Instruction from the U.S. State Department for participants in the DV program
The U.S. Department of State has published instructions for persons wishing to participate in the annual U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery Program, which will be held in November-December. Starting this year, applicants will be required to fill out electronic forms on a website specially designed for this purpose and attach digital (electronic) photographs. The State Department will no longer accept paper documents, whether submitted in person or sent by mail. The website at dvlottery.state.gov will be accessible from Saturday, November 1, 2003 through Tuesday, December 30, 2003.
The diversity program gives residents of certain countries the opportunity to register for the drawing of immigrant visas. The State Department will notify randomly selected individuals that they are eligible to apply for one of the 50,000 immigrant visas that are raffled off each year under this program.
The "Diversity Visa" program was created by mandate of the U.S. Congress and is conducted annually by the U.S. Department of State. It is carried out in accordance with the provisions of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) provides for amendments to Section 203 to create a new category of immigrants – the so-called "diversity immigrants" (DV). The law provides for the annual reservation of 50,000 visas for permanent residence for representatives of countries with low levels of immigration to the United States.
The annual DV program provides permanent resident status to individuals who meet simple but strict selection criteria. Applicants seeking DV visas are selected by random drawing conducted by computer. Visas, however, are distributed among six geographic regions, with more visas going to regions with low levels of immigration to the United States. Countries from which more than 50,000 immigrants arrived in the United States in the last five years will not receive visas. No country may receive more than 7% of the DV visas issued during any one year.
Petitions (applications) for DV-2005 visas will not be accepted from natives of the following countries: Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. Natives of the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan may apply.
Applicant requirements
- Applicants must be natives of countries whose residents are eligible to participate in DV-2005.
In most cases, a person is a native of the country in which he or she was born. However, if a person was born in a country whose residents are not eligible to apply, and his or her spouse was born in a country whose residents are eligible, that person may claim the country of birth of the spouse instead of his or her own country of birth, provided that the applicant and his or her spouse receive visas and enter the United States simultaneously. In addition, if a person was born in a country whose residents are not eligible to apply, but neither of that person's parents was born in that country or was a resident of that country at the time of the person's birth, the applicant may claim the country of birth of one of his or her parents as the country of origin.
- Applicants must meet the education or training requirements of the DV program.
To participate in the lottery, applicants must have either a high school diploma or its equivalent (in the United States, this means successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education), or two years of work experience within the preceding five years, where the work experience is in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience. The U.S. Department of Labor database will be used to determine eligibility with respect to work experience. Applicants will also be able to use a link to the list of qualifying occupations compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor on the website of the Bureau of Consular Affairs at travel.state.gov.
If you do not meet these requirements, you should not participate in the DV program.
Procedure for submitting the application form
- All of the applicant's forms will be rejected if more than one application is submitted on his or her behalf, regardless of who submitted them. An applicant may prepare and submit his or her own form or have someone else do it.
- The Department of State will accept only electronic versions (EDV) of the application form, submitted and filled out electronically on the website www.dvlottery.state.gov during the 60-day registration period, which will begin on November 1, 2003.
- The Department of State will send DV lottery participants an electronic notice confirming receipt of the completed EDV application.
- Paper application forms will not be accepted.
- An application will not be considered if the applicant does not attach all required photographs. Along with the EDV application form, recent photographs of the applicant, his or her spouse, and each child under the age of 21, including all natural (non-adopted) children and all legally adopted children (except children who are already U.S. citizens or holders of permanent resident status in the United States), must be submitted in electronic format, even if they no longer live with the applicant or do not intend to immigrate under the DV program. Group or family photographs will not be accepted; a separate photograph must be submitted for each family member.
For each applicant, his/her spouse, and each child, a computer file containing a digital photograph must be attached, which must be submitted online together with the E-DV entry form. The image file may be created by taking a photograph with a digital camera or by scanning a printed photograph.
If the submitted digital images do not meet the requirements below, the system will automatically reject the E-DV entry form and send a notification to the sender.
- The image must be in JPEG format.
- The image must be either color or grayscale; monochrome images (with two-level color depth - one bit per pixel) will not be accepted.
- If a new digital photograph is taken, its resolution must be 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, and the color depth must be either 24-bit color, 8-bit color, or 8-bit grayscale.
