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 2011, commonly known as the visa lottery, begins at noon (EDT) on October 2, 2009 and ends at noon (EST) on November 30, 2009.

Registration is on-line at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov. Paper entries are not accepted.

The list of ineligible countries for 2011 are: Brazil, Canada, China (mainland born), Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. Note: Persons born in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and North Ireland are eligible to register.

Warning: Diversity Immigrant Visa Fraud

The U.S. government employes no outside consultants or private services to operate the DV Program. Any intermediaries or others who offer their services or assistance to prepare DV entries do so without the authority or consent of the U.S. government. There is only one official U.S. government website for registering for DV-2011 and that is http://dvlottery.state.gov. There is no fee to register. Any website charging a fee to register for DV-2011 is not operating on behalf of the U.S. government.

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