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US Dept. of State has issued following notification:
We regret to inform you that, due to a computer programming problem, the results of the 2012 Diversity Lottery that were previously posted on this website have been voided. They were not valid and were posted in error. The results were not valid because they did not represent a fair, random selection of entrants, as required by U.S. law.

If you checked this website during the first week in May and found a notice that you had been selected for further processing or a notice that you had not been selected, that notice has been rescinded and is no longer valid.

A new selection process will be conducted based on the original entries for the 2012 program.

If you submitted a qualified entry from October 5, 2010 to November 3, 2010, your entry remains with us. It will be included in the new selection lottery. Your confirmation number to check results on this website is still valid.

We expect the results of the new selection process to be available on this website on or about July 15, 2011. We regret any inconvenience this might have caused.

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The number of visitors to Russia from European countries fell by up to 24 percent in the first quarter as tour operators blamed visa costs and red tape, an industry union said. It has fallen noticeably.

The number of tourists from neighboring Finland – recently linked to Saint Petersburg by high-speed train – fell by 24 percent in the first quarter, year on year, the union said, citing official statistics.

The numbers of German visitors fell by 10 percent in the same period and French and Spanish by 14 percent.

However the total number of tourists to Russia, which includes large groups such as the Chinese, rose by five percent.

The tour operators’ union said almost all the international tour operators it questioned blamed falling European visitor numbers on “the high cost of tourist visas and the complexity of the visa process for foreigners.”
In Spain, the introduction of visa centers to process applications has seen the cost of a tourist visa rise by 30 percent and the time taken from a maximum of 10 days to 21 days, it said.

People wishing to travel to Russia have to acquire an invitation from a hotel, an organization or a personal friend. Once in Russia, they are required to register with local police.

Russia has insistently called on the European Union to lift visa restrictions on its citizens and President Dmitry Medvedev recently hailed preliminary concessions at a Russia-EU summit.

While Russians can obtain long-term multi-entry tourist visas to Europe, Russia offers only single or double entry tourist visas that cannot stretch beyond booked travel dates.

Citing statistics that any simplification of visa rules increases tourism by up to 30 percent, the tourism union deputy president Yury Barzykin called for the Russian government to ensure its strategy was a “two-way street.”

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The Government of Rwanda has introduced a New Immigration Law No O4/2011 of 21/03/2011 and its implementing ministerial orders on regulation and fees published on Official Gazette No 24 of 13 June 2011. The New Law comes to implement the National Migration Policy aimed at attracting skilled workers, promoting investment, tourism and enhance national security.

The Law has also been harmonized with EAC Protocol on Free movement of people, labor and services as a requirement of the EAC partner states. The law provides that Citizens of East African Community partner states shall have the right to visit Rwanda for a period of up to six months without visa. They will be issued with a specific visitors pass by simple endorsement in their valid travel document.

In order to facilitate movements of Rwandans, new travel documents have been introduced in addition to the existing ones such as a collective Laissez-Passer issued to people traveling as a group mainly for social activities.

This collective Laissez-Passer will facilitate Rwandans traveling as a group and shall cost 10.000frw for ten people instead of 3000frw for individual application.

The law also has introduced a travel document for Border communities known as border pass. This travel document shall be issued free of charge and will facilitate cross border activities. Likewise, Rwandans intending to travel in emergency situations may also be issued with an emergency travel document which shall be issued free of charge.

A new CEPGL travel document has been re-introduced for Rwandans and foreigners residing in Rwanda while traveling within CEPGL member states. The issuance of CEPGL documents comes after being harmonization with CEPGL member states.

Furthermore the law gives the right for an individual to hold more than one passport after presenting clear justification. This is in case a person intending to travel while his/her passport is still in visa processes may apply for an additional passport.

The New law has introduced different classes of Visas and residence Permits to cater for different purposes of visiting, working, or residing in Rwanda. Each category of visa or permit shall have a corresponding fee. The repealed Immigration law had only five categories of visas which made it difficult to manage entry and stay of foreigners.

