News about Immigration related topics

< Back to Previous Page Diversity Visa Immigrant Lottery Applicants could win one of 50,000 visas to United States Washington – Approximately 82,000 people in 175 nations have received letters from the U.S. State Department informing them that they are eligible to apply for a permanent resident visa to the United States. Only 50,000 such visas are issued each year in what is known as the Diversity Visa Lottery. More than 5.5 million people submitted entries in the registration process held during the last quarter of 2005. A media note issued by the State Department July 18 says 82,000 applicants were selected at random in the lottery and encouraged to apply. It is likely that many people involved in this initial stage will not follow through with their applications, so the selection of more than 80,000 should insure that all visas allowed under this program will be issued, the media note said. The diversity visa lottery, designed to bring greater racial and ethnic diversity to the United States, offers permanent residency visas to citizens of nations that traditionally have a low level of immigration to the United States. Anyone who applied but has not received notification to move to the next step in visa application has no further eligibility in this year’s process and should prepare to apply at the end of this year when the next lottery opens. The dates for the next lottery entry period will be announced in August.