lottery green card

The green card lottery is known in the whole world. The US is proud to be country of immigrants. However, far more people from certain countries, e.g. Mexico, China and the Philippines are coming to the USA than from most of the others.

In order to maintain a diversity in the population, US laws regulate immigration from particular regions of the world via the lottery green card.

Since the early 1990s the US government has granted annually 55,000 GreenCards via the lottery green card (the official name is Diversity-Visa-Program). The selection of the winners is a random procedure, but the chances are about 1 in 25.

Almost everyone can participate in the lottery green card. Excluded are only those countries with a rate of immigrants to the USA far above average over the last five years. But it is possible that these excluded countries can participate again in coming years.

Individuals who were born in any of the above-mentioned excluded countries may apply for the lottery green card, if their spouses were born in one of the DV-2012-eligible countries, or if the individuals were born in an excluded country while parents (both not born in this excluded country) of said individuals were only temporary residents of the excluded, non-eligible countries.

The only other requirement for the participation in the lottery green card is 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. Proof of these prerequisites are only necessary when and if a lottery participant wins a GreenCard. They are not necessary when you are simply submitting the application.

Links: USCIS | us greencard | Adjustment of Status | us visa |