Diversity Visa Lottery for Permanent Residents

Mon, 25 Sep 2017 14:41:09 -0400
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Every year the US government has a Diversity Visa Lottery program - individuals from certain countries that are not strongly represented in the US are welcome to submit a free application to be considered in a lottery for 50,000 green cards (permanent residence). This year's application period will be for permanent residence that will begin in 2019.

The registration period for the 2019 lottery is Oct 3 through Nov 7 2017.

Citizens of the following countries are NOT eligible to apply, because there are already at least 50,000 individuals in the US from that country:

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.

Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible.

To learn more about applying, please review the information in these links:

Application Information for 2019 (the current cycle)

Step by Step general information

Please remember that there is NO COST to apply!! The only cost that might occur are AFTER an individual is selected, they will need to pay the usual costs associated with a permanent resident application, along with the associated forms and documentation.

There is often fraud associated with the Lottery, so please remember that you will never be contacted about the Lottery via phone, and there is no cost to apply!

Lastly, please note that while we are happy to share this information with you, our office does not have any expertise on this process, so are not able to provide any guidance or advice about it. The directions online are clear and thorough, so please be sure to go through them carefully if you are interested. If selected, applicants will often consider hiring an immigration attorney to help with the next steps to actually apply for their permanent residence, though this is not required.

For more information, contact Michelle Massey in the Office of International Education Services at massey@umbc.edu or IES@umbc.edu

Phone: 410-455-2469

Office: Admin 227A