Green Card Lottery News
Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery Program Updates
 Beware of Fraudulent Green Card Lottery Schemes
D. DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY 2004 (DV-2004) RESULTS
The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2004 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 87,000 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first *50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2004 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2004 (October 1, 2002 until September 30, 2004).
Applicants registered for the DV-2004 program were selected at random from the approximately 6.2 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period that ran from Noon on October 1, 2001 through Noon on October 31, 2001. An additional 2.5 million applications were either received outside of the mail-in period or were disqualified for failing to properly follow directions. The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country. During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent, or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years. Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly. Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.
Registrants living legally in the United States who wish to apply for adjustment of their status must contact the Immigration and Naturalization Service for information on the requirements and procedures. Once the total *50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2004 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2004 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2004 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2004 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2004.
Only participants in the DV-2004 program who were selected for further processing have been notified. Those who have not received notification were not selected. They may try for the upcoming DV-2005 GREEN CARD LOTTERY lottery if they wish. The dates for the mail-in period for the DV-2005 GREEN CARD LOTTERY lottery are scheduled from noon, Monday, October 7, 2002 until noon, Wednesday, November 6, 2002. Instructions on entering the DV-2005 GREEN CARD LOTTERY program will be widely publicized in late July or early August 2002.
* The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NCARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulated that up to 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas be made available for use under the NCARA program. The reduction of the limit of available visas to 50,000 began with DV-2000.
The following is the statistical breakdown by foreign-state chargeability of those registered for the DV-2004 program:
AFRICA
ALGERIA 834
ANGOLA 29
BENIN 134
BOTSWANA 4
BURKINA FASO 28
BURUNDI 21
CAMEROON 675
CAPE VERDE 1
CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 8
CHAD 45
COMOROS 2
CONGO 41
CONGO, DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC OF THE 619
COTE D'IVOIRE 298
DJIBOUTI 24
EGYPT 1,551
EQUATORIAL GUINEA 8
ERITREA 252
ETHIOPIA 5,562
GABON 20
GAMBIA, THE 32
GHANA 6,333
GUINEA 157
GUINEA-BISSAU 1
KENYA 3,194
LESOTHO 2
LIBERIA 1,067
LIBYA 61
MADAGASCAR 25
MALAWI 31
MALI 46
MAURITANIA 14
MAURITIUS 25
MOROCCO 3,083
MOZAMBIQUE 5
NAMIBIA 6
NIGER 34
NIGERIA 5,989
RWANDA 21
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 0
SENEGAL 199
SEYCHELLES 0
SIERRA LEONE 3,096
SOMALIA 748
SOUTH AFRICA 617
SUDAN 1,297
SWAZILAND 5
TANZANIA 349
TOGO 1,994
TUNISIA 114
UGANDA 195
ZAMBIA 109
ZIMBABWE 133
ASIA
AFGHANISTAN 45
BAHRAIN 7
BANGLADESH 4,935
BHUTAN 4
BRUNEI 1
BURMA 461
CAMBODIA 260
HONG KONG SPECIAL
ADMIN. REGION 190
INDONESIA 608
IRAN 768
IRAQ 71
ISRAEL 145
JAPAN 890
JORDAN 75
KUWAIT 30
LAOS 6
LEBANON 62
MALAYSIA 167
MALDIVES 0
MONGOLIA 56
NEPAL 2,320
NORTH KOREA 4
OMAN 6
QATAR 1
SAUDI ARABIA 38
SINGAPORE 80
SRI LANKA 889
SYRIA 62
TAIWAN 1,618
THAILAND 297
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 29
YEMEN 44
EUROPE
ALBANIA 1,898
ANDORRA 0
ARMENIA 630
AUSTRIA 64
AZERBAIJAN 281
BELARUS 836
BELGIUM 42
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 93
BULGARIA 2,843
CROATIA 70
CYPRUS 18
CZECH REPUBLIC 230
DENMARK 35
ESTONIA 61
FINLAND 26
FRANCE 308
Guadeloupe 4
Martinique 2
GEORGIA 332
GERMANY 850
GREECE 41
HUNGARY 170
ICELAND 7
IRELAND 288
ITALY 168
KAZAKHSTAN 454
KYRGYZSTAN 199
LATVIA 172
LIECHTENSTEIN 0
LITHUANIA 2,245
LUXEMBOURG 3
MACEDONIA, FORMER
YUGOSLAV REP. OF 145
MALTA 3
MOLDOVA 418
MONACO 0
NETHERLANDS 90
Netherlands Antilles 5
Aruba 1
NORTHERN IRELAND 43
NORWAY 16
POLAND 3,855
PORTUGAL 13
Macau 21
ROMANIA 1,636
RUSSIA 2,695
SAN MARINO 0
SLOVAKIA 318
SLOVENIA 3
SPAIN 77
SWEDEN 88
SWITZERLAND 163
TAJIKISTAN 86
TURKEY 1,629
TURKMENISTAN 79
UKRAINE 4,035
UZBEKISTAN 1,192
VATICAN CITY 0
YUGOSLAVIA 245
NORTH AMERICA
BAHAMAS, THE 13
OCEANIA
AUSTRALIA 414
FIJI 524
KIRIBATI 0
MARSHALL ISLANDS 0
MICRONESIA, FEDERATED
STATES OF 0
NAURU 0
NEW ZEALAND 210
Cook Islands 3
PALAU 5
PAPUA NEW GUINEA 7
SAMOA 2
SOLOMON ISLANDS 0
TONGA 38
TUVALU 0
VANUATU 0
SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 1
ARGENTINA 343
BARBADOS 3
BELIZE 5
BOLIVIA 65
BRAZIL 452
CHILE 27
COSTA RICA 25
CUBA 529
DOMINICA 9
ECUADOR 411
GRENADA 0
GUATEMALA 14
GUYANA 27
HONDURAS 16
NICARAGUA 24
PANAMA 18
PARAGUAY 3
PERU 1,063
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 0
SAINT LUCIA 3
SAINT VINCENT AND
THE GRENADINES 0
SURINAME 8
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 69
URUGUAY 32
VENEZUELA 260
Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2004: Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R., and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.
