa. If you have a sponsor, such as a family member or employer, or you are eligible for a Special Immigrant Visa, there may be other visa options available to you that aren’t subject to a random drawing. Information about these options are available from the State Department website, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas.html. However, you can apply for the lottery even if you are registered for an immigrant visa in another category, as long as you meet the lottery’s eligibility requirements. Therefore, even if you do qualify for another type of visa, you may want to also apply for the lottery.
3. 
   

   
   3
   Determine whether you are from an eligible country. Each year the State Department determines which countries are eligible based on which countries have had low immigration rates to the U.S. for the previous five years. People who cannot claim to be from an eligible country cannot participate in the lottery. The lottery instructions provide a complete list of eligible and ineligible countries by region. ^[5] There are three ways to claim that you are from an eligible country:
   

   • If you were born in an eligible country
   • If your spouse was born in an eligible country, as long as both of you are named on the selected entry, are issued diversity visas, and enter the United States at the same time
   • If at least one of your parents was born in an eligible country, as long as neither of your parents were born in your country and neither of your parents were legal residents of that country at the time of your birth (for example, they were there temporarily there on vacation, business, to study, etc.).
4. 
   

   
   4
   Determine whether you meet the education/work experience requirement. To be eligible to apply for the lottery, you must meet one of two education/work requirements.^[6] You must either:
   

   • Have a high school education or its equivalent. This means that you must have successfully completed a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education or

   
   

   • Have worked for two years within the past five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform. This is determined through O*Net, a database found on the U.S. Department of Labor website, http://www.onetonline.org.
5. 
   

   
   5
   Determine if any factors make you inadmissible. The lottery is not a way of getting around the general admissibility requirements for permanent residency. If your application is selected during the lottery, factors that would bar your admission to the U.S., such as criminal activity, will still apply.^[7]

Part2

Assemble and Submit the Documentation

1. 
   

   
   1
   Beware of scams. Be careful not to fall prey to scams involving the application process.
   

   • Some applicants have received emails or letters requesting money in connection with the application.^[8] The Department of State does not give information to applicants via e-mail or regular mail, and there is no application fee for the lottery.
   • The Department recommends that applicants not use a consultant or agent to help them file their application. If an applicant does have someone else prepare and submit the application, the applicant should be present for the preparation and submission and retain the confirmation notice with the unique confirmation number.^[9]
2. 
   

   
   2
   Don't be confused by the dates. The years referred to for the lottery can be confusing, so take a few minutes to understand what they mean. For example, the 2013 application period was from October 1, 2013 through November 2, 2013. The 2013 application period marked the beginning of what is referred to as the 2015 Diversity Immigration Visa Program (DV-2015). It is called the 2015 program because successful applicants will receive their visas during the 2015 fiscal year, which runs from October 1, 2014 – September 30, 2015.
3. 
   

   
   3
   Gather everything you need. Make sure you gather all the information you will need to fill out the application, and a digital photo for each person who will be included in your application (yourself, spouse, children), before you begin filling out the application. Once you open the application form, you will only have 60 minutes to complete and submit it. You cannot save or download the form for later submission. If you don’t complete the form in 60 minutes, you will have to start over. You will need to know the following information^[10]:
   

   • Your name, exactly as on your passport
   • Your birth date
   • Your gender
   • The city where you were born
   • The country where you were born (as the country where your birth city is located is called today)
   • The country you can claim for eligibility for the program
   • Your mailing address
   • The country where you live today
   • Your phone number (optional)
   • Your e-mail address – make sure this is an e-mail address you have direct access to

• The highest level of education you have achieved, as of the day you are filling out the application
• Your current marital status -- provide the name, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth, and country of birth of your spouse. Visa applications based on a same-sex marriage are now treated the same way as opposite-gender spouses, if the marriage took place in a jurisdiction where such marriages are legal.
• Information regarding your children – name, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth, and country of birth for all living unmarried children under 21 years old, regardless of whether they are living with you or intend to accompany or follow to join you should you immigrate to the United States. Your children include all living natural children, children legally adopted by you, and step-children who are unmarried and under the age of 21 on the date of your electronic entry, even if you are no longer legally married to the child’s parent, and even if the child does not currently reside with you and/or will not immigrate with you.

