DV Lottery

DV Lottery Information
Country Eligibility Requirements
Submitting Entry to DV Lottery

The Department of State has announced that registration for the 2012 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery will begin on October 5, 2010, at Noon 12:00 pm EST or GMT-4. The registration period will end on November 3, 2010, at 12:00 pm EST or GMT-4. No entries will be accepted after Noon EST November 3, 2010.

Persons seeking to enter the lottery program must register ONLINE ONLY through the special website during the registration period. The website for registering for the DV Lottery or Green Card Lottery, www.dvlottery.state.gov, will be available from Noon October 5, 2010 through Noon November 3, 2010.

Paper entries are not accepted. Only one entry per person is accepted. A person will be disqualified if more than one entry is submitted. A person will be ineligible for a DV Visa even if selected as a Winner if important information was omitted from the entry form or some facts were misrepresented.

Persons submitting entries to the DV Lottery will receive a Confirmation Number & Receipt containing their name, date of birth, country of chargeability, and a time/date stamp when information has been properly registered. When the results of the Lottery are available, an applicant will be able to check online whether he was selected using his DV Confirmation Number. There will be NO notifications by mail from this year! There are no notifications my email also.

The Department of State encourages persons who wish to enter the Diversity Visa Lottery to submit their information early in the registration period.

The official Department of State website can be located at
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html

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For the DV-2012 Lottery, 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:

BRAZIL, CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PERU, PHILIPPINES, POLAND, 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.

For DV-2012, no countries have been added or removed from the previous year's list of eligible countries.

Please keep in mind that sometimes an applicant from an ineligible country can enter to the DV lottery if their spouse was born elsewhere (in one of the eligible countries), or if an applicant's parents were born in another country. To make sure that you are eligible, you shall consult an immigration attorney before submitting the application.

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To submit entry to the DV Green Card Lottery, the following information about your and your family members is required:

• Your full legal name (please use your legal name as in your personal documents)
• Your gender (Male or Female)
• Your place of birth (City/Town; Province/State; Country of Birth)
• Your date of birth (Day/Month/Year)
• You country of eligibility, IF different from the country of birth (this may be required for some people)
• Your Education and Work Experience. Are you a high school graduate: Yes or No
• Your email address
• Your telephone number
• Your marital status (Single/Divorced/Separated/Married)
• Your Mailing or Home address: Number and Street Name; City/Town; Province/State; ZIP code or Postal code; Country (please make sure that mail from the USA is deliverable at this address)
• Your Telephone number (optional)
• Your spouse's information (if you are legally married): Wife's or Husband's Name (first/middle/last); Place of birth (town/province/country); Date of birth (day/month/year)
• Your spouse's Mailing address: Number and Street Name; Town; Province/State; Zip or Postal code; Country; Telephone Number and Fax number
• Your spouse's Education and Work Experience. High school graduate: Yes or No
• If you have unmarried children under 21, you must include your child's information: Name (First/Middle/Last); Place of birth (Town/Province/Country); Date of birth (Day/Month/Year)
• Any additional information you want us to know

Do not forget to include photographs of your spouse (wife or husband) and all children under 21 years of age at the time of your electronic entry, including all natural children, all legally adopted children, all stepchildren, even if a child no longer resides with you or you do not intend for a child to immigrate under the DV program.

Technical Specifications for a Photograph:

• The acceptable photograph can be either digital or scanned passport style photo
• If you are submitting a digital photograph.
  
  The image must be in the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format.
  The maximum image file size is 240 kilobytes (240 KB).
  Minimum acceptable dimensions are 600 pixels (width) x 600 pixels (height). Image pixel dimensions must be in a square aspect ratio (meaning the height must be equal to the width).
  Image must be in color (24 bits per pixel). 24-bit black and white or 8-bit images will not be accepted.
  
• If you are submitting scanned photograph.
  
