Winning the USA Green Card Lottery

Diversity Visa or Green Card Lottery is basically a program conducted by the US Department of State Kentucky Consular Center which assigns US citizenship to 50,000 people from different regions. To submit a diversity visa application you must be eligible as per the criteria defined by US immigration authorities.

How Can You Win a USA Green Card Lottery?

The lottery program has no age limitations, which means that people of every age group can take part in the lottery program. However there are certain eligibility requirements that should be kept in mind when you participate in the USA green card lottery program.

  • First of all, you must hold citizenship of a qualifying country.
  • Your education should be at least high school or equivalent or you should have professional working experience of 2 years during the past 5 years. This automatically rules out applicants below the age of 18.

As per the requirements, you need to submit an application using the online USA green card lottery form.

A strict rule has been made which restricts an applicant from submitting more than one application during a year. If you have submitted more than one application, it will be declined right away and you will not be able to participate in the USA green card lottery program.

Moreover, if you are married, you need to include the name of your spouse, and details of his/her nationality. You will also have to include the same information of your child(ren) below the age of 21, if any. However, if your spouse or children hold US nationality then there is no need to include their details in the form.

Selection Criteria and Further Process:

All applications received by Kentucky Consular Center are checked for accuracy and any application without the required information is set aside. The complete applications are assigned a unique number which is also known as registration number.

Now, with the help of an automated system, 50,000 applications are randomly shortlisted in a way that each application has equal chances to be included in the lottery. Each selected application is again assigned a serial number. For instance, the first randomly selected entry will be numbered 1; second will be numbered 2, third as 3 and so on.

Applicants can check their case status online at the government website using their confirmation number. This is the only way to check the results. Winning candidates will be provided with further instructions and information about fees.

Once you have received a confirmation of a formal interview with immigration authorities, you need to prepare yourself and for this you will have time of at least one month to 6 weeks. If everything goes well in the interview, you will be issued a visa.

Each year, the entries selected in the lottery program are in excess to the number of visas that will be issued. This is because not every selected applicant qualifies for the green card nor does everyone choose to complete the green card lottery process. USA Green Card Lottery program is closed once all 50,000 visas are allotted.