4

Collect photos. You must provide a recent photograph of yourself, your spouse, and all children listed on your entry. You do not need to include a photograph for a spouse or child who is already a U.S. citizen or a Lawful Permanent Resident, but you will not be penalized if you do. You must submit a photograph for each individual – group photos are not permitted. If the photos were not taken with a digital camera, you can scan the non-digital photos into your computer or have someone else scan them and email the image to you.

5

Validate photos. Go to the lottery website, https://www.dvlottery.state.gov, and click on the “Photo Validator” link to make sure the photos you are submitting meet the program’s requirements.

REVEAL THE SECRETS BEHIND FAMOUS MAGIC TRICKS

Magic is the alleged ability to manipulate supernatural forces. More specifically, stage magic is the art of making things happen that appear to be impossible. 

It is an ancient art, used over the centuries for both entertainment and deceit, and knowledge of magical techniques figures heavily in the modern skeptical community as a means of detecting fraud amongst those who claim paranormal powers or phenomena.

Rational Wiki notes that several of the best-known skeptical authors, including Martin Gardner, James Randi, and Penn & Teller are trained magicians, as is debunker Derren Brown. Skeptical magicians have been critical to exposing the bad behavior of alleged psychics and faith healers; Randi’s two biggest trophies are Uri Geller and Peter Popoff. Randi’s team has, at various times, convinced serious and well-regarded scientists that they are psychic or possess other paranormal powers, while simply using the tricks of a magician. These men, among others, believe that while scientists are generally logical folk, they do not necessarily understand the trickery used by magicians, and can therefore be still fooled by it.

Let’s take a look at a few famous magic tricks and see how they work.

How to Bend a Spoon

To successfully perform this trick, you first need to hide a small silver coin in the palm of your hand.

When you’re ready to ’’bend’’ the spoon, hold the coin in such a way that only the tip of it is visible.

Place the coin on top of the spoon’s handle so that it will look as though you are simply holding the spoon.

Press the oval end of the spoon against the table and try to make an impression of putting a lot of effort into ’’bending’’ the spoon. As you’re doing this, let the handle drop from the back of your hand.

Since the tip of the coin will still be showing, it will look like the spoon is actually starting to bend!

How to Cut a Person In Half

This trick starts with a woman climbing into a box. After some song and dance, the magician starts to saw/cut the woman in half. What is this sorcery? How could she survive such an ordeal!?

Here’s the trick: there’s more than one woman.

Often, the chamber that they sit in is deep, but the audience can’t see this. This provides both women with room. Sometimes, the magician asks the assistant to wiggle their feet after the cut has already taken place to further enhance the illusion.

How Indian Yogis (Street Performers) Levitate

If you’ve had the opportunity to travel around the world, then at some point you may have encountered “levitating” street performers. The “floating man illusion” is usually set up with one or two people. In both cases, it’s made to look like the performer is floating in mid-air, supporting his or her entire body weight with strength of their hand…

In the one-man version, the mystic will appear to float above a carpet or small garden in the sitting position while holding the top of a rod with his hand. To the onlooker, he’ll have the strength to do this for hours on end…

Indian yogis claim to have mastered the powers of this “levitation”. In reality, they’ve simply managed to trick unsuspecting bystanders by employing fundamental design principles and little bit of physics.

In short, the floating man illusion is accomplished via the strategic placement of steel rods and plates. And though the performers appear to be defying the laws of physics, the structure is remarkably stable and contains only three parts; 1) the seat, 2) the shaft, and 3) the plate.

Of course, there’s always a rug or garden to cover up the plate, and the street performer would also require long sleeves or baggy clothing to help hide the shaft.

Here’s some variations of the same trick, which work in similar ways:

How the Floating Woman Trick Works

The trick begins with an assistant laying on a table in front of the magician. The audience is amazed when the magician suddenly removes the table and assistant appears to levitate. The magician will then pull a hoop over the assistant to “prove” there are no devices or strings attached.

