The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, commonly called the green card lottery, annually awards up to 50,000 United States Legal Permanent Resident Visas to applicants whose country of origin has had low immigration rates to the U.S. in the last five years. The program’s goal is to diversify the immigrant population in the United States.
The Immigration Act of 1990 established the DV program, called a lottery because there are more applicants than available visas, and the visas are granted randomly to qualified applicants. Diversity Visas are available in six geographic regions and no single country may receive more than 7% of the available DVs in any one year.
The Green Card Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered by the U.S. Department of State. 20 million people apply for a Diversity Visa every year. President Trump has advocated for the end of the Visa Lottery program, calling it “a disaster for our country” and that the program has created “significant vulnerabilities” for national security.
The U.S. State Department announced on September 20 that the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2021) will have 55,000 diversity visas available for Fiscal Year 2021. This year, the U.S. State Department announced two updates to the Visa Lottery:
• Effective immediately, foreigners are required to have a valid, unexpired passport to participate in the Green Card lottery.
• If foreign citizens do not comply strictly with all the Diversity Visa instructions and don’t include all the required information, they will be immediately disqualified from the drawing of that fiscal year.
To qualify for the green card visa lottery, foreign applicants
• must have been born in an eligible country and have a high school education or 2 years of work experience
• primary applicant needs to have a valid, unexpired passport
• applicants can apply for the lottery starting October 2, 2019, and ending on Tuesday, November 5th, 2019; and the winners will be announced in May 2021
• applications are completed online at dvlottery.state.gov
Winners of the green card lottery are chosen by random selection; there is no cost to register.
Mario Godoy and the experienced immigration attorneys at the Godoy Law Office can assess your situation and advise you on your best options to apply for a green card. Call today at 855-554-6369.
