Not sad to be gone

The new embassy in Lome' opened in December 2006. Since then it has become the focus of a sit-in (sit-out?) as scores of people are angry that the visa lottery has not handed them guaranteed entry to the United States.

The diversity visa lottery guarantees an interview, and nothing else. They still pay the fees for the interview (something Ian had to enforce since when we arrived people were being allowed to keep their cash if they didn't qualify (!)) and they are still denied if they don't meet the minimum requirements for the visa category. It's pretty straighforward as far as U.S. immigration law is concerned.

Some folks don't feel that's fair.




This last photo really gave me a chuckle as written French was not the author's strong suit.
"No visa ou rien" ("no visa or nothing" - easy decision making there) corrected to "Nos visa ou rien" ("our visa or nothing" - not too difficult a choice either). And it's still a mystery how all those people plan to share a single visa.