Diversity Lottery Green Card

The DV (Diversity Visa) Lottery provides a maximum of 55,000 Diversity Visas (green cards) each year to be made available to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The program is administered by the U.S. Department of State.  The annual DV program makes visas available to persons meeting particular eligibility requirements. A computer-generated, random lottery drawing chooses selectees for DVs. The visas are distributed among six geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the past five years. 

The entry registration period for DV-2012 is over.   Unfortunately, the results announced in May 2011 were later determined invalid by the U.S. Department of State.   A new drawing for the DV-2012 lottery will take place July 15, 2011.  This law office's blog post provides a discussion of the problems with this year's diversity lottery, as well as links to more information.    

To qualify, applicants must have completed a high-school education OR have completed two years of work experience.  The work experience must have been within the past five years, and must be in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience.  The occupation definitions provided by the Department of Labor's O*Net Online Database will be used to determine if the work experience qualifies. 

***  Entering the Diversity Lottery is FREE.   Many scam websites exist, and will request money to enter an applicant into the DV Lottery.   ****