DV-2004 Update
The deadline for submission of entries to the DV-2004 lottery was October 31, 2001.
On an unpublicized date following the end of this year's lottery period, a computer will randomly select applications from among all the qualified applications received. If your application is selected, you will be sent a notification letter that provides further instructions and contains information on fees connected with immigration to the United States. (Spouses and unmarried children of successful applicants under age 21 may also apply for visas to accompany or follow to join the successful applicant.) Winners who are living abroad will be instructed to file a formal application at the nearest US consular office; those already living in the US will be instructed to apply at the nearest branch of the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) for a change of status. All notification letters will be sent between May and June 2002. Only winners will be contacted. US embassies and consulates will not be able to provide a list of successful applicants. DV-2002 visas will be issued between October 1, 2002 and September 30, 2004.
50,000 DV visas are available in Fiscal Year 2004, but more than that number of applicants will be selected in the lottery drawing. A total of about 90,000 applicants, both principal applicants and their spouses and children, will be selected. Since it is likely that some of the first 50,000 applicants who are selected will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure will ensure the use of all available DV-2004 visas, but it also risks some registrants being left out. Being selected a winner in the visa lottery does not automatically guarantee issuance of a visa. All applicants that are selected will be informed promptly of their selection. Each month, visas will be issued (visa number availability permitting) to those applicants who have appropriately responded to their notification and are ready for issuance during that month. Once all of the Fiscal Year 2004 visas have been issued, the program for the year will end. Therefore, selected applicants must be prepared to act immediately when informed of their successful lottery entries. Processing of entries and issuance of diversity visas to successful applicants and their eligible family members must occur by September 30, 2004. Under no circumstances can diversity visas be issued or adjustments approved after this date, nor can family members obtain diversity visas to follow to join the applicant in the US after this date.
We are always excited to learn of our clients' success stories. If you are selected a winner in this year's Green Card Lottery, please let us know!
DV-2005 GREEN CARD LOTTERY Information
USA Green Card is now accepting applications for the DV-2005 GREEN CARD LOTTERY Green Card Lottery. The deadline for this year's lottery has not yet been announced. You are encouraged to apply early to ensure your registration in the lottery. Apply today!
Beware of Fraudulent Green Card Lottery Schemes
Many sites on the Internet offer assistance with the Diversity Visa Lottery application process. Many of these sites use misleading information to promote their services. Exercise caution before choosing to use the services of any such site. Specifically, consider the following facts.
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There is no US Government agency that can help you apply to the lottery. No site on the Internet offering assistance with the Green Card Lottery application process is in any way associated with any official US Government agency. Beware of sites that mislead you to believe they are related to the US Government.
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There is no fee to enter the lottery. The Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery Program is sponsored by the US Department of State, which does not charge a lottery application fee. Beware of sites that do not clearly notify you of this fact. Sites that help you with the lottery application process provide a service to you: they review, prepare, and submit your application to the US Government. All applications must meet the same basic format and content requirements as required by the US Department of State. Therefore, sites that charge excessive amounts of money for this service--some over $75 USD per application--are overcharging you for the same service that is provided by sites that charge more reasonable fees.
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Your odds of winning the lottery cannot be improved. Using the services of any firm to enter the Green Card Lottery cannot increase your odds of being selected a winner. The services of a firm can better ensure that your application will not be rejected because of formatting and/or content errors or omissions, but cannot improve the odds of your application's success. All qualified applications have an equal (random) chance of being selected. Beware of firms that claim to increase your odds of winning the lottery. Any such claim is entirely false |
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