Indonesians win U.S. immigration lottery

JAKARTA (JP): The United States government has announced the result of its diverse immigration visa lottery that includes Indonesian winners.

The U.S. Embassy here said 176 places have been allocated to applicants from Indonesia under the program to grant 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

Approximately 100,000 applicants worldwide have been registered and notified, and may now apply for immigrant visas, the embassy said, quoting a statement from the U.S. Information Service.

Applicants for the DV-97 program were selected at random from the approximate 6.5 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period this year.

The statement said that of the 55,000 visas offered for 1997, Asia will be allocated 7,187, Africa 20,623, Europe 23,910, North America 8, The Bahamas 17, Oceania 817 and South America, Central America and the Caribbean 2,455.