Thousands of illegal Irish immigrants are shying away from the new US green card system because they fear detection, the largest US Irish immigration centre has said.
The Emerald Isle Immigration Center in New York has seen more than a 90 per cent drop in queries as thousands of Irish immigrants have decided not to apply for green cards under the new online system because they fear detection.
Under the new system, which begins November 1st, all applicants will have to fill out a form on a new government website and will have to scan in a photograph of themselves or use a digital photograph already stored on computer. According to immigration centres in New York, many immigrants fear that the US government will use the applications as a giant database to track illegal immigrants, especially as the government can trace the computer used to send the application.
Applicants across the world have from November 1st until December 31st to apply for the green card system by logging on to the website.
The executive director of the Emerald Isle Immigration Centre, Ms Siobhán Dennehy, said she had seen a huge drop off in queries. "This time last year we would have had about 3,000 to 5,000 inquiries about the green card lottery. This year we're lucky if we've had 300."