One of Easiest Ways to Get a US Green Card Is Back. Here’s How to Enter the Free Visa Lottery
By Daniel Shoer Roth
The US government announced on Friday that registration for the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program for Fiscal Year 2023 (DV-2023), popularly known as the visa lottery, will officially open up next week.
The Department of State, which administers the program, said the electronic enrollment period will roll out on Wednesday, October 6, at noon.
The entry period for the immigration program — which will allocate up to 55,000 immigrant visas or green cards in 2023 — will close on Tuesday, November 9 at noon, authorities said.
Foreigners interested in immigrating legally to the United States must submit their applications electronically only through dvprogram.state.gov.
“Do not wait until the last week of the registration period to enter as heavy demand may result in website delays,” officials recommended.
“No late entries or paper entries will be accepted. The law allows only one entry per person during each entry period,” they said in the instructions for the 2023 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.
Attempting to enter the program more than once automatically disqualifies the applicant, they said.
The 2023 Diversity Visa Program provides permanent resident visas to foreign citizens in countries with low immigration rates to the United States in the previous five years.
Participation in the DV-2023 program is free and the application process is quite simple.
Winners are determined through a randomized computer drawing.
Applicants must meet simple but strict eligibility requirements to qualify, according to the Department of State, which distributes the immigrant visas among six geographic regions.
The program is widely popular around the globe because it does not require a US sponsor to immigrate.
For the DV-2022, the program received 7,336,302 qualified entries — 13,191,296 foreign nationals including family members of principal applicants.
Egypt, Sudan, Russia and Algeria won the most immigrant visas to legally immigrate to the US as legal permanent residents.
Who qualifies for the 2023 green card lottery?
To enter the program, individuals must be citizens of qualifying countries, determined by the number of immigrants who have come to the United States from that country in the past five years, and meet basic educational requirements:
▪ Requirement 1: Country of origin
Every foreign national can apply for the DV-2023, except natives from these countries:
Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, Venezuela and Vietnam.
▪ Requirement 2: Education/Work experience
Individuals must have at least a high school diploma or its equivalent, or two years’ work experience over the past five years in an eligible field that requires at least two years of training.
How to enter the 2023 visa lottery
Applicants must submit entries for the DV-2023 program electronically at dvprogram.state.gov with the entire “E-DV Entry Form” completed.
The following information is required to complete the process:
▪ Name — last name, first name, middle name — as it appears on your passport
▪ Gender
▪ Date of birth — day, month year
▪ City of birth
▪ Country of birth
▪ Country of eligibility for the DV-2023 program
▪ Passport number
▪ Recent photograph (of the applicant, spouse and children) that meets the Department of State’s requirements
▪ Postal address
▪ Country of current residence
▪ Phone number (optional)
▪ Email
▪ Highest academic level achieved
▪ Current marital status
▪ Number of children
“We strongly encourage you to complete the entry form yourself, without a ‘visa consultant,’ ‘visa agent,’ or other facilitator who offers to help,” authorities said in reference to unscrupulous visa facilitators who “have been known to assist entrants with their entries, retain the confirmation page printout, and then demand more money in exchange for the confirmation number.”
When will DV-2023 winners be known?
According to the Department of State’s instructions, DV-2023 participants must go to the Entrant Status Check web page to find out whether their entry has been selected using the confirmation number received when they submitted their forms.
The results will be available from May 8, 2022, through at least Sept. 30, 2023.
Therefore, it is important that applicants retain the unique confirmation number received after completing the entry, as well as a printout of the confirmation screen, authorities recommended.
If selected, an individual will be directed to a confirmation page that provides further instructions, including legal fees related to immigration to the United States.
All winners, including family members, must be issued immigrant visas by Sept. 30, 2023, to be able to obtain a green card under the visa lottery category.
But first, selectees go through a strict consular interview process.
“Interviews for the DV-2023 program will begin in October 2022 for selectees who have submitted all pre-interview paperwork and other information as requested in the notification instructions.”
(Daniel Shoer Roth is a journalist covering immigration law who does not offer legal advice or individual assistance to visa lottery applicants)
