16 October 2017

Until November 7, 2017 at noon EST, qualifying foreign nationals may apply for one of 50,000 immigrant visas made available through the U.S. Diversity Immigrant Visa Program’s lottery. Winners are selected at random, and only one entry is allowed per person. There is no cost to enter.

Entries must be submitted electronically at www.dvlottery.state.gov. The Department of State will not send any correspondence to applicants or those selected, so applicants must retain their unique confirmation number to check results online. Results will be available in May 2018.

To qualify for a diversity visa, applicants must have been born in a country with historically low rates of U.S. immigration and no single country may receive more than 7% of the available visas. Those born in Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (except Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan), 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 are not eligible.

Foreign nationals who were not born in an eligible country may qualify if their spouse was born in an eligible country or if their parents were born in an eligible country and their parents were not legally resident in the applicant’s country of birth.

Additionally, applicants must have a high school education or its equivalent, 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.