- If a printed photograph is scanned, its dimensions must be 2x2 inches (50x50 mm). It must be scanned at a resolution of 150 dots per inch (dpi), and the color depth must be either 24-bit color, 8-bit color, or 8-bit grayscale.
- The maximum acceptable image size is 62,500 bytes.
The application will not be considered if the submitted digital images do not meet the following requirements.
- The applicant, spouse, and child must look directly at the camera; the head of the person photographed must not be tilted to the side or turned upward or downward and must occupy approximately 50% of the area of the photograph.
- Photographs must be taken against a light neutral background. Photographs taken against a very dark background or against a surface with a decorative or other pattern, as well as against a background overloaded with details, will not be accepted.
- Photographs in which the image of the face of the person photographed is not in focus will not be accepted.
- Photographs in which the person photographed is wearing dark glasses or has any other items of adornment on his/her face will not be accepted.
- Photographs in which applicants are depicted wearing a headdress are accepted only if wearing the headdress is due to religious beliefs, but even in this case the headdress must not cover any part of the face. Photographs in which applicants are depicted wearing traditional national or any other headdress, the wearing of which is not due to religious beliefs, will not be accepted. Photographs in which applicants are depicted wearing a military headdress or any other headdress that is part of a professional uniform will not be accepted.
E-DV Entry Form
There is only one way to participate in the DV-2005 lottery. Applicants must fill out the electronic entry form for the Diversity Visa program, which is available only on the website dvlottery.state.gov. Failure to provide all required information will lead to disqualification of the applicant. In the E-DV form, applicants will be asked to provide the following information:
1. Full name - last name, first name, patronymic.
2. Date of birth - day, month, year.
3. Sex - male or female.
4. City/town of birth.
5. Country of birth - the current name of the country in which the applicant was born.
6. Photograph of the applicant.
7. Postal address - house number, street, city/town/village, district/region/province/state, postal code, country.
8. Phone number (if any).
9. Email address (if any).
10. Country of which the applicant is a native, if it differs from the country of birth. If the applicant claims to be a native of a country other than his/her country of birth, this must be clearly stated in the entry form. If the applicant claims belonging to that country through a spouse or mother/father, this information should be included in the entry form.
11. Marital status - married or not.
12. Number of children under the age of 21 who are unmarried.
13. Information about the spouse - full name, date of birth, sex, place of birth, country of birth, photograph.
14. Information about children - full name, date of birth, sex, place of birth, country of birth, photograph.
Please note that children who are married and children who have already reached the age of 21 do not fall under the selection criteria for a DV visa. If the complete list of all children is not submitted, your entry form will not be accepted for consideration.
Selection of Winners
Winners of the lottery will be determined by random computer selection from among all entry forms that meet the requirements. Persons selected in this way will be sent by mail between May and July 2004 a notification and further instructions, including information on the payment of fees associated with immigration to the USA. Persons whose entry forms were not selected by the computer will not be sent notifications. US embassies and consulates will not be able to provide a list of applicants selected in the lottery.
Spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 of selected applicants may also apply for visas to accompany the principal applicant or to join the applicant for the purpose of further joint residence.
DV-2005 visas will be issued from October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005. To receive visas, applicants must meet all requirements imposed on them under U.S. law. The process of reviewing applications and issuing DV visas to applicants selected in the lottery and to their family members eligible for such visas must be completed by midnight September 30, 2005. Under no circumstances will DV visas be issued after this date; no amendments will be made to documentation; and family members of applicants will lose the right to receive DV visas allowing them to follow the applicant for the purpose of further joint residence in the United States.
Attention!
No initial fees are required to participate in the DV program. In conducting the DV program, the U.S. government does not use the services of outside consultants or private postal services. Any intermediary or anyone offering assistance in preparing a DV application form has no authority or consent from the U.S. government. The decision to use an outside intermediary or to receive assistance in preparing a DV application form is made solely by the applicant himself.
Eligible application forms received directly from applicants and through intermediaries have the same probability of being selected by computer at the Kentucky Consular Center as applications submitted in electronic format through a paid intermediary who filled out the form for the applicant. All application forms received within the established deadline will have equal chances in the random computer lottery for that region. However, a person who submits more than one application will not be allowed to register, regardless of the source of submission.