  Before a photographic print is scanned, it must meet the compositional specifications. If the photographic print meets the print color and compositional specifications, scan the print using the following scanner specifications:
  Scanner Resolution: Scanned at a resolution of at least 300 dots per inch (dpi).
  Image File Format: The image must be in the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format.
  The maximum image file size is 240 kilobytes (240 KB).
  600 by 600 pixels.
  24-bit color. Note that black and white, monochrome, or grayscale images will not be accepted.
  

Selection and Notification of Winners:

• The computer will randomly select individuals from among all qualified entries. All Diversity Visa entrants will be required to go to the DV Lottery website Entry Status Check to find out whether their entry has been selected in the DV lottery or to find out they have not been selected. Selectees will be notified of their selection through the Entry Status Check available starting May 1, 2011 at the DV website www.dvlottery.state.gov. Selectees will be directed to a confirmation page that will provide further instructions, including information on fees connected with immigration to the United States.
• Entry Status Check online will be the ONLY means by which selectees will be notified of their selection for DV-2012. The Kentucky Consular Center will NOT be mailing out notification letters like it was done in the past years! Those selected in the random drawing are NOT notified of their selection by e-mail! Those individuals NOT selected will be notified of their non-selection through the web-based Entry Status Check. U.S. embassies and consulates will NOT provide a list of selectees. Selectees' spouses and unmarried children under age 21 may also apply for visas to accompany or follow-to-join the principal applicant. DV-2012 visas will be issued between October 1, 2011, and September 30, 2012.

Please keep in mind, that an average one-third of all applications for the Green Card Lottery in the past few years were not accepted or rejected because they were submitted incorrectly (e.g., wrong photo size; relevant education information omitted from the application; relevant family members information omitted; etc.).

We can help you to enter the Green Card Lottery. If you would like us to submit your Entry to the DV Lottery, the legal fee for help with submitting of your DV Lottery Entry is USD $50 (or USD $75 if submitting two (2) Entries for a husband and a wife, and USD $100 if submitting two entries for a husband and a wife, plus there are children included into both of your applications).

This service will be of great interest to the people who want to ensure that their application is submitted properly.

If you need assistance in entering you or/and your spouse (wife or husband) to the DV Lottery, please do not hesitate to contact us at: Attorney@law-visa-usa.com and we will send you a Questionnaire to begin the process.

Please include either your digital photo or scanned photo (you can email it to us as attachment), or a color photograph of each person (you can mail it to us). The photo requirements for the DV Lottery are complex; photographs must meet very exact specifications. We can scan your photo to insure that it meets all DV Lottery's specifications. Please provide a recent passport style color photograph of yourself, your spouse and each unmarried child under 21, including all natural children as well as all legally-adopted and stepchildren, even if you are no longer married to the child's other parent, or if the child does not currently reside with you and/or will not immigrate with you. The size of these photographs must be 2 by 2 inches square, or 50 x 50 mm, facing forward. Please print the name and date of birth of each family member on the back of the photograph. Group photographs are not acceptable.

Please sign and date your application (if sending by mail). By singing the application or emailing your request to us, you indicate that you understand that fee is non-refundable, and you understand that this is a lottery: there is no guarantee that your application will be successful and you will be selected as a winner. The services provided by Attorney are limited to submission of the application only. The attorney fee is for preparing and submitting the application only, and does not include any other work, such as immigrant visa processing at the Consulate abroad or adjustment of status in the United States if you are selected as a winner. Retaining our services for any additional services in the future is optional for our clients.

Once you submitted all required information, all photos, and payment to us, we will begin work on your application, and will send you a Confirmation Number and Receipt when your application has been submitted successfully.

You can send us information required to complete your DV lottery application and a payment to the address below, or email us at Attorney@law-visa-usa.com . You can also pay us securely through PayPal to the email address listed above (or click on PayPal logo on the bottom of the web page).

Attn: L. Smal, Esq. - DV
Smal Immigration Law Office
P.O. Box 540531
Omaha, NE 68154
USA

We were successful with the DV Lottery in the past, and hope to experience this success with you again!

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