Diversity Visa Lottery – Win a Green Card

Every year the Department of State conducts a lottery for a green card. Under the program, 50,000 green cards are issued every year to applicants who register and who are selected through the DV program.

The registration for this year’s diversity visa lottery (DV-2016) opens on October 1, 2014, and will close on November 3, 2014. Applicants who are selected must meet certain requirements, such as having either a high school education (or its equivalent) 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.

 

Natives of some countries are not qualified for the lottery, including natives of Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. However, note that there are two ways to still be able to register even if you were born in one of these countries – first is if your spouse was born in an eligible country or you can be “charged” to the country of birth of either of your parents as long as neither of your parents was born in or a resident of your country of birth at the time of your birth (an example would be if your parents were visiting a country where you were born but they were not citizens or residence of that country).

Entries for the DV-2016 DV program must be submitted electronically at www.dvlottery.state.gov. You can submit your entry from anywhere in the world. So even if you are currently in the United States, you can submit your entry online if you otherwise qualify. Only one entry per person is allowed. Individuals with more than one entry will be disqualified.

How will you know if you won? You will be given a confirmation number and you must use your confirmation number to access the Entrant Status Check at www.dvlottery.state.gov starting May 5, 2015 through at least June 30, 2016. Make sure your confirmation number is in a safe place because it is the only way to check your status.

Cost: There is no cost to register for the DV Program. Be wary of e-mails trying to scam you into sending them money or providing your personal information.

If you are selected as a winner of the diversity visa lottery, you should consider hiring an immigration attorney to make sure your case moves through the system in a timely an efficient manner. You do not want to delay the application – the Department of State selects more than 50,000 entries to ensure that all of the available DV visas are issued since it is likely that some of the first 50,000 persons who are selected will either not qualify for visas or will not pursue their cases. If you wait too long, you may not make it into the 50,000 visas permitted.