Q&A

Green Card Lottery

Each year, the United States Department of State administers the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV) under the authority of law. This lottery is for people born in countries with low immigration to the United States. There are 55,000 diversity visas (DVs) available each fiscal year.

Winners of the diversity immigrant visa lottery must meet simple but mandatory qualification requirements to receive a visa. Winners of the DV program are determined by a random computer lottery. The U.S. Department of State allocates diversity visas among six geographic regions, and no country in these regions may receive more than seven percent of the total number of diversity visas to be issued in a given year.
Being a native of a country means being born in the country of one's birth, regardless of the country in which one currently lives or of which one is a citizen. Being a native of a country also entitles a person to be considered for a country in which they were not born, according to the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.

Because there is a limit on the number of immigrants from a country or geographic area, each person must meet a country quota. Your country of eligibility will normally be your country of birth. However, you can choose your country of eligibility to be the country of birth of your spouse or the country of birth of your parents if they were not resident there at the time of your birth and were not born there. These are the only three ways in which your country of consideration can be determined.

Requesting to be assessed for a country for which you are ineligible or inaccurate in your application (e.g. requesting to benefit from the quota of a country with which you cannot establish a valid connection) will result in you being found ineligible for a diversity visa (DV).
In such a case, there are two ways in which you may be eligible to apply. First, if your spouse was born in an eligible country, you can request to be considered according to your spouse's place of birth.

Secondly, if you were born in a country that is not eligible for the lottery, but your parents were not born in that country, or were not legally resident in that country at the time of your birth, you can request to be considered based on your parents' place of birth.
Diversity visas are designed to provide immigration opportunities to people from countries other than those that send high numbers of immigrants to the United States. The law defines "high-sending" countries as those countries where a total of 50,000 people have immigrated to the U.S. in the family or employment-based immigration categories in the past five years.

Each year, the U.S. Bureau of Immigration (USCIS) adds that year's family and employment-based immigrant entry records to the last five years' records to identify countries ineligible to participate in the diversity lottery. Because a separate assessment is conducted prior to each E-DV application period, countries eligible for the current year may not be eligible to participate in the next DV program.
Laws and regulations require participants to have a high school education or equivalent or at least two years of work experience in a job requiring education, experience or expertise within the last five years.

A "high school education or equivalent" is defined as completion of elementary, middle and high school education in the U.S. or completion of all formal education in another country equivalent to a high school education in the U.S. Only formal education is accepted. In-service training or equivalency certificates [such as G.E.D. (General Equivalency Diplomas)] are not accepted. Documents related to education and work experience must be submitted to the consular officer during the visa interview.

If you do not have the required education and work experience, your application will be disqualified during your visa interview and you or your family members will not be granted a visa.
The O*Net OnLine database of the United States Department of Labor will be used to determine the qualification and equivalence of work experience. The O*Net OnLine database divides work experience into five job zones. Although many occupations are listed on the Department of Labor website, only certain occupations are eligible to participate in the lottery program.

If you want to participate in the lottery program based on your occupation, you must have at least 2 (two) years of work experience in the last five years in an occupation with a Specific Vocational Preparation (SVP) level of 7.0 or higher in the database.

If you do not have the required education and work experience, your application will be disqualified during your visa interview and you or your family members will not be granted a visa.

Follow the steps below to find out if an occupation qualifies on the O*Net OnLine website:

  1. List the "Job Family" in the "Find Occupations" section of the website.
  2. After making your selection, press the "Go" command.
  3. Click on the link to your profession here.
  4. After clicking on the occupation link, select the Job Zone link and look at the Job Zone and the Special Vocational Preparation level (SVP range) that is considered appropriate for this occupation.
There is no lower age limit for participation in the lottery; however, the program's high school graduation or work experience requirements will automatically disqualify many people under the age of 18.
Applications will start in the first week of October and end in the first week of November. Millions of people apply every year. High demand late in the registration period may slow down the system.
Yes, the applicant can be from the U.S. or any other country. The application can be submitted from anywhere.
Yes, the law allows each person to submit only one application per registration period. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs uses sophisticated technologies to detect people who submit more than one application. People who submit more than one application will be found ineligible for a diversity visa (DV).
Requiring a valid and unexpired passport contributes to the security of the DV program and helps protect your application. This rule does not apply to the spouse or children of the main applicant.

Exceptions to the Passport Information Requirement: State Department guidelines provide exceptions to the requirement to provide passport information in three circumstances. These exceptions are being stateless; being a citizen of a country with a Communist government and unable to obtain a passport from that country's government; and having an individual exemption approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State. If you check any of these exceptions during your DV application, you will be asked to explain how you qualify for this exception.

The exceptions only apply to people who are unable to obtain a passport. If you have selected an exception because of a delay in obtaining a passport, regardless of whether the delay was within your control or not, you will not be able to take advantage of the exception and your DV application will be ineligible.
If your passport number changes for any reason, you must notify the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) with documentation showing the reason for the change so that your DV interview date can be set.

If you enter an incorrect, inaccurate or invalid passport number, your visa application will be denied. We recommend that you make a legible copy of the passport you used for the DV application and keep it in a safe place with your confirmation number.
Yes; if both spouses are eligible, they can apply separately. If one spouse wins the lottery, the other can benefit from the companion category.

Your spouse: If you are legally married, you must include your spouse in your application, regardless of whether he or she lives with you or has no intention of coming to the U.S. as an immigrant. You must include your spouse, even if you are separated at the time of the application, unless it is a legally recognized separation (e.g., you and your spouse do not have a court-recognized written agreement or a legal separation established by a court order).

