Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery

An annual Diversity Immigration Program, makes available each year by random selection 55,000 immigrant visas to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. Eligibility to apply for this Program is determined by a person?s place of birth, not citizenship.

The registration period for the annual Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) program for 2010, commonly known as the visa lottery, ended on Monday, December 1, 2008. Information on next year's DV lottery will be available in the Fall of 2009.

Warning: Diversity Immigrant Visa Fraud

There have been many recent instances of fraudulent websites posing as official U.S. Government sites, and "scam" e-mails posing as Diversity Visa lottery notification and soliciting funds.

Actual notification of DV lottery success will originate from the Kentucky Consular Center, generally in the form of written notification mailed to the address provided in the application process. Legitimate U.S. government notification of Diversity Visa lottery registration will never solicit payment. Diversity Visa applicants will not be required to pay any fees until the day of the personal interview at the US Embassy.

In a similar fraud scheme, some companies posing as the U.S. Government have sought money in order to "complete" lottery entry forms. There is no charge to download and complete the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form.

Only the website of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates General in the United Kingdom, and domestic U.S. government sites (which always end with ".gov as the last three letters of the address) should be trusted as authoritative sources of travel and immigration information.

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