USA Green Card Immigration Blog

The Diversity Visa Program (DV) is an annual lottery program for issuing US permanent resident card, which is conducted by the Department of State. This lottery program selects 55,000 immigrants randomly from applications sent from applicants belonging to eligible nations. The Diversity Visa Program is conducted under the terms of the Immigration and Nationality Act and meets the strict requirements of USA Immigration laws. The DOS grants permanent resident visas to applicants from countries, which have low immigration rates to the USA.

This year, the DV-2011 Program was declared open on October 2. Entries were invited from applicants who belong to nations that are eligible for this lottery. The last date for submission of entries was November 30. There was a dramatic increase in the number of entries this year, when compared to the last year. Over 900,000 applications were received in the very first week of registration, a significant 63% increase from last year’s entries in the same period. The DOS expects to receive nearly 13,000,000 entries for the DV-2011 Program.

Natives from certain nations are not eligible for immigration to the US through the Diversity Visa Program. This is because more than 50,000 persons have immigrated to the USA in the past five years from those countries. Applicants from Brazil, Canada, China (Mainland-Born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam are ineligible for the DV program.

Applicants who immigrate to the USA though the Diversity Visa Program are called “diversity immigrants.” These applicants should have completed at least a high school diploma or an equivalent. Else, they should have work experience of two years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training.

Successful DV-2011 program applicants will receive a notification of their selection through mail between May and July, 2010.