US Greencard Through Diversity Lotto

Raelyn Hot Magenta wrote: »

Struth, there was less than 20 cards awarded for DV-2020 for either NI & ROI, chances are getting very slim these days.
Meanwhile Albania managed over 3,000.

An Irish person has the same chance of winning as an Albanian, it's just that a lot more Albanian's apply.

BaronVon wrote: »

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/diversity-visa-program-entry.html

Thank You!

I am considering applying for this but have apprehensions due to an old conviction that resulted from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The conviction is 20 years old and is my only conviction, it was for criminal damage to a phone box.

The back story to the conviction is as follows. Myself at 18 and another friend of the same age where making our way to a pub, on the way my mate decided he would use a public phone box on the street to call his then girlfriend, they had an argument on the phone and she hung up on him, at this point he slapped the telephone onto the holder 2 or 3 times, not realising that a pair of Gardai were sitting in a Garda car looking at him.

The Gardai then stuck on their lights and began to drive towards the phone box at which point my friend left the phone box and decided to run away. I stood there about 5 meters from the phone box and laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. The gardai ran up to me, grabbed me, called me a scum bag and threw me into the back of the Garda car and began to drive after my friend with me in the back of the car, they inevitably caught him and brought us back to the Garda station where they slapped us about then charged us with criminal damage, alleging that we smashed up the phone box and broke the windows the truth is the windows were smashed before my friend used the phone box, it was in a dodgy area.

Anyway, we went to court, our solicitor advised us to plead not guilty and the two of us being totally clueless 18 year old's did as he advised and ended up with a conviction and a fine of about £400. I'm not sure of the details of the conviction such as if it was under the probation act as by the time the court date came about I was in the Defence Forces and was brought to and from the court by my commanding officer and didn't have time to get an update from the solicitor before being brought back to barracks.

I know it's not crime of the century and it was a very long time ago but I'm trying to figure out if I would be wasting my time applying for the diversity visa lottery due to this conviction or has anyone heard of people being successful in similar circumstances?

I have a degree from a good Irish University so I would meet the educational requirements but having this hanging over my head is my only worry.

Apologies for the rant, I just felt it important to detail the facts of the situation and background.

él statutorio wrote: »

You'd probably need to speak with a solicitor.

There may be some possibility to have it expunged after this length of time. Depending on what the conviction was, it might be classed as a misdemeanor rather than a crime and might not be relevant.

But I'm only speculating, you really need to have a chat with a solicitor to be certain.

For US immigration purposes, crimes are never considered spent (such a provision doesn't exist in US law). The poster would need to apply for a visa waiver, I think it was so long ago and so minor that it shouldn't be a bar to entry, will probably just add a few months onto processing time in order to get the waiver.

Dadzilla wrote: »

Random question regarding the lottery and I don’t think it has been already asked. I’m a frequent traveller to the US for work and pleasure. If I apply for the DV will it have an impact on US visits in the interim? In other words are immigration likely stop me or see my regular trips as an issue?

Similar if I apply and I don’t succeed, will this cause an issue for future trips?

No and no. Though if you are travelling to US for work already (presumably to visit head office) then why not ask for transfer and L1?

Any success in here? Got my first PFO

Think I forgot to apply last year. can't find anything on the laptop