Immigration Law Advisory - 2008 Diversity Visa Lottery: Win the (DV) Lottery

Registration for the DV-2008 Diversity Visa Lottery will commence on Wednesday, October 3, 2006.  Those who qualify are eligible to receive an immigrant visa to the United States.

On an annual basis, the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2008) makes a maximum of 55,000 immigrant Diversity Visas (DV) available to people all around the world through a lottery system.  Individuals who are native to countries with low rates of immigration to the United States are eligible to participate in the DV lottery.  A computer-generated lottery, chosen at random, selects applicants from all qualified entries.  The annual DV program allocates permanent resident visas, which grant authorization to live and work in the United States, to persons meeting certain eligibility requirements.  If selected, you will also be allowed to bring your spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 to the United States in permanent resident status.

Eligibility:

There are two simple, yet strict, eligibility requirements:  Nativity and education or work experience.

• You must be a native of one of the qualifying countries to enter the DV lottery. (See list of countries below.)
  Generally, native means the country in which you were born.  However, you may qualify in two other ways:
  
  1. If you were born in a country that is ineligible for the lottery but your spouse was born in a country that is eligible, you can claim your spouse’s country.
  2. If you were born in a country that is ineligible for the lottery, but neither of your parents were born there or lived there at the time of your birth, you are eligible to claim the country of birth of one of your parents, given it is a country which qualifies for the 2008 DV program.
     
• You must either meet the education OR work experience requirements of the DV program.
  
  
  1. You must have a high school education or its equivalent.  This means that you have successfully completed a 12-year course of elementary or secondary education.
     OR
  2. You must have two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform.  Only certain specified occupations qualify for the Diversity Visa Program.  Examples of occupations include accountants, librarians, and registered nurses.  Please contact an attorney for guidance or see the U.S. Department of Labor’s database to determine if you meet the work experience qualifications at http://online.onetcenter.org/. 

If selected, documented proof of education or work experience must be presented at the time of the visa interview.

Applicants may be in the U.S. or abroad and submit an entry.  If you are already in legal status in the U.S., you may still apply for the DV-2008 program.  However, if you are out of legal status, you will not receive special processing or a waiver of any grounds of visa ineligibility.  If you have questions about your status, you should talk to an attorney before you submit an entry.

Procedures:  Submit an entry

There is only one way to enter the 2008-DV lottery.  The Department of State accepts completed Diversity Visa Entry Forms only during the registration period.  For the 2008 registration period, entries for the DV-2008 Diversity Visa lottery must be submitted electronically between Wednesday, October 4, 2006 and Sunday, December 3, 2006.  Paper entries will not be accepted.  The electronic entry form can only be accessed at www.dvlottery.state.gov.  Early registration is strongly recommended, as those who wait may experience excessive demand at the end of the registration period and may be unable to submit their application in time.

Every person who qualifies for the DV-2008 program is eligible to submit ONE entry for the program each year during the registration period.  This means that a husband and wife may each submit one entry if they meet the requirements.  If either were chosen, the other would be entitled to receive derivative status.  Applicants will be disqualified if more than one entry is received.

The requirements for entry into the 2008-DV lottery are simple.  However, directions must be followed exactly.  Millions of applications are rejected on an annual basis for failure to follow the directions.  If you believe you may qualify for the DV-2008 program or would like guidance as to whether you qualify and how this service might benefit you, please contact Lynda S. Zengerle at (202) 429-8170, lzengerle@steptoe.com, or Joan S. Claxton, (202) 862-3891, jclaxton@steptoe.com.

LIST OF COUNTRIES BY REGION WHOSE NATIVES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR DV-2008

The countries whose natives are not eligible for the diversity program immediately follow each regional list.

AFRICA
Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia, The
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe

ASIA
Afghanistan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Burma
Cambodia
East Timor
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kuwait
Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Nepal
North Korea
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Syria
Taiwan
Thailand
United Arab Emirates
Yemen

Natives of the following Asian countries are not eligible for this year’s diversity program:
China [mainland-born], India, Pakistan, South Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam.  The Hong Kong S.A.R. and Taiwan do qualify and are listed above.  Macau S.A.R. also qualifies and is listed below.

EUROPE
Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark (including components and dependent areas overseas)
Estonia
Finland
France (including components and dependent areas overseas)
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau Special Administrative Region
Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Montenegro
Netherlands (including components and dependent areas overseas)
Northern Ireland
Norway
Portugal (including components and dependent areas overseas)
Romania
San Marino
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Tajikistan
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Vatican City

Natives of the following European countries are not eligible for this year’s diversity program:  Great Britain, Poland, Russia.  Great Britain (United Kingdom) includes the following dependent areas:  Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St. Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands.  Note that for purposes of the diversity program only, Northern Ireland is treated separately; Northern Ireland does qualify and is listed among the qualifying areas.

NORTH AMERICA

The Bahamas

In North America, natives of Canada and Mexico are not eligible for this year’s diversity program.

OCEANIA
Australia (including components and dependent areas overseas)
Fiji
Kiribati
Marshall Islands
Micronesia, Federated States of
Nauru
New Zealand (including components and dependent areas overseas)
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Samoa

SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Barbados
Belize
Bolivia
Chile
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Ecuador
Grenada
Guatemala
Guyana
Honduras
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago
Uruguay
Venezuela

Countries in this region whose natives are not eligible for this year’s diversity program:
Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, and Peru.