DV Lottery Program or Green Card Lottery

The annual DV (Diversity Visa) Lottery program makes visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. Every DV lottery entrant must have at least a secondary school education or its equivalent or have, within the past five years, two years of work experience in an occupation requiring at least three years' training or experience.   It is also known as the Green Card Lottery.

DV applicants may access the electronic Diversity Visa entry form (E-DV) at www.dvlottery.state.gov during the registration period. No entries will be accepted after the deadline.

A computer-generated, random lottery drawing chooses selectees for Diversity Visas. The visas are distributed among six geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower historical rates of immigration to the United States, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. over the past five years. Within each region, no single country may receive more than seven percent of the total available Diversity Visas in any one year.  No countries have been added or removed from the list of eligible countries this year.

The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). 

 REQUIREMENTS

• You must be from an eligible country: You must have been born in an eligible country, or have parents who were born in eligible countries and who were not residents of your country of birth when you were born.

• You must meet an education or work experience requirement: You must have either a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; OR two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform.

PROCEDURES

·         The Department of State will only accept completed E-DV entry forms submitted electronically at www.dvlottery.state.gov during the registration period

ü  All entries by an individual will be disqualified if more than ONE entry for that individual is received

ü  There are NO COSTS or FEES to register for the DV Program

ü  You must print confirmation screen for your records using the print function of your web browser and ensure that you retain your confirmation number – you need your unique confirmation number and personal information to check the status of your DV entry

·       Recent photographs of the following people must be submitted electronically with the E-DV entry form:

ü  You

ü  Your spouse

ü  Each unmarried child under 21 years of age at the time of your electronic entry, including all natural children as well as all legally adopted children and stepchildren, even if a child no longer resides with you or you do not intend for a child to immigrate under the DV program

·      On your entry, you must list your spouse (husband or wife), and all unmarried children under 21 years of age, regardless of whether or not they are living with the petitioner or intend to accompany or follow to join the petitioner should the petitioner immigrate to the United States, with the exception of children who are already U.S. citizens or Legal Permanent Residents.

• Submit only one entry

 

Results

A computer-generated, random lottery drawing chooses selectees for Diversity Visas

Beginning May 1 DV lottery entrants can check the status of their applications online on the E-DV website:

 https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ESC/

To check the DV entry status online, you need the information on your Submission Confirmation page. Additionally, Entrant Status Check will provide successful selectees instructions on how to proceed with their application.

 More Information:

www.dvlottery.state.gov

http://travel.state.gov

Diversity Visa Lottery: Read the Rules, Avoid the Rip-Offs