The Department of State has announced the opening of the registration period for the 2020 Diversity Visa (DV) lottery. As in past years, the DV lottery will allow a maximum of 50,000 "diversity immigrants" to obtain permanent residence in the United States if they are from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Entries for the DV-2020 lottery must be submitted electronically between noon Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, and noon Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. Applicants may access the electronic Diversity Visa entry form (E-DV) at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov during the registration period. Paper entries are not accepted.

The DV lottery is administered annually by the U.S. Department of State. For FY2020, natives of the following countries remain ineligible to apply for the DV lottery because the countries sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. Persons born in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan remain eligible.

Instructions for entering the DV-2020 diversity lottery are available at the U.S. Department of State website.

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