On October 1st, 2013, the United States began taking applications for its annual Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery (DV-2015), which will actually take place in 2015. This program is more commonly referred to as the “Green Card Lottery,” and it usually attracts hundreds of thousands of applications from around the world.
The DV-2015 program provides a path to legal residency in the United States for foreigners. This program is managed by the U.S. State Department and its embassies and consular offices overseas. Unlike other immigration programs, participation in DV-2015 is not subject to sponsorship by an employer or by family members. Just about everyone can enter the DV-2015, but it helps to pay close attention to the requirements.
First off, individuals born in countries where a significant number of immigrants have already entered the United States will not be able to enter the DV-2015 lottery.
These countries are:
Bangladesh
Brazil
Canada
China – only those born in the mainland
Colombia
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Haiti
India
Jamaica
Mexico
Nigeria
Pakistan
Peru
Philippines
South Korea
United Kingdom – but not Northern Ireland
Vietnam
In the case of the nations above, more than 50,000 of their citizens immigrated to the United States over the last five years and are thus out of the DV-2015 program for the time being.
Foreigners born in all other countries can apply to the DV-2015 and hope to be selected as one of the 50,000 immigrants that will be given diversity visas. The U.S. State Department does not assign a fee to this program, although many visa hopefuls retain legal immigration lawyers to help them with the process.
The window of application for the DV-2015 is from now until November 2nd, 2013. Entries must be submitted online, and the U.S. State Department recommends that applicants do not wait until the final week as there may be issues with heavy Web traffic due to application overload.
Have any questions about the Green Card Lottery? Contact the San Diego immigration lawyers at Kazmi and Sakata Immigration Law and speak to one of our expert attorneys.
