2011 US Diversity Visa Lottery Program
Dear International Students:
The 2011 Diversity Lottery (otherwise known as the Green Card Lottery) information has now been posted to the US Department of State web site. If you are interested, please review the information below. In addition, you will find further information and instructions on the US Department of State's website (link provided below). Please note, citizens of several countries are NOT ELIGIBLE to apply for the Diversity Lottery - we have provided a list of those countries below.
Best wishes
Eric Merchant and Tracey Culbertson
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Diversity Lottery - "Green Card Lottery": Instructions
for the 2011 Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery have been published.
This program makes available 55,000 permanent visas annually to
persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United
States. All "qualified" persons wishing to register for
the opportunity to apply for a US immigrant visa under the terms
of the DV-2011 Visa Lottery must complete an Electronic Diversity
Visa (E-DV) Entry form during the 60 day registration period which
begins at Noon EDT on October 2, 2009, and ends at Noon EST on November
30, 2009. Please read all instructions carefully, especially the
section concerning submission of digital photos with the application. Those
of you who are interested (and eligible) should review the "Instructions
for the 2011 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV 2010)" available
on the US Department of State web page at http://travel.state.gov/pdf/DV-2011instructions.pdf.
SPECIAL NOTE: Natives of the following countries ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO APPLY because they sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the US in the previous 5 years: Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. However, persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible.
Please keep in mind that an attorney (or any other party) cannot increase your chance of "winning" this lottery. Furthermore, winner will be notified by mail by the Kentucky Consular Center not by any other party. Please do not fall prey to one of the email scams designed to extort money by claiming (usually in very poor English) that the email recipient has been "selected" as one of the lucky lottery winners" and requesting the immediate remittance of "processing" fees".
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions concerning this program. I hope that this information proves useful to a few of you.