US Green Card Lottery – Diversity Visa (DV-2020) Application Period Now Open

The registration period for the US Diversity Visa program for Fiscal Year 2020 (DV-2020), popularly known as the Green Card Lottery, is now open.

The registration period opened on October 3rd at 12pm EDT and will run until Tuesday, November 6th, 2018 at 12pm EST.

The  Diversity Visa program ,which runs annually, is administered by the US Department of State and makes available 55,000 permanent resident visas (green cards) available through a lottery system to citizens of countries with low number of immigrants in the United States.

Kenya is among the countries whose nationalities qualify to participate in the program.

Entrants of the lottery should know whether they won in May, 2019 when the results will be made available on the US State Department website. Winners will be eligible to migrate to the United States along with their spouses and minor children beginning in January, 2020, provided they pass mandatory background checks and interviews at their respective US embassies.

Requirements to participate in the Diversity Visa program:

1. Applicant must have been born in an eligible country.
2. Applicant should have at least a high school education or its equivalent, or tow years of work experience in the last five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform.

The State Department urges anyone who does not meet both of the above requirements to NOT submit an entry, as anyone who does not meet the criteria will not be granted a green card even if they win the lottery.

Among the information needed to complete the entry include: Name, Gender, Date of Birth, City and Country of Birth, Entrant Photo (including those of the applicant’s spouse and children), Mailing Address, and Marital Status. Full eligibility criteria and instructions are available here: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Diversity-Visa/DV-Instructions-Translations/DV-2020-Instructions-Translations/DV-2020-Instructions-English.pdf

The State Department also says entries are ONLY accepted online directly on the State Department website (www.dvlottery.state.gov), and urges applicants to complete the applications themselves and NOT use “visa consultants”, “visa agents” or other third parties.

Applications are only accepted at www.dvlottery.state.gov.

For DV-2020, nationals of the following countries are ineligible to participate in the program because they have had more than 50,000 natives immigrate to the United States over the last 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.