US Green Card (DV-2011) Results released - 4 winners from Maldives & 515 winners from Sri Lanka

Diversity Visa Lottery 2011 (DV-2011) Results - 4 winners from Maldives & 515 wionners from Sri Lanka
The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2011 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 100,600 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first *50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2011 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2011 (October 1, 2010 until September 30, 2011).

Applicants registered for the DV-2011 program were selected at random from over 12.1 million qualified entries (16.5 million with derivatives) received during the 60-day application period that ran from noon on October 2, 2009, until noon, November 30, 2009. The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country. During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent, or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years. Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly. Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.

Only participants in the DV-2011 program who were selected for further processing have been notified. Those who have not received notification were not selected. They may try for the upcoming DV-2012 lottery if they wish. The dates for the registration period for the DV-2012 lottery program will be widely publicized during August 2010.

* The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulated that up to 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas be made available for use under the NACARA program. The reduction of the limit of available visas to 50,000 began with DV-2000.

It is noted that this time there were 4 people from Republic of Maldives & 515 people from Sri Lanka were selected as DV 2011 winners. The highest number of winners were from Nigeria (6000 winners) & the 2nd & 3rd highest number of winners were from Bangladesh (5999 Winners) & Ethiopia (5200 winners)


Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2011: Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R. and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

Solar Eclipse - 15th January 2010

The longest lasting annular solar eclipse of this millennium occured today. It was the longest annular eclipse until the year 3043. It is not only the longest Annular eclipse, but also the longest solar eclipse for the next ten centuries, meaning you will not see another such eclipse for the next 1,033 years A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun's light. An annular eclipse will appear as partial eclipse over a region thousands of kilometres wide. This is the longest annular solar eclipse of the millennium, and the longest until December 23, 3043, with a maximum length of 11 mins and 7.8 seconds. (The solar eclipse of January 4, 1992 was longer, at 11 minutes, 41 seconds, occuring in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.) It was visible as a partial eclipse in much of Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It was seen as annular within a narrow stretch of 300 km width across Central Africa, Maldives, South Kerala (India), South Tamil Nadu (India), North Sri Lanka, parts of Burma and parts of China. The eclipse started at the Central African Republic, traverses Cameroon, Congo and Uganda, passes through Nairobi, Kenya, and enters the Indian Ocean and reaches its greatest eclipse. After that it entered Maldives, where it would be the longest on land with 10.8 minutes of viewing. This made the tiny islands of Maldives the best spot for viewing this eclipse from land. The annular Eclipse at Male', the capital city of Maldives started at 12:20:20 hrs and ended 12:30:06 hrs Maldives local time . This is also the longest duration of any city having an international airport in the eclipse track. Maldives Science Society hosted an eclipse viewing gathering for those who love eclipse viewing. MSS reserved 50 eclipse glasses for the viewers to share. Also during this time MSS demonstrated on building a pinhole projector and keept a bigger pinhole projector for all to view the eclipse at ease. At approx 13:20 Hrs, the annular solar eclipse entered India at (Trivandrum), Kerala and exits India at Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu