By Mary Gathegu
For Years, Kenyans have been at the forefront in applying for the USA DV lottery, making it rank the highest in 2023-2024 selections with 3,760 out of 143,000 worldwide.
For Catherine Wanja, it has been ten years since she started applying for the lottery.
Her dream to go the USA was born in secondary school after one of her classmates’ families got selected and left for the USA.
She maintained contact with her friend and started doing research on the DV lottery once she completed her A ‘levels. She adds, “In 2010, little information was out there unlike now we have so many videos that explain everything about the application, what to do to apply, what happens after.
She maintains that she is hopeful as she has witnessed many of her other friends and family get selected over the years.
“The trick is to apply and forget about it till May of the following year when checking the results.” Wanja lives in Kikuyu, Kiambu County, married and with two children.
She is an accountant, doubling it with farming as a side hustle. She has since convinced her husband into applying for the lottery. To increase their chances, they apply both of them individually but each indicating each other at the spouse section and including their children.
“The frustrations of not getting selected over the years have been devastating have thought about trying out other countries, but you see for the US GREENCARD, allows me to go with my children as they are all under 21 years old, in case I start a business, I can get a license without any complication, have unlimited US residency, my children, their father, and I get to study with fees as low as 80% compared to international student without a green card, after 5 years we all get access to Medicare benefits, and I can travel in and out of the US without worry,” says Wanja
“You know it is pure luck and I am confident my turn will arrive,” she said.
With the DV 2024-2025 Lottery now closed, we wish Catherine all the best next year as she checks her confirmation number in May.
The idea of green card was birthed during World War II to help control the unregulated entry of people into the US witnessed during the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this period, America was open to immigrants from anywhere in the world in unlimited numbers. However, in 1940, the US Congress passed the Alien Registration Act which established the first amicable rules for immigrating to the United States.
All immigrants entering the US were inspected and issued an ID card called an Alien Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card which was first bright green in color hence the nickname “Green Card.
But the card was in later years produced in changing colors, in yellow (1977-1989), pink (1989-1997) and purple-blue (1997-2010) before the US government decided to go back to the green design which remains in use to date.