The Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery is a means for any national who is not born in certain annually excluded countries to apply for a green card. The lottery picks the “winners” who are then eligible to register for a green card — often without a decade plus backlog for green cards for nationals of certain countries. Registration is open from noon, 10/02/2019 until noon, 11/05/2019.
These green cards become available for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services’ fiscal year 2021, which is 10/01/2020 through 09/30/2021. Certain countries have experienced low rates of immigration to the United States, freeing up the 55,000 green card visas available for this year’s lottery. Excluded countries this year are: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, People’s Republic of China (mainland-born, excluding natives of Hong Kong and Macau), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. This means that nationals of these countries cannot apply.
More than one entry disqualifies that entrant. Also, every entrant must pro-actively go to the Entrant Status Check website to find out whether or not their application was selected in the DV Lottery. This status check can be any time between 05/05/2020 through 09/30/2021. The entrant will not be notified if selected. A successful entrant is then directed to a confirmation page that will provide a fee schedule and further instructions.
Complete instructions for participation in the DV Lottery may be found here. There are many websites that offer to apply for an entrant for a fee. Caveat emptor: some are possibly fraudulent. It is best to go directly to the above US government website to apply.
