American GREEN CARD VISA Requirements | DV Lottery Green Card Application

The "Diversity Immigrant Visa Program" is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 to provide for a new class of immigrants known as "diversity immigrants" (DV immigrants). Applicant must be a native of one of the countries listed under “Countries Whose Natives Qualify”. See navigation bar on the left or click here to see the list of countries.

Native of a country whose natives qualify: In most cases this means the country in which the applicant was born. However, there are two other ways a person may be able to qualify. First, if a person was born in a country whose natives are ineligible but his/her spouse was born in a country whose natives are eligible, such person can claim the spouse’s country of birth provided both the applicant and spouse are issued visas and enter the U.S. simultaneously. Second, if a person was born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but either of his/her parents was born there or resided there at the time of his/her birth, such person may claim nativity in one of the parents’ country of birth if it is a country whose natives qualify for the "Green Card Visa Program".

Applicant must meet either the education or training requirement of the DV program.

Education or Training: An applicant must have EITHER a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; OR two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform. The U.S. Department of Labor’s O*Net OnLine database is used to determine qualifying work experience.

If the applicant cannot meet these requirements, he or she should NOT submit an entry to the DV program. Please note this carefully.

The term "country" in this notice includes countries, economies and other jurisdictions explicitly listed under “Countries Whose Natives Qualify”