Not including your spouse in your application or including a person who is not your spouse in your application will disqualify you.

If you are not married at the time of application, but plan to get married in the following period, do not include information about your spouse in your application; this will lead to disqualification.

If you are divorced or your spouse is no longer alive, you do not need to include your spouse in your application.

The only exception to this requirement is if your spouse is already an American citizen or Green Card holder (legal permanent resident). If your spouse is an American citizen or Green Card holder, you do not need to include them in the application form.

Spouses who are American citizens or Green Card holders do not need a visa and will not be issued a visa. Therefore, if you select "Married and my spouse is an American citizen or Green Card holder", you will not be able to enter any other information about your spouse.

Children You must include all unmarried children under the age of 21 at the time of your first electronic DV application.

This includes your own children, the children of your former spouse, even if you are now divorced, the children of your current spouse and children you have previously adopted in accordance with the laws of your country.

You must include your children who are under 21 years of age at the time of application, even if they do not reside with you or do not wish to benefit from an immigration visa under the DV program with you.

Children of Green Card holders or U.S. citizens do not need a visa. It is not necessary to include these children in your application; if they are included, there will be no problem.

Including family members in your application does not necessarily mean that they must apply for a visa or travel with you. However, if you do not list any family members eligible for a visa on your electronic application form, your application will be disqualified during your visa interview and neither you nor any of your family members will be granted a visa.

This rule only applies to family members who were present at the time you submitted your electronic application, not to family members acquired after the application.

You can submit your own application, but someone else can also submit an application on your behalf.

Only one application per person must be submitted, regardless of whether the application is prepared by the applicant himself/herself or by someone else (lawyer, friend, relative, etc.) on his/her behalf.

The accuracy and completeness of the information provided in the application is your sole responsibility as the applicant. Applications that are not accurate or complete may be disqualified.

Participants should keep their confirmation pages and application confirmation numbers in order to be able to independently inquire about the status of their application.
Yes, you can submit your application again until the deadline. If the E-DV system rejects your first application, you will not be sanctioned for submitting a second application.

You can make as many application attempts as necessary until you have completed a complete application and received the confirmation message. Once you receive the confirmation message, your application is complete and you must not submit any further applications.
If you have not received a confirmation number, your entry has not been saved. You need to submit a new application. This will not count as a second application. Do not resubmit your details after you have received a confirmation number.
You must enter your confirmation number on the Application Status Check page on the E-DV website dvprogram.state.gov during the first week of May.

The Application Status Check page is the only place where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will inform you whether you have won the lottery. Winners will also receive information on how to apply and the date of the immigrant visa interview only on this website.

The U.S. State Department will NOT contact you if you are selected.
The U.S. Department of State will not notify you directly. You should use the Application Status Check page to find out the status of your application.
Your confirmation number is required to access the Application Status Check page. A feature is now available on the Application Status Check page that will allow you to retrieve your confirmation number by entering your e-mail address and some personal information.

It is not possible for U.S. Embassies and Consulates or the Kentucky Consular Center to check your lottery results or provide you with your confirmation number. The U.S. Department of State will not publish a list of winners who will proceed with visa processing.
The U.S. Department of State will not send you a notification letter. The U.S. Government has never sent an e-mail to individuals informing them that they have won.

If you have won the lottery, you will only receive e-mail messages after you respond to the information instructions on the Application Status Check page.

Only websites with the ".gov" extension are official websites of the U.S. government. There are many other web addresses (such as ".com" or ".org" or ".net") that provide information and services related to visas and immigration. Regardless of the content of sites other than government sites, the State Department does not endorse, approve or recommend any of the information provided on those sites.

You may receive emails from some websites asking you to send money or provide personal information. Please ignore them.

These deceptive messages may come from people claiming to be affiliated with the Kentucky Consular Center or the U.S. Department of State. The U.S. Government has never sent an email to people telling them they have won. The State Department will never ask you to send money through the mail or through organizations like Western Union.
Official notification will be made on the Application Status Check page of the E-DV website at dvprogram.state.gov. The U.S. Department of State will not notify winners by mail or email. If you receive an email or letter informing you that you have won the E-DV program, please know that this is not a legitimate message. Any information you receive from the U.S. Department of State will direct you to the Application Status Check page. The U.S. Department of State will not ask you to send money by mail or through services such as Western Union.

Applications for each geographic area will be individually numbered. When the registration period ends, a computer will make a random selection from the applications received for each geographic area. Within each region, the first selected application will be the first registration, the second selected application will be the second registration, and so on.

All applications submitted from a region during the registration period will have the same chance of being selected. The Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) will handle the files of the winners who win the lottery and respond to the instructions provided on the Application Status Check page.

The KCC will follow up on the files until the visa interview dates are set at the U.S. Embassy or until the applications are filed with immigration for those who are in the United States and will be changing their visa status there.
Yes, persons eligible for adjustment of status under Section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) may apply to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for adjustment to legal immigrant status.

Since the program ends on September 30, change of status applicants must ensure that all processing for themselves, their spouse and children under 21 years of age, and their non-U.S. family members can be completed by Immigration before September 30.
The death of the lottery winner prior to travel to the U.S. or change of status in the U.S. will result in automatic cancellation of the DV file. The spouse and children in the DV file will lose their DV visa benefits and any visas issued, if any, will be invalidated.
No, DV visa applicants do not receive airfare, housing and employment assistance, or financial assistance. If you win the lottery, you will need to provide proof(s) in your DV application that you will not be a burden to the government when you arrive in the United States.

If you are selected and apply for a diversity visa, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the State Department's public information guidance on how being a burden on the government is considered and how to overcome it.