The Diversity Visa Program is an American immigrant visa program created by Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to promote diversity. It is also known as the "Green Card Lottery." It is an annual program which opens to all individuals worldwide, with approximately 55,000 visas available. The DV-2025 program already opened on October 4, 2023.
What are the costs?
The lottery is free of charge to enter. It is an official U.S. government immigration program supervised by the U.S. Department of State. The department has set up an official website where all applications have to be submitted.
Who is eligible to apply?
For DV-2025, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply because there were more than 50,000 people immigrated to the United States from these countries in the previous five years:
Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, The People’s Republic of China (including mainland and Hong Kong born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Venezuela, and Vietnam.
Despite the fact that people born in mainland China and Hong Kong are not eligible for DV-2025, those who were born in Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible to apply.
If one was not born in an eligible country, there are two other ways that the person may quality to apply:
(1) If the person's spouse was born in an eligible country, then the person can claim the spouse's country of birth as their birth country to apply.
(2) If an applicant was born in an ineligible country, he may claim one of his parents' eligible country of birth if two requirements are met: a) Neither of the applicant's parents were born in applicant's country of birth, and b) They were not legal residents of applicant's country of birth at the time when the applicant was born. For example, if an applicant was both born in mainland China, but her parents were born in Malaysia (an eligible country). As long as both parents were not legal residents of China when applicant was born, the applicant may claim Malaysia as her birth country for DV-2025.
What are the education and work experience requirements?
An applicant must either have a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; 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.
When and how to submit an entry?
Entries for the DV-2025 program must be submitted electronically. Applicants may access the electronic DV Entry Form (E-DV) at dvprogram.state.gov during the registration period. Paper entries will not be accepted. DV-2025 registration began at 12:00 pm (EST) on October 4, 2023, and will continue until 12:00 pm (EST) on November 7, 2023. A unique confirmation number will be issued after an application has been successfully submitted.
What information is required?
Principal entrants are required to provide their biographic information including: their name, date of birth, city and country of birth, mailing address, country of residence, marital status, country of eligibility, spouse, and children's information, the highest level of education, information about their passport, etc. They must also submit a digital photo that meets the program technical requirements.
How to find out the results of the lottery?
The U.S. State Department will use a computerized random selection process to select winners from among qualified entries. All entrants must go to the Entrant Status Check using the unique confirmation number saved from their DV-2025 online entry registration to find out whether their entry has been selected in the DV program. Entrant Status Check will be available on the E-DV website at dvprogram.state.gov from May 4, 2024, through at least September 30, 2025. Selectees will be directed to a confirmation page with further instructions to proceed.
How to improve the odds for selection?
The DV program has very strict technical requirements for submission. Entries not following the official instructions and requirements will be rejected and disqualified. Furthermore, fraudulent or multiple entries will be rejected. To legally improve the odds for selection, all eligible family members should enter the lottery. Do not wait until the last week of the registration period to enter. Heavy demand may result in website issues and delays. When in doubt, don't hesitate to seek advice from a qualified immigration attorney.
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