Diversity visa lottery
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State to provide for a new class of immigrants known as "diversity immigrants" (DV immigrants). The Program makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. On average, between 10 and 20 Costa Ricans receive these visas each year. The lottery registration period will run from Wednesday noon, EST on October 3, 2007 until Sunday noon, EST on December 2, 2007. No entries will be accepted after noon on December 2, 2007. Due to the high number of applicants, the Department of State encourages the DV lottery entrants to apply early.
NOTE: There is no fee for applying for this visa and you can do it very simply online. Many companies offer to “help” and charge fees for this. This is not necessary and no company can increase your chance of being selected. The only site for this program is: http://www.dvlottery.state.gov
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 US 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.
Applicant must be a native of one of the eligible countries
Native of a country whose nationals qualify: In most cases this means the country in which the applicant was born.
However, if a person was born in a country whose nationals are ineligible but his/her spouse was born in a country whose nationals are eligible, such persons can claim the spouse’s country of birth provided both the applicant and spouse are issued visas and enter the US simultaneously. If a person was born in a country whose nationals are ineligible, but neither of his/her parents was born there or resided there at the time of the birth, such person may be able to claim nationality in one of the parents’ country of birth.
NO fee is charged to enter the annual DV program. The US Government employs no outside consultants or private services to operate the DV program. Any intermediaries or others who offer assistance to prepare DV casework for applicants do so without the authority or consent of the US Government. Use of any outside intermediary or assistance to prepare a DV entry is entirely at the applicant's discretion.
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 US Department of Labor’s O*Net OnLine database will be used to determine qualifying work experience. Applicants will also find a link to a Labor Department list of qualifying occupations at the Consular Affairs website.
If the applicant cannot meet these requirements, he or she should NOT submit an entry to the DV program.
Procedures for Submitting an Entry for the Diversity Visa Lottery
The Department of State will only accept completed Electronic Diversity Visa (EDV) Entry Forms submitted electronically at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov during the annual registration period. Failure to complete the form in its entirety will disqualify the applicant’s entry.
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 entries for them.
Paper entries are not accepted.
A successfully registered entry will result in the display of a confirmation screen containing your name, date of birth, country of chargeability, and a date/time stamp. You may print this confirmation screen for your records.
Selection of Applicants
Applicants will be selected at random by computer from among all qualified entries. Those selected will be notified by mail between May and July 2008 and will be provided further instructions, including information on fees connected with immigration to the U.S.
Those selected at random will NOT be notified by email. Persons not selected will NOT receive any notification. U.S. embassies and consulates will not be able to provide a list of successful applicants. Spouses and unmarried children of successful applicants under age 21 may also apply for visas to accompany or follow to join the principal applicant.
In order to actually receive a visa, applicants selected in the random drawing must meet ALL eligibility requirements under US law. Processing of entries and issuance of diversity visas to successful applicants and their eligible family members MUST occur by midnight on September 30th, 2008. Under no circumstances can diversity visas be issued or adjustments approved after this date, nor can family members obtain diversity visas to follow to join the applicant in the U.S. after this date.
You may contact the consular section by e-mail at consularsanjose@state.gov. Please write “Diversity Visa” in the subject line.
|
