by Shelby Gerschick

http://www.dhs.gov/In order to help keep the United States the diverse melting pot it has always been, the immigration authorities, namely the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State, have implemented the Diversity Visa Lottery. The intention was to open the doors to a better life and opportunity for those who otherwise may not be able to immigrate permanently to the United States. The lottery is open to citizens of nations from which the United States receives very little migration in comparison to higher volume nations such as China, India, Mexico and the Philippines.

The impact of the program has been tremendous and wide spread as thousands of individuals and their families have been afforded the opportunity to migrate to the United States and make it their permanent home. We here at Populus Group pride ourselves on our diversity and we are proud to say that we have an individual on our team who was the beneficiary of a Diversity Visa and she and her family immigrated to the United States permanently.

The registration for the diversity visa is happening right now! The registration for the lottery began on October 1, 2015 and runs until November 3, 2015. The Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery Program allows 50,000 people to hold a legal permanent resident (“green card”) visa.

With only a few days left to submit an application for a diversity visa, let’s dive into the logistics diversity visa is. The Diversity Immigration Visa Program is distributed in a lottery style. It can account for up to 50,000 visas distributed annually in the US. The Diversity Visa Program is for individuals who come from countries with low rates of immigration into the US. Some of these countries include: Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan. Once a country has 50,000 or more immigrants who have come into the U.S. within five years, that country’s natives would be ineligible to participate in the Diversity Immigration Visa Program.

In a recent post, we discussed the H1B visa that happens every year beginning on April 1st. This year there were 233,000 applicants and only 85,000 people were selected into the lottery and later obtain an H1B visa. The diversity visa program essentially works the same way.

First, an applicant would need to register for the lottery, which is purely random. Second, the lottery opens and only 50,000 people are selected. Lastly, once the applicants are selected they then go through an approval process and… Voilà, they then can obtain a green card to become a legal permanent resident in the US able to work.

Here are a couple of fun facts about the DV Lottery Program.

  • It is free, yes I said FREE to apply online.
  • Anyone who submits more than one application is automatically disqualified.
  • It does not matter whether someone is currently inside the US or outside of the US, they can apply if they were born in a qualifying country. Although it is not recommended to apply if one is in the US undocumented.
  • If selected in the DV lottery, the applicant is then allowed to apply for a visa if out of the country. Although they must meet the basic requirements to be granted the visa. Those are: (1) high school diploma or (2) two years’ work experience.
  • Anyone who is selected in the DV lottery and becomes eligible for a green card. Their spouses and children also become eligible for a green card automatically.

To get more information, please visit the Department of State website.

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