Diversity Visa Lottery 2015 opens

The 2015 Diversity Visa Lottery Program opens on October 1, 2013 to eligible applicants. Admission to the program is free and available until November 2, 2013. The Department of State is administering 50,000 Diversity Visas this year. The program popularly known as the Green Card Lottery is intended for natives of countries with low immigration rates to the United States.

The Department of State has disqualified the following countries to participate due to recent high rates of immigration:

Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (with the exception of Northern Ireland), and Vietnam.

Recent Changes: Nigeria is no longer eligible.

Diversity Visa Lottery Requirements:

1. The applicant must be a native of an eligible country. “Native” is classified as having been born in the country.
2. The applicant meets education or work experience qualifications.
   1. Education Requirements: A high school education or its equivalent.
   2. Work Experience Requirements: Within the previous five years, the applicant must have had two years of work experience.  The eligible work experience requires at least two years of training.

Diversity Visa Lottery Instructions:

To register for the DV Lottery, applicants must go online to the DV Lottery website. It is recommended that applicants contact an Immigration Lawyer to ensure that your application will not become ineligible due to minor technicalities. The DV Lottery application will ask information about the applicant, the applicant’s spouse, and children. The applicant must provide details about his/her education or work experiences. The application also requires photos of applicant, spouse, and children.  The photos must meet specific composition and technical qualifications. All information and documentation needs to be submitted in accordance to due dates or the applicant risks disqualification. Once the documentation is completed and submitted, the applicant should be directed to a confirmation page. The confirmation page will show a distinct confirmation number.  This confirmation number should be printed and saved in a secure location. When results are posted, the applicant will use this number to check the status of entry.

Checking the Winning Numbers:

The Department of State will randomly select the DV Lottery winners. DV Lottery winners will be announced on May 1, 2014. Winning applicants will not be notified. It is up to the applicant to check. Results will remain listed till June 30, 2015. To check entrant of status, the applicant will use the given confirmation number and visit www.dvlottery.state.gov to see if he/she was selected.

Winning the Lottery isn’t Everything:

Winning is only one stage of the Diversity Visa Lottery process. More than 50,000 applicants are actually selected by the Department of State. However, after further analysis, many selected applicants are found ineligible. Others decide not to continue the visa process.

If the applicant is selected, the confirmation page will provide information on fees and instructions on how to contact U.S. immigration. The selected applicant must qualify under all U.S. law requirements. The process may become significantly extended if the winner comes from a country identified as a state sponsor of terrorism.

For the selected applicants, the Diversity Visa Lottery Program will close September 30, 2015. All required documentation and processing must be completed by this date.

Potential applicants or selected winners who have further questions can visit our Diversity Visa Lottery Program page or contact VisaNation Law Group’s immigration lawyers for additional assistance.