Immigration: Green Card Lottery

This article discusses the provision of the green card lottery to immigrants who want to live and work in the U. S. and what is entailed in winning the lottery.

The green card lottery was established by the Immigration Act of 1990 to benefit people from countries that had sent the fewest number of immigrants into the U. S. Because winners are selected through a random draw, the name Green Card Lottery became popular, however the official name is the Diversity Immigration Visa Lottery.

Who qualifies?

There is a provision of 50000 visas to be issued to winners each year. These winners are chosen by dividing the world into regions and allocating no more than 7% of the total available green cards to each region. There are two main deciding factors to determining whether you qualify to be a winner in the lottery:

1.Country of birth – people from most countries are eligible to apply for the lottery however, each year a list of countries that are not eligible for the lottery are announced. For the application period of October 4, 2016 – November 7, 2016 the following countries were not eligible for the 2016 lottery:

?Bangladesh

?Brazil

?Canada

?China (mainland)

?Colombia

?Dominican Republic

?El Salvador

?Haiti

?India

?Jamaica

?Mexico

?Nigeria

?Pakistan

?Peru

?Philippines

?South Korea

?United Kingdom and its territories (excluding Northern Ireland)

?Vietnam

Different countries that qualify are selected each year based on the nation, which region of the world they fall into and whether they sent the least number of immigrants into the U. S. for the last five years, in relation to the country’s population.

2.Employability – while focus may be obscured by an applicant’s country of birth, their ability to be employed once they have entered into the U. S. is of the essence. Unfortunately in this regard most applicants fail. The standard requirement under employability is:

?A high school diploma or its equivalent

?A minimum of two years’ experience in a job that requires two years training or experience; this two years must have been in the last five years.

Applicants who were born in an eligible country, meet the employability criteria and other eligibility criteria can submit their applications each year to the State Department website and attach a digital photo of themselves, spouse and child. Applications are free. Applications do not carry over to the next year but must be applied for afresh each year. In order to find out if your application was successful keep your confirmation number and check the State Department website. You will not receive notification that you have won.

If you have won, you need to follow up quickly as the U. S government declares more lottery winners than the available green cards and these can thus run out. Once you have won, it is still not a guarantee that you will receive the green card. You must prove that you will be able to support yourself financially in the U. S. which can be a challenge for most winners. You must also prove that you are not inadmissible as a result of crimes or illness.

For professional assistance with your green card lottery application hire a Dearborn immigration lawyer.

If you need a lawyer for the immigration process in Columbus, Ohio the author recommends Herman Legal Group.