How the Diversity Visa Lottery works

There have been a number of questions received about

the State Department's Diversity Visa Lottery. Questions range from who

qualifies to participate in the lottery and what the registration dates are to

what the lottery is and whether someone selected automatically wins a green

card. Below is a primer on the program, using information from the State

Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The annual visa lottery program, run through the State Department, makes

available 50,000 U.S. permanent resident visas to people from countries with

low rates of immigration to the United States. A country is considered to have

a low rate if there have been fewer than 50,000 immigrants who have come to the

United States legally in the past five years.

Through the program, the State Department randomly selects qualified

entries and contacts the people selected to apply for permanent resident visas

- commonly known as green cards. Visa holders are not only allowed to live and

work here permanently, but are permitted to bring their spouses and unmarried

children younger than 21 to the United States. There is no fee to participate.

Entries for the next lottery program, called DV-2007, are being accepted

between now and noon Dec. 4. Only electronic entries will be accepted. The

electronic entry form can be found at www.dvlottery.state

.gov. Also, applicants can file only one entry. Applicants who file more

than one entry will be automatically disqualified from the program. One thing

to note is that a husband and wife in the same household may each submit a

separate entry.

To qualify to enter the lottery, applicants for DV-2007 cannot be from

Canada, mainland China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti,

India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines Poland, Russia, South Korea,

the United Kingdom or Vietnam. These countries are not considered to have low

rates of immigration to the U.S. in the past five years.

There also is an education or training requirement that applicants must

meet to qualify. Applicants must have either a high school education or its

equivalent. This is defined as the successful completion of a 12-year course of

elementary and secondary education. In lieu of such education, applicants must

have two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation

requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform.

The entry also will be disqualified if applicants' digital photo

specifications are not met. The specifications can be found in detail at

http://travel. state.gov/visa/immigrants/ types/types_1318.html.

After the registration period, qualified entries will be randomly selected

by computer. Those selected to go to the next stage and apply for permanent

resident visas will be notified in May or June. Applicants who are not selected

will not be contacted. The State Department typically selects more than 50,000

entries in case people opt not to go forward and apply for a visa. Once

selected, applicants must apply for their visas and have their applications

completed by Sept. 30 to take advantage of the DV-2007 program.

An important thing to keep in mind - particularly for applicants who are in

the United States illegally and under federal law cannot become permanent

residents while remaining here - is that the visa lottery program does not

provide waivers that would forgive any violation of U.S. immigration law.

Applicants should be aware that in the past, there have been many scams -

including those on the Internet posing as official U.S. government Web sites -

that have asked for money to help people enter the lottery program and have

falsely given the impression their services will improve applicants' chances.