News & Publications

Garvey Schubert Barer Legal Update, November 13, 2009.

The U.S. Department of State will accept applications for the 2011 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2011) green card lottery starting between Noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Friday, October 2, 2009, and Noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Monday, November 30, 2009.

This program makes available up to 55,000 permanent resident immigrant visas each year by random selection. The visas are distributed among six geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years. 

Within each region, no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year. “Natives” of Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland,South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam are not eligible. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible. For DV-2011, no countries have been added or removed from the previous year’s list of eligible countries. The Department of State’s rules define the meaning of “native” and other eligibility requirements. 

Applicants must meet either the education or work experience requirement of the DV program. Each applicant is limited to only one entry. Applicants must list qualified and eligible family members. A husband and a wife may each submit a separate entry if eligible and list the other. The Department utilizes special technology and other means to identify those who commit fraud for the purposes of illegal immigration or those who submit multiple entries. If a person is selected, that person’s spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 may also apply for visas to accompany or follow-to-join the principal applicant. 

The Department of State will only accept completed Electronic Diversity Visa (E-DV) Entry Forms submitted electronically at www.dvlottery.state.gov during the registration period. A digital photo (image) of each applicant, his/her spouse, and each unmarried child under 21 years of age, must be submitted online with the E-DV Entry Form. A successfully registered entry will result in the display of a confirmation screen containing the applicant’s name and a unique confirmation number, which should be printed and retained for later use. 

The government’s computer will randomly select individuals from among all qualified entries. The selected individuals will be notified by mail, not by e-mail, between May and July 2010. The notification letters will provide further instructions, including information on fees connected with immigration to the U.S. Those individuals not selected will not receive any notification. Starting July 1, 2010, every entrant will be able to check on the status of their entry by returning to the Web site and entering their unique confirmation number and personal information. 

We strongly encourage any qualified and eligible person to apply for DV-2011. Please let us know if we can assist you with the application. Those who choose to enter the DV?2011 on their own or who would like to read more about eligibility requirements, may obtain a copy of the instructions from the Department of State’s Web site: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html.