There are a few tricks of the trade the magician uses to pull off this crowd favorite.

The woman involved in the trick usually wears a long flowing dress that covers up – you guessed it — a mechanical levitation device hooked onto the magician. It’s up to the magician to distract the audience so they don’t clue into the existence of the device…

That’s where the hula hoop comes in.

To convince the crowd that nothing is attached to the woman, the magician moves a large hula hoop along the length of the woman. The location where the lift device attaches to the magician allows for the ring to pass smoothly over her body

Facebook security breach allowed hackers to control the accounts of up to 50 million users

An attack on Facebook discovered earlier this week exposed information on nearly 50 million of the social network’s users, 

The attackers exploited a feature called “View as” that lets users see their Facebook page the way someone else would. They could then potentially use it to take over the accounts and use them exactly as if they were the account holders.

Facebook said it does not know who the attackers were or where they were based. It also said it has already fixed the issue and informed the FBI and other law enforcement. It has also informed the Irish Data Protection Authority about the breach, a step required by Europe’s GDPR regulations.

More than 90 million users were forced to log out of their accounts on Friday for security reasons. Users do not need to take any additional security precautions or reset their passwords, said Facebook. All logged out users will receive a notification about the issue from Facebook.

The company says it does not know if the affected accounts were misused in any way or if any user information was actually accessed. It has turned off the “View As” feature that the attackers exploited while it investigates.

Facebook says the vulnerability is the result of three distinct bugs, and originally appeared in July 2017 when the company made a change to a video uploading feature. The company first detected some unusual activity — a spike in user access to the site — on September 16, 2018. It launched an investigation and uncovered this attack on Tuesday of this week. On Wednesday it notified law enforcement and on Thursday evening it fixed the vulnerability and began resetting login tokens.

The attackers stole Facebook “access tokens” which keep a person logged into their Facebook account over long periods of time so they don’t have to keep signing in. Facebook reset all 50 million, as well as tokens for an additional 40 million people who had used the feature in the past year as a “precautionary step.”

“The reality here is we face constant attacks from people who want to take over accounts or steal information…. we need to do more to prevent this from happening in the first place,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a call with reporters shortly after the announcement.

The announcement is the latest issue for the company, which has struggled with security breaches, privacy issues and misinformation in recent years. Facebook says it is investing heavily in security going forward, and increasing the number of people working on security from 10,000 to 20,000.

“Security is an arms race and we’re continuing to improve our defenses,” said Zuckerberg.

This baby chimp eating your papaya will fill you with sweetness just by watching it

With his big, round eyes, this baby chimpanzee has melted thousands of hearts around the world while eating a papaya.

The four-month-old ape can be seen in the video enjoying the sweet and juicy papaya alone as the camera records him eating.

The heartwarming video quickly made rounds on the internet after it was shared by user Tara Hoda on Facebook on September 10.

Tara Hoda took the advantage of the video to share what the baby chimpanzee has gone through at such a tender age.

Behind the round eyes and naive facial expression, the baby chimpanzee is actually one of the many wild animals who are lucky to be rescued by the chimpanzee sanctuary

Those primates who are not lucky enough to get to the sanctuary usually have their lives ended at the hand of illegal poachers or die during illegal pet trades.

The critically endangered species have dramatically decreased in population since the last twenty years.

To give a new hope and to conserve the chimpanzee population, a sanctuary was built in  Côte d’Ivoire to house the chimpanzees who are rescued from the illegal poachers, like this baby chimpanzee

Tara Hoda hopes that this video of baby chimpanzee will touch many hearts as well as to raise awareness about the welfare of this endangered species.

Watch this adorable baby chimpanzee eating a papaya in this video here

Woman runs hospice for abandoned dying dogs to give them the end of life they deserve

A woman from Mansfield has set up a hospice which treats pups who have less than six months to live.

Imagine being a dog, abandoned in the twilight years of your life, and left to die in the pound.

Heartbreaking, isn’t it?

Dog lover Nicola Coyle thinks so, which is why she set up The Grey Muzzle Canine Hospice Project – a hospice for dying, abandoned dogs.

