The 2017 United States Diversity Lottery Program is administered yearly by the Department of State. That said, Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants” from countries/regions that are historically underrepresented to travel and live in the United States. For the Year 2017, about 50,000 Diversity (DVs) will be awarded to deserving international applicants. You dont have to pay any amount to register for the DV program. Applicants who are selected in to the program (“selectees”) must meet simple, but strict, eligibility requirements in order to qualify for a diversity visa. Selectees are chosen through a randomized computer drawing. Diversity visas are distributed among six geographic regions and no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.
Country Eligibility
For DV-2017, Please note that nationals of the following countries are not eligible to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years. The countries are; Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible. Changes in eligibility this year: None
Individual Eligibility
Eligibility Requirement #1: Applicants who hail from countries whose citizens qualify may be eligible to enter. If you were not born in an eligible country, there are two other ways you might be able to qualify. Was your spouse born in a country whose natives are eligible? If yes, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth—provided that both you and your spouse are named on the selected entry, are issued diversity visas, and enter the United States simultaneously. Were you born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but in which neither of your parents was born or legally resident at the time of your birth? If yes, you may claim the country of birth of one of your parents if it is a country whose natives are eligible for the DV-2017 program. For more details on what this means, see the Frequently Asked Questions.
Requirement #2: Each DV applicant must meet the education/work experience requirement of the DV program by having either: at least a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of formal 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. The U.S. Department of Labor’s O*Net Online database will be used to determine qualifying work experience. For more information about qualifying work experience, see the Frequently Asked Questions. Do not submit an entry to the DV program unless you meet both of these requirements.
Deadline
Entry period Entries for the DV-2017 program must be submitted electronically at www.dvlottery.state.gov between noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Thursday, October 1, 2015, and noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Tuesday, November 3, 2015. Do not wait until the last week of the registration period to enter, as heavy demand may result in website delays. No late entries or paper entries will be accepted. The law allows only one entry by or for each person during each registration period.
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