Visa Lottery: Feeling Lucky Today?

The "visa lottery" is a luck-based green card opportunity. It was established to offset real or perceived imbalances of worldwide immigration. The politics of the visa lottery are subject to debate, but the idea of this immigration opportunity is very simple: a person from a country that makes up only a small percentage of immigrants to the United States can ask the U.S. government to include his or her name in a gigantic lottery for green cards. If the person's name is drawn at random in this event, the person can file for a green card in the United States. The requirements for participation in the visa lottery program are:

• You or your spouse must be a native of a country that is eligible to participate in the Diversity Visa Lottery.  You may also be eligible to apply if your parent was born in a country that is eligible to participate. (The State Department publishes the names of countries that are eligible to participate before each year's lottery.)
• You must have a high school diploma or the equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; OR
  you must have two years of work experience within the last five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform.

More information about the visa lottery program is available at http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/divlott.htm. 

The entry form, answers to frequently asked questions and the list of countries eligible to participate in the 2008 Visa Lottery is available at http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html.