Winning a Green Card Through the Visa Lottery
by
Ilona Bray, J.D.
50,000 green card lottery slots are available each year -- you could be eligible for one.
A green card lottery was created by the Immigration Act of 1990 to benefit people from countries that in recent years have sent the fewest numbers of immigrants to the United States. You can enter the lottery if you are a native of one of those countries and meet certain other requirements. Because the winners are selected through a random drawing, the program is popularly known as the green card lottery. Its official name is the Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery.
Who Qualifies for the Lottery?
There are 50,000 winners selected each year. They are chosen by dividing the world into regions and allocating no more than 7% of the total green cards to each region.
Country of Birth
People from most countries are eligible for the lottery. The only countries not qualified for the lottery whose application period ended in 2008 (called "DV-2010") were:
- Brazil
- Canada
- China (mainland, not including Macau, Taiwan, or Hong Kong)
- Colombia
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- India
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Pakistan
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- South Korea
- United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories
- Vietnam.
Different qualifying countries are selected each year, based on which nations -- and which areas of the world -- sent the fewest numbers of immigrants to the U.S. during the previous five years, in proportion to the size of their populations.
Lottery applicants should make sure that they can actually claim what the law describes as "nativity" in an eligible country. Living in a country is not enough. Nativity is usually based on having been born in the country.
What If You Were Born in an Ineligible Country?
If you are a native of one of the ineligible countries, there are a couple of ways to get around this and become eligible to apply:
- If your spouse was born in an eligible country, you can claim your spouse's country of birth for lottery purposes. However, your spouse must be eligible for and receive a visa to accompany you to the U.S. (a "DV-2" visa) and must actually enter the U.S. with you.
- If neither of your parents was born in your native country or made a home there at the time of your birth, you may be able to claim nativity in one of your parents' countries of birth.
Employability
In addition, applicants from qualifying countries must have either:
- a high school diploma or its equivalent (meaning a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education), or
- a minimum of two years' experience (within the last five years) in a job that normally requires at least two years of training or experience.
U.S. job offers are not necessary. But lottery winners will need to be able to prove that they'll be able to support themselves financially in the United States.
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