U.S. 'green card' lottery goes electronic

By Felicia Persaud

Monday, September 8, 2003

WASHINGTON, D.C.: If you are looking to win a 'green card' through the U.S. State's Department's annual diversity visa lottery program, then you had better get on line or at least, find someone who can.

Come November, the department will once again begin accepting applications for the 2005 lottery from nationals around the world as well as from several Caribbean countries. However, all applications must now be submitted electronically and must include your full name; your date of birth, your gender, your city and your country of birth and two pictures.

Come Saturday, 1st November, interested applicants can log on to www.dvlottery.state.gov and fill out an electronic form while supplying a digital photograph. No paper entries or mail-in requests will be accepted. The photographs submitted must be a new digital picture and must have a resolution of 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, and a color depth of either 24-bit color, 8-bit color, or 8-bit grayscale, when scanned.

The deadline for the lottery is Tuesday, 30, December and there is no fee to apply.

The department says the new plan was implemented to make the process less prone to fraud, thereby "…making it less vulnerable to use by persons who may pose a threat to the security interests of the United States."

The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. Applicants for diversity visas are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing. The visas, 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 U.S. in the past five years. 

Jamaicans and Haitians are once again excluded from this year's lottery but all other Caribbean nationals may apply. 

To qualify, you or your spouse must be a native of a country that is on the list; have either a high school education or have successfully completed a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education or two years of work experience within the past five years. 

Only one entry per applicant must be submitted. The department says it will send lottery entrants an electronic confirmation notice upon receipt of a completed entry form.

Applicants will be selected at random by computer from among all qualified entries. Those selected will be notified by mail between May and July 2004 and will be provided further instructions, including information on fees connected with immigration to the U.S.

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