2014 DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAM (DV-2014)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE 2014 DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAM (DV-2014)

The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted based on United States law, specifically Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). This law provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants,” with visas made available to persons from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. For Fiscal Year 2014, 50,000 diversity visas (DV) will be available.

The annual DV program makes visas available to persons meeting simple, but strict, eligibility requirements.  A computergenerated, random drawing chooses selectees for DVs.  The visas are distributed among six geographic regions, and within each region, no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.  Visas are allocated to natives of countries with historically lower rates of U.S. immigration.  Natives of countries who have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the past five years are not eligible to apply for the Diversity Visa 
program.    

For DV-2014, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply because the countries sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years:
BANGLADESH, BRAZIL, CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, 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.    

Changes in eligibility this year:
FOR DV-2014, NATIVES OF GUATEMALA ARE NOW ELIGIBLE FOR SELECTION.  
The Department of State implemented the electronic registration system beginning with DV-2005 in order to make the DV process more efficient and secure.  The Department utilizes special technology and other means to identify those who commit fraud for the purposes of illegal immigration or those who submit multiple entries. 

DV REGISTRATION PERIOD
Entries for the DV-2014 DV program must be submitted electronically between noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Tuesday, October 2, 2012, and noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Saturday, November 3, 2012.  
Applicants may access the electronic DV Entry Form (E-DV) at www.dvlottery.state.gov during the registration period.  Paper entries will not be accepted.  We strongly encourage applicants not to wait until the last week of the registration period to enter.  Heavy demand may result in website delays.  No entries will be accepted after noon, EDT, on November 3, 2012.


REQUIREMENTS FOR ENTRY

• To enter the DV program, you must be a native of one of the listed countries.  See List Of Countries By Region Whose Natives Qualify.
  Native of a qualifying country: In most cases, this means the country in which you were born.  However, there are two other ways you may be able to qualify.  First, if you were born in a country whose natives are ineligible but your spouse was born in a country whose natives are eligible, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth – provided that both you and your spouse are on the selected entry, are issued visas, and enter the United States simultaneously.  Second, if you were born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but neither of your parents was born there or resided there at the time of your birth, you may claim nativity in one of your parents’ countries of birth if it is a country whose natives qualify for the DV-2014 program.
• To enter the DV program, you must meet either the education or work experience requirement of the DV program:  you 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 will be used to determine qualifying work experience.  For more information about qualifying work experience for the principal DV applicant, see Frequently Asked Question #13.
If you cannot meet either of these requirements, you should NOT submit an entry to the DV program.