Department of State Posts FY 2012 Diversity Visa Lottery Guidelines

24 Sep 2010

Rules and guidelines for the 2012 Diversity Immigrant Visa program have just been published by the U.S. Department of State. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, a total of 50,000 Diversity Visas will be made available to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S.

The annual DV Lottery program gives permanent visas to people that meet a few simple eligibility requirements. These requirements include:

1) Applicants must be natives of a country whose natives qualify.
2) Applicants must have either a high school education (or its equivalent) or two years of work experience within the past five years that requires at least two years of training or experience.

For FY 2012, natives of the following countries are not eligible for the lottery program, because these countries have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years:

BRAZIL, CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PERU, PHILIPPINES, POLAND, SOUTH KOREA, UNITED KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and VIETNAM.

Please note that people born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible. Learn more online at: http://bit.ly/aoHduH