Green card visa lottery for FY-2015 opens October 1st through November 2nd
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USA September 23 2013
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) recently released information regarding the Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery Program (DV-2015) for fiscal year 2015 (October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015). The Lottery Program for DV-2015 registration will only last 32 days. The DOS will make available 50,000 "green cards" annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Similar to last year, the most significant change in the program for fiscal year 2015 is the DOS' notification of a participant's selection exclusively online. Beginning on May 1, 2014, applicants can check the status of their registration online via Entry Status Check at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov to check whether they were selected. Entry Status Check will also notify selected participants and provide them with instructions on the procedures for the application process and will confirm appointments for visa interviews. All entrants must check on the DOS website via the Entry Status Check to determine whether they have been selected to participate in the Lottery. The Entry Status Check is the ONLY manner in which entrants will be notified of their selection. The DOS will NOT mail any correspondence to the selected applicants nor will it send out an email. Furthermore, the Entry Status Check will be the only way in which selected individuals will be provided further instructions on immigrant visa procedures.
The annual DV Lottery Program makes "green cards" available to foreign nationals meeting certain eligibility requirements. Applicants for Diversity Visas are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing, The Diversity Visa "green cards", however, are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration and with no visas going to citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the past five years. Within each region, no country may receive more than 7% of the available Diversity Visa "green cards" in any one year.