Category Archives: Diversity Visa Lottery

The results of the “DV-2014″ Diversity Visa Lottery (also called the “Green Card Lottery”) are now available, as of May 1, 2013, from the U.S. State Department. Winners will not receive any calls, emails, or other communications advising them — they need to go online and check the results themselves. (In fact, if you’ve received any calls or emails claiming you’ve won, it’s probably a scam, so watch out!)

For detailed instructions on finding out whether you have won, see the “How Will You Know If You Have Been Selected for the DV Lottery?” article on Nolo’s website. And if you have won, you’ll need to act quickly, so be sure to read, “How to Read the Diversity Visa Lottery Cutoff Numbers on the DOS Visa Bulletin” and other articles on the “Diversity Visa Lottery Green Cards” page of the Nolo website.

If you didn’t win this time around, I’d like to wish you better luck next year — except that there may not be a next year. The current, Senate version of proposed comprehensive immigration reform would eliminate the DV lottery in favor of other grounds of immigration eligibility.

Today’s the day (October 2, 2012) to enter the annual Diversity Visa Lottery (DV-2014)! That is, if you’re from one of the eligible countries and have the proper educational or work background, as described in “Do You Meet the Education or Work Experience Requirements of the Diversity Visa Program?”

Entries can be made only online, via the State Department’s lottery page. The final day for registering is November 3, 2012 at noon Eastern time.

Registration is free, so don’t be fooled by scam artists wanting to charge money to help you enter! Also be sure to read the articles on the “Diversity Visa Lottery Green Cards” page of Nolo’s website, which will not only provide further information on this topic in plain English, but help you understand what happens if your name is drawn as a “winner.” You’ll need to act quickly in order to turn that winning slot into an actual green card.

Wondering whether you can enter the United States green card (diversity visa) lottery this year? The U.S. Department of State (DOS) just published the instructions, which includes this year’s list of eligible and non-eligible countries. As you may know, the visa lottery is open only to natives of countries whose citizens are the least represented when it comes to U.S. immigration, so the list changes annually.

For DV-2014, here’s the list of countries whose natives are not eligible to register:

BANGLADESH
BRAZIL
CANADA
CHINA (mainland-born)
COLOMBIA
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
ECUADOR
EL SALVADOR
HAITI
INDIA
JAMAICA
MEXICO
PAKISTAN
PERU
PHILIPPINES
SOUTH KOREA
UNITED KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and
VIETNAM.

If you don’t see your country’s name on the list, and you meet the other eligibility requirements (described at “Winning a Green Card Through the Visa Lottery“), you are free to submit a registration, which you can do between noon on October 2, 2012, and noon on Saturday, November 3, 2012. (These are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4).) Last year’s country list included Guatemala, but not this year’s!

If you submitted an entry for the DV-2013 lottery (meaning you would have done so in the fall of 2011), tomorrow, May 1, 2012, is when you’ll be able to find out the results. They won’t be announced publicly: You will need to go to the State Department’s Electronic Diversity Visa website and enter your confirmation number, name, and year of birth.

If you win, congratulations — but realize that you are only at the beginning of the green card application process. You will need to submit various forms and documents, and prove that you are not inadmissible to the U.S. (for health, security, or financial reasons), and do so before the visas run out. (For more on inadmissibility, see Inadmissibility: When the U.S. Can Keep You Out.)

It might be worth your while to hire an experienced immigration attorney to help with this part of the process.