DV Visa Lottery Registration

Last week the State Department began accepting applications for the 2003 diversity visa lottery. The lottery makes 50,000 immigrant visas available to people from all but a handful of countries that already send large numbers of immigrants to the US. Applicants for Diversity Visas are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing. The application period will end at noon on October 31.

People from the following countries are not eligible: Canada, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom and its dependent territories (not including Northern Ireland), and Vietnam.

There is no initial application fee or special application form to enter. However, there are very SPECIFIC instructions that must be followed to ensure that your application is not disqualified. The instructions can be found here.