Getting A Green Card Through The Diversity Lottery
If obtaining a green card through a relative or employer is not possible, or marriage to your partner is not appealing enough, there is always the Diversity Lottery which is held every year by the State Department’s National Visa Center. The Lottery is held for the benefit of immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
While the odds of actually obtaining a green card through the Diversity Lottery are not as steep as perhaps winning the Mega Millions lottery, it still is no easy feat. The number of applicants entering the Lottery has been increasing every year, increasing the odds of winning that much more difficulty.
In last year’s Diversity Lottery (DV-2009), there were over 9.1 million qualified entries, all vying for a mere 50,000 available permanent resident visas. Since some of those who are randomly drawn from the Lottery do not follow-up and go through the process of securing their visa, 99,600 entries were actually drawn to ensure that all 50,000 visas would be issued. This is typical for every year’s lottery given the number of entries who, for whatever reason, fail to follow through on their good fortune.
The visas were distributed to applicants across six geographic regions, with no more than 7% being issued to the applicants from any one country.
Just to give you an idea of how long the odds are to obtain one of these Diversity Lottery permanent resident visas let’s take a look at a few countries and the number of successful applicants.
Japanese nationals comprised just 320 of the total number of those registered through the DV-2009 Lottery. Nationals from Costa Rica comprised just a fraction of that number, 67. But there were a few countries that did quite well in the lottery due to the emphasis on increasing the immigration of those countries that have not had historically high immigration numbers. Albania, for example, had a total of 2,894 who were registered through the lottery and Cameroon had 3,659. If you or your spouse is from a country with historically low immigration numbers to the United States you will find that your odds of winning one of these Diversity Lottery visas increases, but obviously it is far from being a good bet that you will be successful. Having said that, however, it sill costs you nothing to enter the lottery so why not enter it and try your luck.
For those lucky enough to have been chosen, they will still need to meet a few minimum conditions in order to receive their permanent resident visas. They must eventually show that they have completed high school or its equivalent or, lacking a high school diploma, prove that they have at least two years of work experience at a job, within the past five years, that requires at least two years of training.
Since the lottery is intended for foreigners from countries with low immigration rates to the United States, the lottery does not accept applicants for the lottery from countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants here in the past five years. This would include quite a few countries. For DV-2009 the would-be applicants from the following countries were not allowed to enter the Diversity Lottery:
Brazil
Canada
China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan)
Colombia
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Haiti
India
Jamaica
Mexico
Pakistan
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Russia
South Korea
United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland and its dependent territories)
Vietnam
If these odds have not discouraged you too much and you are interested in entering the Diversity Lottery simply to http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html to get the most updated information. Good luck!
