Diversity Visa Program 2024 All You Need To Know
What is the DV Lottery?
The Diversity Visa Program (DV Lottery) is congressionally-mandated and allows up to 55,000 persons from nations that are historically underrepresented in terms of migration to the United States of America to qualify each year for immigrant visas which are also known as Green Cards.
The program is called the “Green Card Lottery” or “dvlottery” because the winners are determined through a random drawing from among the 10–12 million people who enter each year worldwide.
The US is proud to be a country of immigrants. However, far more people are coming to the USA from certain countries than from others. For example, just those immigrating from Mexico, China, and the Philippines are by far outnumbering those from most of the other countries accumulated. In order to maintain diversity in the population, US laws regulate immigration from particular regions of the world.
For this reason, the USA has been randomly distributed 55,000 so-called Green Cards in the DV Lottery every year since 1994.
You can enter the U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery for free at dvprogram.state.gov or use our service if you need any help with the application process.
Am I eligible for DV Lottery 2024?
Almost everyone can apply for the Diversity Visa Lottery! There are only two requirements to qualify for a U.S. Green Card:
Country of birth in accordance with current world political maps
Natives of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the
United States may be eligible to enter.
If you are not a native of a country with historically low rates of immigration to the United
States, there are two other ways you might be able to qualify.
- Is your spouse a native of a country with historically low rates of immigration to the
United States? If yes, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth – provided that
you and your spouse are named on the selected entry, are found eligible and issued
diversity visas, and enter the United States at the same time. - Are you a native of a country that does not have historically low rates of
immigration to the United States, but in which neither of your parents was born or
legally resident at the time of your birth? If yes, you may claim the country of birth
of one of your parents if it is a country whose natives are eligible for the DV-2023
program.
education and/or working experiences
- at least a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of
a 12-year course of formal elementary and secondary education. - two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation that requires
at least two years of training or experience to perform. The Department of State will
use the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*Net Online database to determine qualifying
work experience.
Use the DV Lottery Check to find out with just a few clicks if you qualify for the DV Lottery 2024!
Exclude Natives of the following countries Everybody is eligible for the Green Card Lottery
- Bangladesh
- Brazil
- Canada
- China (mainland only)
- Colombia
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Haiti
- India
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Peru
- Philippines
- South Korea
- United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland)
- Vietnam
You may still be able to participate in the USA Diversity Visa Lottery based on the country of birth of your parents or spouse if you were born in a non-qualifying country:For example, if you were born in a country whose natives are ineligible to enter the green card lottery, but your spouse was born in a country whose natives are eligible to enter the green card lottery, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth as your country of eligibility. I.e. you may claim changeability to the country where your derivative spouse was born, provided that both you and your spouse are on the selected green card lottery application, but you will not be issued a diversity visa green card unless.
- your spouse is also eligible for and issued a diversity visa green card,
- and both of you must enter the United States together with the diversity visa green cards.
Example: If you were born in Canada, whose natives are ineligible to enter the green card lottery, but your spouse was born in Spain, whose natives are eligible to enter the green card lottery, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth (Spain) as your country of eligibility as long as you include your spouse on your green card lottery application.
When is Dv Lottery 2024?
Each year, over 20 million people across the world look forward to October because it is when Green Card Lottery applications for the Diversity Visa Program open. Getting a Green Card to the United States means being able to live their dream by moving to the United States.
Applications for the DV-2024 lottery are accepted until November 8, 2022 and the lottery draw will be held on March 1, 2023 and the winners will be published on May 7, 2023. Winners of this years lottery will have to submit immigration forms and attend an interview after May 7, 2023 and due to this process winners can enter the United States in January 2024 on their new permanent resident card also refereed to as a green card.
Many applicants submit their applications on their own using the free service provided by the U.S. government without knowing the risk of doing it themselves. Looking at 20 years of application submission statistics, over 65% of all applicants doing it independently are disqualified by the U.S. Government because of errors in their application.
How can I apply for the DV Lottery?
Participation in the annual DV Lottery is basically free of charge and all eligible persons can register for it on the website of the U.S. Department of State. However, what many do not know is: In every lottery up to 40% of all participants are disqualified because of formal or deadline errors in their application!
The admission or rejection of applications for the Diversity Visa Lottery is an electronic process, but participants are not informed about the outcome. Whether the application will end up in the lottery or not won’t be communicated.
However, the Green Card service agency The American Dream guarantees your participation in the official DV Lottery!
Each application is individually checked by state-approved emigration consultants and is submitted to the US authorities in due form and time.
How much does it cost to enter the Diversity Visa program?
There is no fee charged to submit an electronic entry. However, if you are selected and apply for a
Diversity Visa, you must pay all required visa application fees at the time of visa application and interview
directly to the consular cashier at the U.S. embassy or consulate. If you are a selectee already in the United
States and you apply to USCIS to adjust status, you will pay all required fees directly to USCIS. If you are
selected, you will receive details of required fees with the instructions provided through the E-DV website at
dvprogram.state.gov.
How and where do I pay DV and immigrant visa fees if I am selected?
If you are a randomly selected entrant, you will receive instructions for the DV application process through
Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov. You will pay all fees in person only at the U.S. embassy or
consulate at the time of the visa application. The consular cashier will immediately give you a U.S.
government receipt for payment. Do not send money for DV fees to anyone through the mail, Western Union,
or any other delivery service if you are applying for an immigrant visa at a U.S. embassy or consulate.
If you are selected and are already present in the United States and plan to file for adjustment of status with
USCIS, the instructions page accessible through Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov contains
separate instructions on how to mail adjustment of status application fees to a U.S. bank.
Advantages of a US Green Card
A US Green Card gives you the legal right to live and work permanently in the United States. In addition, you have almost all the rights of a US citizen!
- unlimited entry to the USA – no need for a US Visa or ESTA anymore!
- Live without restrictions in any US state.
- Holding of the previous citizenship.
- After three or five years you can apply for US citizenship.
DV Lottery Status Check
In May 2022, you can check your result for DV-2023 with the entrant status check – are you a winner of the DV Lottery?
Note: You can only check your DV-2023 Green Card Lottery result if you applied before Nov. 9th, 2021.
You will be able to check your results of DV-2024 in May 2023. Subscribe to our newsletter if you need a reminder and to stay informed about the latest DV Lottery news!
History of the DV Program
The famous immigrant visa was first introduced in the 1940s as the “Alien Registration Receipt Card”. The first of these credit card-sized IDs bore green writing and a greenish photo. Thus, the expression “Green Card” was coined and quickly became common. Meanwhile, the Green Card has changed its color several times. For a while, it had even been pink, since 1999 a light green shade is used again. More than 10 million foreigners are currently living in the USA with a Green Card.
Since 1994 the DV program has already been executed three times in February, once in November, and several times in October. The responsible institution changed in 2000. The formerly appointed National Visa Center in Portsmouth had to hand the processing over to the Kentucky Consular Center, which since then has been in charge of the receipt and evaluation of the applications.
In the first year, it was still possible to enter several applications per person into the DV lottery. This lead to a few persons applying hundreds of times and thus most probably receiving a Green Card. The effects were a completely overloaded institution and injustices in the distribution, as better-off persons could file more applications. Since then each person is only entitled to submit one application per year and has to trust in Fortuna.
The Diversity Visa (DV) or DV Lottery Program is based on §201 to 204 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) determines the eligible countries and application rules based on a calculation laid down in law. These rules can change from year to year.