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The
congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa
Program is administered on an annual basis by the
Department of State and conducted under the terms
of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the
Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended
INA 203 to provide for a new class of immigrants
known as "diversity immigrants" (DV
immigrants). The Act makes available 50,000
permanent resident visas annually to persons from
countries with low rates of immigration to 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.
Within each region, no one country may receive
more than seven percent of the available
Diversity Visas in any one year.
For DV-2005,
natives of the following countries are not
eligible to apply because they sent a total
of more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the
previous five years: CANADA, CHINA
(mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, HAITI,
INDIA, JAMAICA,
MEXICO, PAKISTAN,
PHILIPPINES, RUSSIA,
SOUTH KOREA, UNITED
KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and
its dependent territories, and VIETNAM.
Persons born in Hong
Kong SAR, Macau SAR and
Taiwan are
eligible.
ENTRIES FOR THE DV-2005
DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY MUST BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY BETWEEN SATURDAY,
NOVEMBER 1, 2003 AND TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2003.
APPLICANTS
MAY ACCESS THE ELECTRONIC DIVERSITY VISA ENTRY
FORM AT HTTP://WWW.DVLOTTERY.STATE.GOV DURING THE 60 DAY
REGISTRATION PERIOD BEGINNING NOVEMBER 1.
PAPER
ENTRIES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
Applicant
must be a native of one
of the countries listed in the List Of Qualifying Countries
By Region.
Applicant
must meet either the education or
training requirement of the DV
program.
Native
of a country whose natives qualify:
In most cases this means the country in which the
applicant was born. However, if a person was born
in a country whose natives are ineligible but his/her
spouse was born in a country whose natives are
eligible, such person can claim the spouses
country of birth providing both the applicant and
spouse are issued visas and enter the U.S.
simultaneously. If a person was born in a country
whose natives are ineligible, but neither of his/her
parents was born there or resided there at the
time of the birth, such person may be able to
claim nativity in one of the parents
country of birth.
Education or Training:
An applicant must have EITHER a
high school education or its equivalent, defined
as successful completion of a 12-year course of
elementary and secondary education; OR
two years of work experience within the past five
years in an occupation requiring at least two
years of training or experience to perform. The U.S.
Department of Labors O*Net OnLine database will be used to determine
qualifying work experience. Applicants will also
find a link to a Labor Department list of
qualifying occupations at the Consular Affairs
website: www.travel.state.gov
If the
applicant cannot meet these requirements, he or
she should NOT submit an entry to the DV program.
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