SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 23: The annual US visa lottery will begin on Oct 7, sparking millions of entries from foreigners seeking a better life in the US.

Immigration experts say that the very existence of visa lottery is a reminder that, even after the Sept 11 attacks, the United States keeps its door open to newcomers than do most other nations, and that the dream of life here stirs people from all over the world.

The visa lottery provides up to 50,000 permanent residence visas each year to people lacking the family or job sponsors that most immigrants rely upon. Winners are chosen in a computerized ballot.

Congress enacted the first version of the lottery in the 1980s when legislators sought to broaden the stream of immigrants, which was dominated by Latin Americans and Asians who were allowed entry either as political refugees or because they were sponsored by close relatives or employers in the United States.

From 1998 through 2000, 46 per cent of the winners came from Europe, 22 per cent from the Middle East and 22 per cent from sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2000, participants mailed 13 million applications to the State Department. Last year, after the Sept 11 attacks, the number slipped to 9.5 million. Entries this year must be received from October 7 to November 6, and winners will be notified in the year 2003.

Since the terrorist attacks, the unusual sweepstakes has been beset by heightened security fears. In just the past few months, two lottery winners from the Middle East have gained notoriety for crimes and allegations that go to the heart of America’s anxieties in the ‘war against terrorism’.

Ahmed Hannan and Karim Koubriti, indicted on Aug 28 as members of an alleged terrorist “sleeper” cell in Michigan planning attacks here and abroad, came to the US in 2000 after winning the lottery in Morocco, according to State Department officials and court records.

And in July, an Egyptian who became a legal US resident after his wife won the visa lottery went on a shooting rampage at Los Angeles International Airport, killing two people.

Steven Camarota, Director of the Center for Immigration Studies which seeks to limit immigration, says that some people who use the lottery come from nations on the State Department’s list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Last year’s winners included 1,297 from Sudan, 768 from Iran, 529 from Cuba, 71 from Iraq, 62 from Syria, 61 from Libya and four from North Korea.