On September 16, 2016, the Department of State announced the Diversity Visa (“DV”) Program for 2018. The DV program permits citizens from countries, other than those countries from which there were more than 50,000 immigrant in total for the previous 5 years, to register for a random drawing to qualify to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the United States.
The registration period for DV2018 begins at noon on October 4, 2016, Eastern Daylight Time (“EDT”) and runs through noon, on November 7, 2016, EDT. For DV2018, the Department of State will conduct the program entirely electronically. Each entrant will make his or her submission on line. No paper applications will be accepted.
Each successful registrant will receive an entry confirmation number and can periodically check on line to learn if he or she has been selected. To combat fraud, the Department will not use e-mail nor paper notice of DV selection. Entrants make their submissions and check submission status at dvlottery.state.gov. Only one entry for each person can be made in each year’s DV program.
Ineligible countries for DV2018 are: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (but not Northen Ireland), and Vietnam. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are eligible.
