After the recent terrorist attack, the number could get even lower.
US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, after the terrorist attack in New York, that he would end the diversity program through which the Uzbek immigrant who committed the attack had entered the United States, reports tportal.hr on November 3, 2017.
The attacker received a visa through the annual green card lottery program called “U.S. Diversity Immigrant Visa Program”. The United States Embassy in Croatia also takes part in the program. The statistics show some interesting facts regarding the number of Croatian citizens who have been granted a green card to stay and work in the United States in the last few years.
According to publicly available data from the US government, the highest number of Croatian citizens received a permanent US visa through the lottery program in 2014, while the smallest number was recorded in 2008.
In 2014, 41 persons with Croatian citizenship received a green card through the lottery, while in 2008 just 18 won the right to stay permanently in the United States. Last year, 22 visas were issued to Croatian citizens through the lottery.
The “diversity visa” lottery program allows the winners to receive a green card and the status of permanent resident in the United States, which means they can stay and work in the country. Therefore, it is of interest even to nationals of countries who can otherwise travel as tourists to the United States without a visa.
For example, Denmark, which is relatively close to Croatia by the number of inhabitants, has similar figures ranging from 12 to a maximum of 34 US permanent visas issued annually to citizens of the country in the last ten years.
On the other hand, Bulgarians apparently have much more luck than either Croats or Danes. In the last ten years, they have received substantially more visas, ranging from 456 in 2012 to as many as 1,328 in 2007.
Uzbekistan, the country from which terrorist Sayfullo Saipov, who killed eight people in New York, originally came, receives up to several thousand visas per year through the lottery system.
The United States government issues between 35,000 to 50,000 green cards for a permanent stay in the country each year. Last year, more than 46,000 people received the right to live there permanently. Given the latest announcements by President Trump, it is likely that the number of visas issued to Croats and other foreigners will get substantially lower.
Translated from tportal.hr.
