NPZ Immigration Law Blog

The Department of State annually administers the statutorily-mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of immigrants known as ‘‘diversity immigrants,’’ from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. For fiscal year 2020, 50,000 diversity visas (DVs) will be available. There is no cost to register for the DV Program. Applicants who are selected in the lottery (‘‘selectees’’) must meet simple, but strict, eligibility requirements to qualify for a diversity visa. The Department of State determines selectees through a randomized computer drawing. Diversity visa numbers are distributed among six geographic regions, and no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year. For DV–2020, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible. There are no changes in eligibility this year from the previous year.

DOS Link: https://ro.usembassy.gov/diversity-visa-lottery-program-dv-2020/