Instructions for the 2008 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2008)

Commonly known as the "green card lottery," the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program allows eligible foreign nationals to participate in a lottery of 50,000 immigrant visas (green cards) each year. The visa lottery was established to ensure diversity in the immigrant population of the United States.

PROCEDURES FOR SUBMITTING AN ENTRY TO DV-2008

The Department of State will only accept completed Electronic Diversity Visa (EDV) Entry Forms submitted electronically at www.dvlottery.state.gov during the registration period beginning at 12:00 pm EST (GMT-5) on Wednesday, October 4, 2006 and ending at 12:00 pm EST (GMT-5) on Sunday, December 3, 2006.

REQUIREMENTS FOR ENTRY

Applicant must be a native of one of the eligible countries. Natives of Brazil, Canada, mainland China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Peru, Poland, Russia, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories and Vietnam are not eligible to apply because they sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the previous five years.

Native of a country whose natives qualify: In most cases this means the country in which the applicant was born. However, there are two other ways a person may be able to qualify. First, if a person was born in a country whose natives are ineligible but his/her spouse was born in a country whose natives are eligible, such person can claim the spouse's country of birth provided both the applicant and spouse are issued visas and enter the U.S. simultaneously. Second, if a person was born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but neither of his/her parents was born there or resided there at the time of his/her birth, such person may claim nativity in one of the parents' country of birth if it is a country whose natives qualify for the DV-2008 program.

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.

• 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 entry for them.
• Successfully registered entries will result in the display of a confirmation screen containing the applicant's name, date of birth, country of chargeability, and a date/time stamp. The applicant may print this confirmation screen for his/her records using the print function of their web browser.
• Paper entries will not be accepted.
• The entry will be disqualified if all required photos are not submitted. A digital photo (image) of each applicant, his/her spouse, and children must be submitted on-line with the EDV Entry Form. The image file can be produced either by taking a new digital photograph or by scanning a photographic print with a digital scanner.

For detailed instructions, please go here.

For more information please contact your SGR Immigration counsel.

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