LOTTERY PROGRAM GREEN CARD

The State Department announced the winners of the DV Lottery on May 6, 2023. Check the State Department website as DOS does not send direct notifications to lottery winners.

Every year, millions of people apply for lawful permanent residence to the US through the DV Lottery. 50,000 lucky persons will get green cards.

Natives from the Following Countries are Excluded From Participation in the DV Lottery Program this Year
Bangladesh	Brazil	Canada	China (+ Hong Kong)	Colombia
Dominican Republic	El Salvador	Haiti	Honduras	India
Jamaica	Mexico	Nigeria	Pakistan	Philippines
South Korea	United Kingdom (- Northern Ireland)	Venezuela	Vietnam

Persons born in Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible to apply for this year’s DV Lottery.

Adjustment of Status

In order to adjust status through the DV Lottery, you must establish that you:

Have been selected for a diversity visa by the DV lottery;
Have an immigrant visa immediately available at the time of filing an adjustment application (Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status); and are admissible to the United States.

Submit the following evidence with your Form I-485:

Two passport-style photos
Copy of birth certificate
Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record
Copy of passport page with nonimmigrant visa (if applicable)
Copy of passport page with admission (entry) or parole stamp (if applicable)
Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record
Certified copies of court records (if the individual has been arrested)
Copy of the principal applicant’s selection letter for the diversity visa lottery from DOS
Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility (if applicable)
Applicable fees

Applying for an Immigrant Visa Abroad

For visa availability, check the latest month’s DOS Visa Bulletin. Section B contains a chart showing the current month’s visa availability in the Diversity Immigrant category. The chart shows when the Diversity Immigrant cut-off is met. When the cut-off is met, visas will be available in that month for the applicants with Diversity Immigrant lottery rank numbers below the specified cut-off numbers for their geographic areas.

Section C contains a chart showing the Diversity Immigrant category rank cut-offs for the following month, which represents the advance notification of Diversity Immigrant visa availability. As soon as a monthly Visa Bulletin is published, anyone with a lower rank number than the rank cut-off number shown in Section C is eligible to file for adjustment of status. This provides lottery winners the opportunity to file for adjustment of status up to six or seven weeks before a visa number can actually be allocated. This gives USCIS additional time to determine your eligibility for adjustment of status before the end of the fiscal year.

A Diversity Immigrant-based adjustment application cannot be adjudicated until a visa can be allocated, as indicated in the Visa Bulletin’s current Diversity Immigrant rank cut-offs for a particular month.

Circumventing the Three-Year Bar

Of the 50,000 Green Card Lottery winners, approximately 20,000 will be persons born in Europe and another 20,000 will be persons born in Africa. The other 10,000 winners will be from Asia, Latin America or from other countries around the world.