Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV) or Green Card Lottery

In 1995 the U.S Immigration Service (then INS, now USCIS) announced a new way to achieve the American dream. Like any lottery system, the program follows simple yet strict rules to participate in it. A computer-generated random selection is made from the lottery. Department of State (DOS) selects about 110,000 applicants since many of the applicants will not complete the process after being selected. Even so, DOS will only issue 50,000 visas at the end of the fiscal year.

The Diversity Visa (DV) entry forms will be available online for a period of 60 days. This year, the application will be available on October 2nd until November 30th, 2009. The forms will be available online, and you should submit the completed form online. Note that DOS does not accept any paper application.

This posting is intended only as an outline. In my future posts, I will be discussing all the requirements, procedures and relevant issues in detail.

1) Eligibility,

i) Low-Admission countries

ii) Education/work experience

(a) O*Net guidelines for required experience.

2) Options, if you are ineligible

i) “Chargeability” in detail

(a) Spouse

(b) Parents

ii) What happens if the Principal Applicant Die?

3) Your Immediate Relatives

i) Children

ii) Spouse

4) Special Situations

i) Illegal Immigrants / Out of Status

By now, if you have been religiously following my postings, you will have an idea of how to apply these rules to your own case. Before we go any further with the next step of notification and additional steps, I think we should peek into a real application and prepare you to apply and try your luck.

a) Important Rules

b) Do you need a lawyer/ or a paid third-party immigration service?

c) Step-by-step explanation of Electronic Diversity Lottery (E-DV)

i) Photograph Specification

5) Result Notification

6) What if you are not notified?

7) After you win?

i) Why hire a lawyer at this point?

ii) Applying for a visa interview date

(a) Adjustment of Status if you are currently in United States

(b) Applying from your home country

(c) Document checklist

(d) Interview

As we go along, I am sure there will be additional topics to cover. But for now, this will help you think and decide if Diversity Visa Program is for you and if yes, how to do it. If you have questions, please email me at theimmigrationfile@gmail.com

Good Luck!