Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery Program

Each year the United States government, through the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery program, makes available 50,000 green cards to eligible applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the U. S. For DV–2012, natives of all countries are eligible except for Brazil, Canada, mainland China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom and Vietnam.

Entries will be accepted for this year’s lottery from October 5, 2010 to November 3, 2010. Lottery winners will be randomly chosen by computer and after April 30, 2011, all applicants will be able to find out if they were selected or not. What is attractive about the Lottery Program is that it is not necessary to have a job offer from an American company, a relative in the U.S., special talents, or make an investment in the U. S. The requirements are minimal, and for millions of individuals around the world, the Lottery represents a unique opportunity to obtain a green card.

Eligibility Requirements

Native of a Qualifying Country

DV Lottery applicants must be native to a qualifying country. If the country in which you were born is on the above list, this generally means you are ineligible to apply. However, there are two other ways you might be able to qualify. If your spouse was born in a country whose natives are eligible, you are allowed to claim your spouse’s country of birth so long as both you and your spouse are listed on the selected entry, are issued visas, and enter the United States at the same time. Alternatively, if you were born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but neither of your parents was born there or resided there at the time of your birth, you may claim nativity in one of your parents’ country of birth.

Education or Work Experience

To qualify under the lottery requirements, applicants must meet simple but strict education or work experience requirements. You must possess either 1) a high school education or its equivalent, defined as a successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; or 2) two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform. To determine if your occupation qualifies, it is necessary to confirm that the Department of Labor O*Net Online Database defines your occupation as Job Zone 4 or 5 with a Specific Vocational Preparation (SVP) range of 7.0 or higher.

DV Lottery Process

How to Enter the DV Lottery

All applications must be submitted electronically using the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form (E-DV Entry Form), which is only accessible at www.dvlottery.state.gov. There is no fee to enter the lottery. When submitting individual photographs for each family member, it is critical to adhere to the compositional and technical specifications set out in the DV Lottery Registration guide. Your entry must contain the name, date and place of birth of your spouse and all children, even if your spouse or child does not live with you and will not immigrate with you. Failure to list a spouse or child in the application will result in the disqualification of you and your entire family at the time of the visa interview. Each principal applicant is entitled to only one entry per year. The submission of two entries is grounds for disqualification; however, a husband and wife may both submit separate entries.

After submitting the entry, a confirmation number will be designated. Using this number, it will be necessary to check the Department of State’s website after April 30, 2011 to determine whether your entry was selected.

Procedures for Obtaining a Visa or Adjusting Status

Being selected in the DV Lottery does not automatically guarantee that you will receive a visa. Each year more lottery winners are selected to apply for immigrant visas than there are immigrant visas available, so it is important that selectees act promptly. If you are selected in the lottery, you will be required to submit additional documentation to the Kentucky Consular Center, file a formal visa application, pay processing fees, and attend a visa interview at a U. S. Embassy abroad prior to receiving your visa. As an alternative, for those in the United States, status may be adjusted to permanent residence. In support of the application, it is necessary to provide documentation proving that you satisfy the work or education requirement. It will also be necessary to prove that you will not become a public charge, i.e., dependent on the U.S. government for support. This can be established by demonstrating considerable assets, a job offer, qualifications for jobs that are in demand, or an affidavit of support. If you are adjusting status in the United States, it is necessary to show that you are in the US legally.

It is critical to understand that for DV–2012, the visa or adjustment process must be completed by September 30, 2012 (or prior to this date if the 50,000 quota is exhausted). After that date, visas cannot be issued and status cannot be adjusted: in effect, the "winning Lottery ticket" becomes invalid after that date if not "cashed" by then. For example, a situation may arise where a parent in the United States successfully adjusts his status in the US, but his children do not obtain a visa by September 30th. The only alternative is for the parent to file an immigrant petition for the children (which could take several years to be processed, depending on the queue), and/or petition for humanitarian parole.

How Does White & Associates Help?

The experienced professionals at White & Associates have successfully petitioned various embassies on behalf of DV Lottery winners who were unjustly refused visas at the time of their visa interviews or who had their applications delayed for months by consular officers. An unjust refusal can take many forms, such as false accusations of a sham marriage (this issue is particularly acute when the spouse applicants were married after being notified of "winning" the Lottery but before the interview; often, officers will interview the husband and wife separately for a prolonged period of time, seeking inconsistencies in their answers) or allegations that the applicant committed a material misrepresentation in a previous visa application or that the applicant will become a public charge (for example, because his real estate is considered to be illiquid). Applications may be delayed for months because of investigations into education or work credentials; security checks related to an occupation or criminal issues; or in a situation where a person lived ina country other than his home country.

White & Associates can provide legal support at any or all stages of the process: preparing the DV Lottery entry, completing forms after winning the Lottery, preparing for the interview, appealing a denial after the interview, or expediting a decision in the event of delays. White & Associates also assists with humanitarian parole applications in the event that a family is split up as a result of the expiration of the program. We can also provide consultations on the effect of the filing of a DV–Lottery entry on future nonimmigrant visa applications, as well as the potential disadvantages of pursuing a winning Lottery application and age out issues where a child has turned 21 during the pendency of the application.

If you are in need of assistance, please feel free to contact us.