Certain countries are ineligible for Diversity Visa Program
Q: What is the “Visa Lottery?” A: The Diversity Visa Program is commonly referred to as the Visa or DV Lottery. It was first enacted in 1990 during George H.W. Bush’s administration. Its primary purpose has been to increase diversity in our immigration system. It continues to offer citizens of countries which currently don’t have high levels of immigration to the U.S., an opportunity to apply for permanent residence status in the U.S. (Green Card). The number of diversity visas is limited by law to 55,000 each fiscal year. However, Congress has “temporally” reduced the annual cap to 50,000 each fiscal year since 2000. The program limits each eligible country to a maximum of 3,850 visas.
Q: How is this DV lottery conducted?
A: Individuals must apply online at the State Department DV lottery website at www.dvlottery. state.gov. There is no fee for entering the lottery. However, individuals who are selected in the randomized computer drawing have no guarantee they will receive a DV Visa. Rather, they win only the opportunity to apply for one of the allotted visas. The odds of being selected are very limited. In recent lotteries there were in excess of 12 million entrants. The current DV Lottery for 2020 commenced Oct. 3 and will conclude on Nov. 6. Filing more than one entry per lottery will disqualify an individual.
Q: What minimum qualifications must lottery winners have to receive a Diversity Visa?
A: Lottery winners must have either the equivalent of a high school education or two years experience in an occupation which requires at least two years of training or experience. They must undergo an extensive background vetting procedure conducted by Department of State consular officers. They must also pass a subsequent inspection by U.S. immigration authorities upon their arrival in the U.S. Such procedures ensure they are otherwise eligible for visas/green cards after taking into consideration the numerous grounds of inadmissibility contained in our immigration laws. Some of the main areas for potential denial/exclusion include: healthrelated grounds; criminal history; security and terrorist concerns; and the likelihood they may become a public charge (e.g., indigence).
Q: Which countries will not be eligible for the current 2020 visa lottery?
A: For the DV-2020 Lottery Program, natives of the following countries are not eligible to enter because their countries sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the previous five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom and its dependent territories (except Northern Ireland), and Vietnam.
Q: Why does the Trump administration want to terminate the DV Lottery Program?
A: Virtually all of the administration’s actions to date demonstrate an intention to reduce, or eliminate entirely, many current avenues for legally immigrating to the U.S. (e.g. Family and Employment related, Asylum, etc.). However, the administration’s specific public criticism of the DV lottery to date came in a speech by President Trump. He alleged, “foreign governments game the diversity visa program to let their worst citizens immigrate to the United States.”
Q: How persuasive is the administration’s argument for termination of the DV Lottery Program?
A: Such reasoning is problematic for two reasons. First, the DV program’s selection process is implemented through a randomized computer drawing conducted by the U.S. Department of State. The feasibility of a foreign government wanting to, and then somehow being able to, manipulate the lottery in favor of their “worst citizens” without detection is dubious. Second and most importantly, the U.S. Department of State’s extensive vetting procedures described above would undoubtedly weed out such “worst citizens” as disqualified on numerous different legal grounds. Most economists agree legal immigration is and always has been beneficial to the U.S. economy. This is especially true in our current environment of record low unemployment and aging baby boomers. Data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s 2015 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics show 32 percent of those who came through the diversity visa program in fiscal year 2015 were employed in management, professional and related occupations. Another 36 percent were students or children of winners. The role legal immigration has always played in our county is attested to by the Latin phrase engraved on the Great Seal of the United States, “E Pluribus Unum”, or “Out of the many, one.”