In this new immigration regulation, the duration of an entry visa has been extended from 15 up to 30 days with multiple entries. This will facilitate visitors of Rwanda to visit other countries within the region contrary using the Single entry visa.

A specific visitor’s pass was also introduced for EAC nationals for a period of up to 6 months. Tourist visa is defined in accordance with the Rwanda tourism policy where all visitors who enter the country and stay for less than a year are considered as tourists.

It is in this regard, that there are 11 classes of tourist visas among them being group tourist visa for tourists coming as a group, conference visa for facilitating visitors coming for conferences, job search visa for skilled people seeking employment in Rwanda, business visa for business persons searching for business opportunities, Itinerant business person visa for business persons with established business in Rwanda but do not reside, medical treatment visa for foreigners seeking medical treatment and Bridging visa which intends to help people.

Generally, the duration of tourist visas shall range from 3 months up to 2 years.

In promotion of e-governance, many visas shall be applied online at www.migration.gov.rw, but also Rwanda diplomatic mission or at the Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration.

In an effort to facilitate foreigners wishing to work or reside in Rwanda, a work and resident permits have been combined. A person who will have acquired a resident permit will subsequently have a right to reside and work. Permits are divided into temporary resident permits and permanent resident permits. Temporary resident permits allow holders to reside in Rwanda for a specified period while permanent resident permit allows holders to reside for unspecified period.

Investors who invest in sectors such as agriculture and animal husbandry, ICT, hospitality industry, mining, manufacturing and other sectors shall be issued with 3 years temporary resident permit as an incentive.

This also applies for entrepreneurs investing in rural developments. Other Entrepreneurs shall be issued with 2 years temporary resident permit instead of 1 year as it was provided by the old law. All this was done as a way ofeasing doing business in Rwanda.

In aneffort to attract skilled workers as stated in the national migration policy, professionals whose qualification are listed on Occupation in Demand List (ODL) shall be eligible to a 3 years temporary resident permit.

Other employees shall get two years permit instead of one year as it used to be. The law has also catered for non-skilled workers permit. In order to facilitate cross border activities, Foreigners residing in Rwanda within the border area but working or doing business in the neighboring countries shall be issued Frontier pass. The same pass shall be issued to Foreigners residing within border area in one of the neighboring country who works or does business in Rwanda.

Students’ permit has been introduced to cater for foreigner students in Rwanda for study purposes and its fee has been reduced to 10,000 Frw. Similarly, a holiday’s workers permit has also been introduced to facilitate students and other people wishing to work during their holidays. A permit for a retired person with assured income has also been introduced to facilitate people who wish to have their retirements in Rwanda.

A temporary resident permit holder who has lawfully stayed in Rwanda for a period of 5 years shall be eligible to a permanent resident permit. Dependants and Spouses of a temporary resident permit holder shall be allowed to work and their permits shall cost a half fee of the principal applicant contrary to the existing practice. Foreigner ID card has also been catered for and shall be used as a resident card. In this regard, the card shall facilitate a foreigner who resides in Rwanda to acquire a Rwanda driving license.

Furthermore, People of Rwandan origin leaving in Diaspora but have lost their Rwandan citizenship due to acquisition of other nationalities but can not get dual citizenship may be eligible to permanent residence as a way of facilitating them to establish themselves in Rwanda.

In order to achieve its objectives the DG I&E officers have been given by the law the powers to investigate crimes related to Immigration and shall take the lead in the management of Rwandan borders.

The law has set penalties to those who shall not follow the existing immigration procedures. For effective management of immigrants, the law has established the obligations for foreigners and stakeholders such as employers, institutions of learning, hotels, and travel/transport agencies.

Generally, travel documents fees have not been changed, however new travel documents have been introduced to facilitate movement of Rwandans such as a Border pass which shall be issued free of charge, a collective laisser passer for Rwandans traveling as a group of ten people at reasonable fee of 10.000Frw and an emergency travel documents shall be issued free of charge to Rwandans.

