You may apply for the Diversity Visa program (DV-2018) if you are from a country eligible for the Green Card Lottery and if your education or work experience meets the program requirements. If your application is selected (determined as a winner), you will be eligible to apply for legal permanent resident status in the United States.
Be aware that dishonest people may try to defraud you. Learn important facts about the Green Card Lottery, and this can help you avoid such scams.
How do I register for the Green Card Lottery?
If you wish to participate in the Green Card Lottery, you need to know the following:
• You can register for the lottery once a year. The lottery is open for about one month in the fall (this year from October 4 to November 7).
• There is only one place to register for the Green Card Lottery: the website http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/. On this U.S. Department of State website, there is a form where you answer a few simple but important questions.
– provide complete and truthful information about yourself, your spouse, and children under 21 years old;
– attach your digital photos taken no earlier than 6 months before submitting the lottery application.
• Registration for the Green Card Lottery is free.
You may register only once a year. If you register more than once, your applications will not be counted. Your spouse may register separately if he/she meets the program requirements.
What happens after I register for the Green Card Lottery?
You register on the website www.dvlottery.state.gov. After that, the Department of State assigns you a confirmation number. Keep this number – you will need it to check the status of your application later.
Winning applications are selected randomly by computer in a lottery draw. You cannot increase your chances of winning in any way.
You can only check your application status on the website www.dvlottery.state.gov. The Department of State will never send you a letter or email notifying you of a win. If you receive such a letter, it is a scam.
If your application is selected as a winner, you will need to pay a fee. Payment is made only at the U.S. consulate when you attend the visa interview. The U.S. government will never ask you to send money in advance by check, money order, or wire transfer.
What do I need to know about visa fraud?
Scammers try to defraud people participating in the Green Card Lottery. Scammers may do the following:
• demand money for help with the lottery process;
• persuade you to sign a contract obligating you to pay a significant fee for 'consulting services' ($6,000 to $20,000);
• send you a notice of winning and demand money;
• promise to increase your chances of winning;
• use your personal data without your knowledge and/or consent;
• provide incomplete or false information about you or your family in the registration application;
• try to sell you your confirmation number;
• pressure you into committing fraudulent acts.
If you remember how the Green Card Lottery works, it will be hard for scammers to take your money. So let's repeat the basic rules:
• Registration for the Green Card Lottery on the website www.dvlottery.state.gov is free;
• Lottery winners are determined randomly. There is no way to increase your chances of winning;
• You can only check your application status on the website www.dvlottery.state.gov;
• You do not pay any money except for the government-mandated fees for medical examination and visa application processing, which you pay in person only on the scheduled date.
The U.S. Embassy not only does not cooperate with any intermediaries, but according to the rules of the Green Card Lottery program, using agencies is not necessary at all. Avoid individuals who offer their 'help' in registering for the Green Card Lottery.
Visa fraud is a crime in the United States. Do not become a victim or an accomplice of this crime.
Your application to the Green Card Lottery program will be disqualified if you:
• marry someone for the purpose of immigration;
• provide incomplete or false information about yourself or your family members during the visa interview;
submit forged identity documents, civil status documents, education documents, etc. along with the visa application.
Providing false testimony during the visa interview or forged documents will result in visa denial and possible criminal prosecution. As a result, you may be banned from entering the United States under any type of visa permanently.
Based on materials from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.