US Green Card Lottery

A lot of people who wish to get into the United States may have already heard of the Green Card Lottery. And because there are quite a lot of people who are interested of getting it the US and wish to live stay and work permanently as a resident, hearing about a Green Card Lottery sure will appeal quite easily.

But a lot of people might be misguided by some enterprising people to get into the lottery by paying large sums of money for a chance of getting that all important Green Card. Here is a bit of information about the Green Card Lottery.

The Green Card Lottery is actually the common name for the Diversity Immigrant Visa program of the United States. It is a congressionally mandated lottery program that allows certain foreigners from receiving a United States Permanent Resident Card, otherwise known as the Green Card. 

This lottery is being held every year by the US Department of State conducted under the terms specified on the Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203. It provides for a new class of immigrants known as diversity immigrants (DV immigrants) to have a chance to acquire permanent resident visas. Each year, about 50,000 immigrant visas are given out through this program.

But where most people become confused with the provisions of the said lottery is that this program is only available in countries or territories that has sent less than 50,000 immigrants to the US in a five year period. This means that there are certain countries that are ineligible to avail of the program.

The list of ineligible countries differs from year to year. For this program, applicants can qualify by their country of birth and not by citizenship. The visas for the said lottery are distributed in a way where regions sending fewer immigrants to the US in the last five years receive a bigger share of the diversity visas.

A winner of the lottery is granted a permanent visa to the US. The winners will receive an immigrant visa on their passport that should be activated within six months of issuance to any port of entry in the US. Failure to do so may result in the revocation of the said visa.

As the new immigrant enters into the US, he or she will be given a stamp on the visa to serve as proof that he or she was admitted into the United States. This stamp authorizes the new immigrant to live and work permanently in the US. The actual Green Card will be sent by mail in a few months.

The Diversity Immigrant Visa program has seen its share of controversies. And because of an increasing number of foreigners wishing to live and work in the US, the said lottery has spawned a number of scams that preyed on people willing to take part in the program.

 The perpetrators of the scams try to convince applicants to let them submit their application forms in exchange for excessive fees. Some scams even claim to increase the chances of applicants winning in the lottery. These scams cannot guarantee their claims and should be taken as a means to deceive people.