Though the fee for the current laisser passer remains the same, there is an ongoing project for a new secure machine readable laisser passer which shall be in a booklet form and shall have a different fee.

A Diplomatic passport shall also be issued for the fee of 50,000 Frwas ordinary passport; however there will be a penalty for lost passport. The entry visa fee has been reduced from 60USD to 30 USD as a way of promoting tourist as early indicated there is a provision for multiple entry visa which shall be issued at a fee of 60 USD.

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In a major relief to Sri Lankans traveller, the Indian High Commission said recently that Lankans who apply for a visa to travel to India on a particular day, will receive it the next day, if it happens to be a working day. If a person submits a visa application form to the Indian High Commission, the visa will be issued on the next working day.

“Earlier, there was a delay in issuing visas due to the war situation in the country. Since there is no security threat, the Indian High Commission has taken a decision to accelerate the process of issuing visas,” sources said. Visa applicants were earlier referred to New Delhi and once the green light was given from New Delhi, visa was issued by the Colombo office.

A senior official of the Indian High Commission said that considering the normality in the country, the Indian government has relaxed rules on issuing visas to Sri Lankan applicants. He said that if the situation improves further, issuing of visas will be carried out over the counter.

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Albania has signed a visa-waiver agreement with Taiwan, becoming the 115th country to do so, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced Friday in a press statement.

Effective immediately, Taiwanese passport holders visiting the European country for less than 90 days will not need apply for tourist visas, making travel more convenient for the local population, said MOFA spokesman James Chang. Asked how many Taiwanese people actually visited Albania last year, Chang said only: “Not many.”
Albania is the 115th country or territory to grant visa-free access or landing visa privileges to Taiwanese citizens, according to MOFA.

According to Chang, the agreement is significant for Taiwan because Albania used to have a “very close relationship” with China. Albania has proposed several times to exclude Taiwan from the United Nations and has maintained a friendly relationship with China for a long time.

Taiwan lost its U.N. membership in 1971 and has since been unsuccessful in its attempts to rejoin the international body.

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Germany hopes to attract doctors and mechanical and electrical engineers from abroad by scrapping restrictions that made it more difficult for them to find work.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government agreed recently to change immigration laws so that German companies can more easily hire engineers and doctors from abroad. Currently foreigners can only land a job if it pays more than euro66,000 ($95,000) annually, or the company can prove there are no qualified German or European Union citizens.

Experts say Germany is not turning out enough graduates and could face a shortage of 6.5 million qualified professionals by 2025. The proposed changes are part of a package aimed at increasing Germany’s skilled labor force.

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Tourists will have to wait a little longer to visit the East African Community (EAC) using a single visa since partner states have not put all the requirements in place. According to the Minister of East African Community Affairs, Monique Mukaruliza, some member states, are yet to set up necessary infrastructure to facilitate tourists who intend to visit the five-member bloc to utilize the EAC tourist visa system.

“The process to have a single tourist visa is underway and regional immigration chiefs are working on it. So far, what has been agreed upon is to speed up the process. We have to implement the foreign policy coordination by July 1, and issuing the single visa will be part of this policy,” Mukaruliza said.

She added that Rwanda is ready but cannot go it alone. We have to ensure that other countries are ready to move together on this project. We have enough IT equipment but we have to wait for other countries to acquire them as well. According to Mukaruliza, countries also need to put in place the legal framework that will facilitate the initiative.

The single EAC visa system, if enacted, is expected to allow people to use one visa to enter any of the countries in the region without any hindrance. The move to have the single EAC visa followed an appeal by tourism boards of partner states requesting for a common visa to accelerate promotion of the region as a single tourist destination.

“Currently, we are at a level of assessing how partner States are ready to implement the single tourist visa but we need to have the required equipment that will allow partner States to exchange security data to ensure there are no fake visas,” Mukaruliza said.

She, however, noted that beating the July 1 deadline is impossible, adding that the EAC Secretariat had conducted a study on how ready the partner States were and what was missing to initiate the visa. The minister said that there is no deadline set yet but all countries are keen on speeding up the process.

