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DV Lottery Instructions

The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 to provide for a new class of immigrants known as "diversity immigrants" (DV immigrants). The Act makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The instructions for the 2006 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program are also available in PDF Format. The registration period for the DV-2006 Lottery ended at noon EST on January 7, 2005.  Entries can no longer be accepted.

The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. Applicants for Diversity Visas are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing. The visas, however, are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.

For DV-2006, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply because they sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the previous five years:

CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, RUSSIA, SOUTH KOREA, UNITED KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and VIETNAM. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible.

ENTRIES FOR THE DV-2006 DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY MUST BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY BETWEEN FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2004 AND FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 2005. APPLICANTS MAY ACCESS THE ELECTRONIC DIVERSITY VISA ENTRY FORM AT 'WWW.DVLOTTERY.STATE.GOV' DURING THE REGISTRATION PERIOD BEGINNING NOON NOVEMBER5. PAPER ENTRIES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. APPLICANTS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST WEEK OF THE REGISTRATION PERIOD TO ENTER. HEAVY DEMAND MAY RESULT IN DELAYS. NO ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER NOON ON JANUARY 7, 2005

REQUIREMENTS FOR ENTRY
Applicant must be a native of one of the countries listed beginning on page 13. See “List Of Countries By Region Whose Natives Qualify.”

Native of a country whose natives qualify: In most cases this means the country in which the applicant was born. However, there are two other ways a person may be able to qualify. First, if a person was born in a country whose natives are ineligible but his/her spouse was born in a country whose natives are eligible, such person can claim the spouse's country of birth provided both the applicant and spouse are issued visas and enter the U.S. simultaneously. Second, if a person was born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but neither of his/her parents was born there or resided there at the time of his/her birth, such person may claim nativity in one of the parents' country of birth if it is a country whose natives qualify for the DV-2006 program.
Applicant must meet either the education or training requirement of the DV program.

Education or Training: An applicant must have EITHER a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; OR two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform. The U.S. Department of Labor's O*Net OnLine database will be used to determine qualifying work experience.
If the applicant cannot meet these requirements, he or she should NOT submit an entry to the DV program.

The term "country" in this notice includes countries, economies and other jurisdictions explicitly listed beginning on page 13. ont
PROCEDURES FOR SUBMITTING AN ENTRY TO DV-2006

The Department of State will only accept completed Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Forms submitted electronically at font color during the registration period beginning at 12:00 pm EST (GMT-5) on November 5, 2004 and ending at 12:00 pm EST (GMT-5) on January 7, 2005.
All entries by an applicant will be disqualified if more than ONE entry for the applicant is received, regardless of who submitted the entry. Applicants may prepare and submit their own entries, or have someone submit the entry for them.
Successfully registered entries will result in the display of a confirmation screen containing the applicant's name, date of birth, country of chargeability, and a date/time stamp. The applicant may print this confirmation screen for his/her records using the print function of their web browser.
Paper entries will not be accepted.
The entry will be disqualified if all required photos are not submitted. Recent photographs of the applicant and his/her spouse and each child under 21 years of age, including all natural children as well as all legally-adopted and stepchildren (except a child who is already a U.S. citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident), even if a child no longer resides with the applicant or is not intended to immigrate under the DV program, must be submitted electronically with the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form. Group or family photos will not be accepted; there must be a separate photo for each family member.

A digital photo (image) of each applicant, his/her spouse, and children must be submitted on-line with the EDV Entry Form. The image file can be produced either by taking a new digital photograph or by scanning a photographic print with a digital scanner.
Instructions for Submitting a Digital Photo (Image)

The image file must adhere to the following compositional specifications and technical specifications and can be produced in one of the following ways:

Taking a new digital image.
Using a digital scanner to scan a submitted photograph.

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