US Opens Free Visa for Eligible African Countries, seeks 55000 Applicants

The U.S. Department of State on Wednesday, October 4, opened the annual Diversity Visa (DV) lottery registration period for fiscal year (FY) 2025.

The online registration program is free to all registrants, and the State Department will continue to accept registrations until November 7, 2023.

The green card lottery program, officially known as the Diversity Visa program, runs for one month between October and November each year.

The State Department will make 55,000 green cards available to foreign citizens for the fiscal year 2025.

The DV program gives foreigners from countries, including Kenya, that do not send many immigrants to the United States the chance to receive a green card.

The Department of State annually administers the statutorily created Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.

According to the State Department, section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.

Most countries in the world have historically low rates of immigration to the United States, and their birth nationals are eligible for the DV lottery.

Conversely, people born in countries with historically high rates of immigration to the United States are deemed ineligible to register for the DV lottery.

Eligible countries include Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, The People’s Republic of China (including mainland and Hong Kong-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Natives of Macau, SAR and Taiwan are eligible. All DV lottery registrations must be completed online and must include a digital photograph, and applicants are permitted to include a spouse and children when entering the lottery.

Only one entry is permitted per person; if one person submits multiple registrations, they will be disqualified.

The State Department’s DV lottery guidance reminds registrants to print and save their unique confirmation numbers.

The State Department will neither email nor affirmatively notify DV lottery selections directly to combat fraud.

The entrant must also have at least a high school education or two years of work experience in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform.

Starting May 4, 2024, each registrant must use his or her unique confirmation number to check the lottery status by going to the State Department’s DV lottery entrant status page for results.