DV lottery program is mainly based on luck. Through this Green Card Lottery program, winners for Green Cards are chosen through a random lottery drawing which is computer generated.
The Diversity Visa Lottery (DV) Program or the USA Green Card Lottery program renders 50,000 immigrant visas to people around the world. The winners are issued Green Cards or Permanent Resident Cards, which authorize them and their families to live and work in America.
The US Department of State announces the regulations related to the submission of applications for DV lottery program every year. It also announces the date of commencement of application submissions before the initiation of the actual entry process.
After you submit your application, it will be saved in the computer database. The submitted applications will not be processed before the submission period ends. Once the processing begins, all the entries will be grouped according to the regions. Before processing, all the forms will be checked for completeness and incorrect forms will be rejected. If you had submitted more than one entry in your name, then your application will also be rejected. This is because a person is allowed to submit only one entry. But separate entries may be filed by the family members. Both husband and wife can submit separate entries, and include the names of the spouse and eligible dependents in their entries.
As there are millions of Green Card applications every year, every application requires careful and strict verification. After the verification process is complete, the entries are numbered into cases and are subjected to computer processing. Then the applicants are selected through a random computer generated lottery drawing.
Applicants can check their case status using the confirmation number they get as soon as they application has been submitted successfully. You can check the results at https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ . The winners will be required to appear at the regional US consulate for an interview. All the documents which are required to prove your eligibility to enter the United States will be checked and background checks will be conducted. You must also possess a valid passport. Hence, winning the lottery alone does not ensure that you will definitely get a US visa. Once the numerical limit for visas is fulfilled and after the issuance of the 50,000 visas, the DV lottery program for the particular year will end.
After the interview and the background check, the winners will be eligible to file an immigration petition. The applicants who had won must be eligible for an immigrant visa under the immigration laws of the United States.
Through the DV lottery program, the winners will be issued a visa valid for 6 months. You must enter the United States within the 6 months before your visa could expire and must get a permanent resident certificate in order to stay in the United States, permanently.
Through the DV lottery program, the entries can be submitted free of charge. Only the winners will be required to pay the visa processing fee.