Please read below the statement from AILA about the current situation. Basically, it means we are going to have to wait until the litigation is entirely finished, which could take weeks or months. Until then, the Judge’s order protected EVERYONE as a class in the AILA Gomez lawsuit (EVERYONE meaning named or not), and the 9095 visas are to be reserved until they are ready to be issued after the final determination.

Dear Gomez Class Members,

We write to update you on the status of the Gomez case.  As you may have heard, on Wednesday the federal court issued an order certifying a class of 2020 Diversity Visa Selectees and requiring the State Department to reserve 9,095 diversity visas for processing once we win our case on behalf of the class.  The court also appointed the lawyers at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Justice Action Center, and Innovation Law Lab as class counsel. Please read the court’s order here.

We are disappointed that the court did not order the State Department to reserve the full 30,000 visas that we had requested. The court’s order reserving only 9,095 visas means that more than half of all DV-2020 Selectees will not receive a diversity visa.  If we win our case, we assume, but cannot be sure, that the State Department will process and issue the 9,095 reserved visas in numerical order based on diversity visa confirmation number.

You are automatically a member of the certified class if you are a DV-2020 Selectee but have not yet received your 2020 Diversity Visa as of April 23, 2020. You do not need to take any additional steps to become a member of the class, and you will not receive any documentation from the court or counsel of your membership.

Please note that the diversity visas that the court ordered the State Department to reserve will not be processed or issued immediately.  We must continue litigating the case in federal court.  If we win, the State Department will be required to process and issue the reserved visas.

We understand and appreciate that the uncertainty this has created has been challenging for you and your families, and we will continue to advocate on your behalf. We will continue to share any important updates about the status of the case. We will also post updates on our websites, which are listed below. If you would like to subscribe to our email updates, please click here.

Sincerely,

American Immigration Lawyers Association, www.aila.org

Justice Action Center, www.justiceactioncenter.org

Innovation Law Lab, www.innovationlawlab.org