The Immigrant Visa Green Card Lottery is also known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is a lottery to get a USA Permanent Resident Card.
It was authorized in 1990 by the INA (Immigration and Nationality Act), and it is run by the U.S. State Department. Typically 50,000 visas are given to immigrants annually. The purpose of the lottery is to allow a more diverse population of immigrants into the USA. Every year, about 20 million people enter the lottery for only 50,000 visa slots. Lottery winners are chosen from countries that sent a relatively low number of immigrants to the USA in the previous 5 years.
There are a lot of
companies that claim to improve an immigrant’s chances to win the green card lottery, but all of those claims are fraudulent. The only way to win the lottery is to 1) come from a country that does not send a lot of immigrants to the USA, 2) apply to the U.S. State Department by entering your data on the
State Department Diversity Immigrant Lottery website
, and 3) get lucky. The application is
free of charge.
In order to enter the green card lottery, applicates must have 1) been born in an eligible country 2) have a high school education or two years training for a skilled job, 3) have a way to support themselves, 4) good health, and 5) no serious criminal record.
Ineligible countries include: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom and Vietnam.
