Green Card Lottery

The Diversity Immigrant Visa program, also known as the green card lottery, is a United States congressionally mandated lottery program for receiving a United States Permanent Resident Card. The Immigration Act of 1990 established the current and permanent Diversity Visa (DV) program.

The lottery is administered by the Department of State and conducted under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) as amended by the Immigration Act of 1990. The lottery makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually and aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants from countries with low rates of immigration in the five years prior.

To enter the lottery, applicants must have been born in an eligible country. If selected, to qualify for the immigrant visa, they must have completed at least a high school education or at least two years of work experience in an occupation which requires at least two other years of training or experience. They must also satisfy general immigration requirements, such as means of support, no criminal background, and good health.

Eligibility is determined by the applicant's country of birth. In some cases the applicant may use a parent's or spouse's country of birth instead. The country of residence or nationality is irrelevant.

The visas are distributed among six regions including Africa, Asia, Europe (including Turkey, Cyprus, and all countries in the former Soviet Union), Latin America (Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America), North America (consisting only of Canada and the Bahamas), and Oceania.

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