Thousands of Irish people thought their lucky day had arrived to escape the doom and gloom by winning a US green card lottery but a computer error means the draw will have to be done all over again.
More than 22,000 people from all over the world were packing their bags until the news broke that all the winning visa applicants would be put back into the hat.
A US Embassy official in Dublin confirmed the Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme lottery needs to be repeated due to an in-house programming error.
The US State Department apologised, saying: “Any results previously posted and available through the website are considered invalid. We sincerely regret any inconvenience or disappointment this problem might have caused.”
The exact figure of Irish people affected by the cock-up is not available as of yet.
The new draw results are due around 15 July, however, about 15 million had applied so the bad news for the 22,000 is their odds of winning again don’t look so good.
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