The USA is very proud to be a country of immigrants. However, far more people are coming to the USA from certain countries than from others. The USA therefore established the Diversity Visa Program, also known as the green card lottery. The number (f.e. 2012) in the DV Program represents the American fiscal year starting on October 1st 2011 and ending at the end of September 2012. In the same period the winners will receive their GreenCard.
Every year the USA grants 55,000 visa within the dvlottery. The application is easy and almost everyone can participate.
The only exceptions are persons born in a country with a very high rate of emigration into the US. Important for the application in the dvlottery is the country of your birth, in accordance with current world political maps.
If you are born in a country which is excluded from the dvlottery, you may still apply, if your spouse were born in one of the dvlottery eligible countries, or if you were born in an excluded country while your parents (both not born in this excluded country) were only temporary residents of the excluded, non-eligible countries.
The second requirement you have to reach is a certain level of education. In order to participate in the dvlottery you need to have a certification of completion of secondary school education (comparable to the US high school diploma) or a minimum of two years' work experience (within the past five years) in a profession which requires at least two years of training. It is important to know that the proof of these prerequisites is only necessary when and if a lottery participant wins a green card. They are not necessary when you are simply submitting the application.
The application can be filled out online or via regular mail and you need to send a color picture of each family member together with your application. After submitting your application you have to wait. The winners will only be notified between May and July of the following year.
We want to wish everyone good luck with the application for the dvlottery.