Tourism is a vital sector for the East African trading bloc and, as a key foreign exchange earners, has contributed immensely to the development of the region. The head of Tourism and Conservation at RDB, Rica Rwigamba, and the single entry visa into EAC would enable tourists access the entire region easily.

“The visa will attract people who are already visiting in the region to easily move to other countries,” said Rwigamba. She added that Rwanda is currently at the forefront of promoting the single tourist visa. Rwanda collected about $ 200 million as tourism revenues last year.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced Thursday that beginning July 1, all first-time passport applicants, regardless of age, will be required to complete their applications in person at designated MOFA offices.

The policy, now in a trial stage, was introduced to prevent fraud and lift Taiwan’s passport security credentials in the international society, said Thomas Chen, director-general of the ministry’s Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA).

Passport applicants who are unable to apply in person at one of the four MOFA offices in Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, or Hualien can confirm their identity at their household registration office before having a travel agent handle their applications, he said.

In such cases, applicants under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult relative since citizens of that age do not yet have national identity (ID) cards, he said. He added, applicants who qualify for an ID card should obtain one before applying for a passport.

The identity confirmation process at the household registration offices should take less than 10 minutes, Chen said. The procedure includes filling out a form, confirming the identity of the applicant and matching photograph, and scanning documents.

In the trial period for the procedure, which began in March, 2,566 applicants went to household registration offices for identity confirmation, according to BOCA statistics.

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Reflecting the importance of the United States’ diplomatic relationship with the Pacific Islands Countries, Ambassador C. Steven McGann dedicated the new United States Embassy facility in Suva, Fiji today. Fiji’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Mr. Solo Mara and Office Director of the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), Donald Schenck attended the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The new Embassy facility was designed to incorporate green building techniques and to meet the principles of the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) green building rating system. The multi-building complex provides more than 150 U.S. embassy employees, both American and Fijian, with over 7,500 square meters of working space.

The new facility features a collection of 30 original works of art by artists from the United States and the Embassy’s countries of accreditation: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Tuvalu, all inspired by the natural beauty of the South Pacific. The collection transcends barriers of culture, time, and language through a visual representation of shared values between the United States and the Pacific Islands Countries.

The Pernix Group of Lombard, Illinois constructed the facility, which was designed by the architectural firm of Hellmuth Obata and Kassabaum. The $81 million project generated jobs in both the United States and Fiji. The new facility was completed in June 2011 and at times involved more than 300 workers in its construction.

Since the 1999 enactment of the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act, OBO has moved more than 24,000 people into safer facilities. Including the dedication of the new Embassy in Suva, OBO has completed 81 diplomatic facilities and has an additional 35 projects in design or construction.

OBO’s mission is to provide safe, secure, and functional facilities for the conduct of U.S. diplomacy and the promotion of U.S. interests worldwide. These facilities should represent American values and the best in American architecture, engineering, technology, sustainability, art, culture, and construction execution.

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On 1 July, the Lithuanian-Belgian agreement comes into force, under which Belgium will represent Lithuania when issuing Schengen visas in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Rwanda.

This agreement will facilitate travelling to Lithuania, because foreign citizens of the countries, in which Lithuania will be represented by Belgium and where there are no Lithuanian diplomatic representations, will be able to contact the Embassy of Belgium for visas to travel to Lithuania.

The agreement that was signed in Vilnius on 21 June by Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė and Belgian Ambassador to Lithuania Christian Verdonck will also come into force on 1 July. The agreement provides that in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, foreign nationals shall be able to submit applications for Schengen visas to Lithuania at a common centre that accepts applications for the issuance of Schengen visas. Lithuania has signed similar agreements of representation with Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Norway and Slovenia.

Currently, Lithuania is represented in the sphere of visa issuance by 22 Schengen countries in various regions of the world. Lithuanian diplomatic missions and consular posts represent other Schengen countries in eleven foreign countries.