46-year-old Nicola runs the hospice from her home and gives dogs the end of life they deserve by looking after them and helping them complete their bucket lists.

She takes in dogs from pounds and animal shelters, rescuing dogs who would otherwise be left to die there, or put down.

The retired nurse takes up to two dogs at a time, welcoming dogs who have six months or less to live.

Eating ice cream on the beach (Picture: SWNS)

Instead of living their final days locked away, dogs are treated to birthday parties, ice creams on the beach, steak pub dinners, and unlimited cuddles.

She even takes them through the McDonald’s drive-thru.

When the dogs’ final day comes, Nadine has them cremated and buries them in a special plot at her Nottingham home.

Eating ice cream in the park(Picture: SWNS)

Each dog has a different story, but Nicole thinks most of the dying dogs are abandoned by owners unwilling to pay for expensive vets bills or are ‘working dogs’ no longer considered useful.

One charity she regularly helps said they ‘couldn’t be more grateful’ to Nicola who has given some of their most desperate pets ‘love and care like they have never received’.

Eating ice cream on the road (Picture: SWNS)

‘It can be an utterly heartbreaking job, but someone has to do it,’ says Nicola.

‘I’m a complete animal lover and I just can’t bear the thought of them spending their final days, weeks or months without the love they deserve.

‘It can be really tough, but ultimately it’s so rewarding when you can make those times special.

‘I normally have a maximum of two dogs at any one time.

‘We’ll only take them in if the vet says they’ve got less than six months to live, so we’re focusing on end of life care.

‘I think the longest I’ve had one is around one year and the shortest was about two weeks.

‘I don’t know when their birthdays are so we make sure we throw all of them birthday party. If they’re well enough, we take them for a day at the seaside, they get fish and chips on the beach and ice cream.

‘We’ll also take them down to the local pub, it’s really dog friendly, and they’ll get a steak dinner too.’

Getting to ride in a police van (Picture: SWNS)

Nadine spends up to £500 on each dog, and pays for that with her own money, and cash raised through fundraising.

She’s been running the hospice out of her home for years, but only gave it an official name a year ago after caring for one of her favourites, Dougie the bulldog.

‘Dougie was found tied up outside a vet surgery one morning, and only given weeks to live after they found he had lymphoma.

‘He had the best temperament and just wanted to feel loved and safe,’ she says.

‘He was really poorly and not with us for long, but the difference I saw in him once he came with us from the pound, in just a matter of days, was incredible.

‘He was a totally different dog.

‘Dougie was about a year ago and that’s when I decided I didn’t want to see any more dogs go through that. I really believe they should get a nice ending.’

Living his best life at the Macca’s drive thru (Picture: SWNS)

Nicola asks the local vets, charities and pounds in the Sheffield and Nottingham area if they have any dying dogs that need end of life care.

Most are taken from places where they will be put to sleep if they are not re-homed within seven days.

Take Bumble, for example – a German Shepherd who was found as a stray, struggling to walk, with matted fur and an extremely painful back, in December 2017.

He was taken to Helping Yorkshire Poundies, a rescue and re-homing charity for abandoned dogs, but was extremely distressed and about to be put down when Nicola stepped in.

She threw him a birthday party and took him to the beach, before he passed away six weeks later.

Dogs are given love and cuddles that they may not otherwise receive in their end days (Picture: SWNS)

‘Bumble spent last weeks being spoilt in a comfortable home, and I couldn’t be more grateful,’ says Joanne Snaith, from Helping Yorkshire Poundies.

‘Nicola does an amazing job, taking in dogs when they’ve been kicked out by their owners right at the very end of their lives – giving them the love and care most have never received previously in their lives.

‘I absolutely admire the work of The Grey Muzzle Project.

‘Rescue is a very difficult “business to be in – it’s never ending hard work, and it’s heart breaking, but the majority of the time there’s a happy ending when the dogs find their new homes.

‘But for Nicola, she has to put herself through the emotional wringer with every dog, I can’t imagine how difficult that is.’