The US Green Card Lottery Is Still Open

By Felicia J. Persaud

News Americas, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, Fri. Nov. 5, 2021: Thinking about winning a US green card by lottery? Well, you may be in luck, at least for the 2023.

The registration for this year’s green card or Diversity Visa Lottery is still open for the 2023 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (“DV-2023”). Online registration will conclude on Tuesday, November 9, 2021, at 12:00 p.m. (ET).

The DV lottery program selects 55,000 people annually who can then pursue an immigrant visa at a U.S. embassy or consulate in their home country or adjust their status in the United States.

The Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Program requires the principal DV applicant to have a high school education, or its equivalent, or two years of qualifying work experience as defined under provisions of U.S. law. If you do not have either the required education or qualifying work experience, you are not eligible for a diversity visa.

A high school education means successful completion of a formal course of elementary and secondary education comparable to a 12-year course in the United States.

If you are qualifying with work experience, you must have two years of experience in the last five years, in an occupation which, by U.S. Department of Labor definitions, requires at least two years of training or experience that is classified in a Specific Vocational Preparation (SVP) rating of 7.0 or higher.

The Department of State’s regulations require all entrants to provide a valid passport number at the time of DV entry, unless they are unable to obtain a passport and fall under one of three limited exemptions. The passport must be valid for international travel. Internal passports, issued by some countries, are not valid for DV entry purposes.

To enter the lottery, you should fill out a form online at dvprogram.state.gov. Ensure all photos uploaded are professional passport sized digital images. Eyeglasses will no longer be allowed in new visa photos.

Entries will NOT be accepted through the U.S. Postal Service. The online entry application is easy and free so do not fall for scammers who charge any fees and claim they can help you win.

The U.S. State Departmentrecommends applying sooner rather than later since high demand could cause website delays. There is no fee to register for the annual DV lottery program.

However, nationals of the following countries arenot eligibleto apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years. They are: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

The winners are chosen at random by a computer, which allocates a certain number of visas to each region of the world. While DV applicants may receive an email from the U.S. government reminding them to check their status online through DV Entrant Status Check, they will not receive a notification letter or email informing them that they are a successful DV entrant. Applicants can only find out if they were selected to continue with DV processing by checking their status online through the DV Entrant Status Check at https://dvprogram.state.gov.

Finally, remember that fees for the DV application process are paid to the U.S. Embassy or consulate cashier at the time of your scheduled appointment. The U.S. government will never ask you to send payment in advance by check, money order, or wire transfer.

When entering the U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery, the most basic way to ensure you are not scammed or your entry is not disqualified is to read and follow the instructions at the Diversity Visa Program page on travel.state.gov.  Just as important is to be honest!  Entering fake information or submitting fake documents may disqualify your entry or even keep you from ever coming to the United States even if you win.

The writer is publisher of NewsAmericasNow