The Green Card Lottery is the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, it was introduced by the United States Government in 1990. Ever since its introduction, millions have gotten the opportunity to change their country of residence to the USA. Many have become dual citizens of the USA, others have naturalized outright.
The program is a lottery, as such, like all other lotteries, it is a thing of chance and not a certainty that you would be selected after applying. What happens is that when you obey the rules and apply according to all the specifications given, for example, the picture quality, then you increase your chances because all double entries will be taken out, all bad entries will also be taken out. Then those that are “correct” will be but into the electronic draw.
The program aims to allow people who want to live and work, school or simply change their country of residence to the United States to be able to do so. Applying for the program is therefore free. Any attempted to be charged before you apply must be seen as a scam.
From 2018, 23 million people are said to be applying to the lottery annually, however, only 50,000 people are selected as winners each year.
To apply for the lottery; stick to the following steps:
Apply online, each year the application date is announced, once this opens for applications to be submitted, don’t apply too early and don’t apply on the last day. System jam could cause your application to “get lost”
Upload your pictures according to specifications, this is not a guarantee that you will win. It is, however, an assurance that your application could be part of those that will get into the lottery proper.
The draw is a hundred per cent random and is done by the United States Government, don’t accept any email that comes from any agency.
If you are part of the winners, you will be notified through snail mail, it is only the winners of the 2020 edition that were informed through emails, this may well be the case again.
If you are informed of winning, you will liaise with the United States Embassy from that point on till you attend your interview that will qualify you to finally move to the USA.
If you win, you will have to confirm the documents that you used in applying, and then you will need to also submit your alien registration application.
This involves a lot, if for example, your family circumstances have changed between the time of your application and the announcement of the results, you will have to update that information.
This is a crucial time in the application, and you could be disqualified for providing false information, for example, if you had a spouse or children before you submitted your original entry and then you did not include them on your entry form, your application would be disqualified if you want to add them after winning.
It is therefore important that you provide the right information from the beginning of the process.