2008 Diversity Visa Lottery Program (DV-2008)

For DV-2008, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply because they sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. over the period of the previous five years:

BRAZIL, CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, PERU, POLAND, RUSSIA, 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.

Entries for the DV 2008 program must be submitted electronically between Wednesday, October 4, 2006 and Sunday, December 3, 2006. Applicants may access the electronic application form at www.dvlottery.state.gov only during this registration period. Applicants are encouraged not to wait until the last week of the registration period in order to apply as the very high request rate may lead to delays. No entry will be accepted after noon, Eastern Standard Time on December 3, 2006. There is no fee for submitting an electronic entry.

The winners will be randomly selected by a computer, from all qualified entries. Random selection does not guarantee an applicant will receive a visa. Applicants must still meet all the requirements for participation in the program. The selected applicants will be announced by mail between May and July 2007 and will receive further instructions. The applicants that have not been selected WILL NOT RECEIVE any notification.

Should you receive an e-mail announcing you have been selected, please note that the message is not legitimate.

Please be aware that the DV winners are notified BY MAIL (at the address they provided on the electronic registration form). The notification is NEVER made by e-mail.

THE ENTRY

There is only one way to enter the DV-2008 lottery. You must submit an Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form (E-DV Entry Form), which is accessible only at www.dvlottery.state.gov. Failure to complete the form in its entirety will disqualify the entry.

LIST OF COUNTRIES BY REGION WHOSE NATIVES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR DV-2008

The lists below show the countries whose natives are eligible for DV-2008 within each geographic region for this diversity program. The determination of countries within each region is based on information provided by the Geographer of the Department of State. The countries whose natives are not eligible for the DV-2008 program were identified by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) according to the formula in Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Dependent areas overseas are included within the region of the governing country. The countries whose natives are NOT eligible for this diversity program (because they are the principal source countries of Family-Sponsored and Employment-Based immigration, or "high admission" countries) are noted after the respective regional lists.

AFRICA

Algeria	Angola
Benin	Botswana
Burkina Faso	Burundi
Cameroon	Cape Verde
Central African Republic	Chad
Comoros	Congo
Congo, Democratic Republic of the	Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Djibouti	Egypt
Equatorial Guinea	Eritrea
Ethiopia	Gabon
Gambia, The	Ghana
Guinea	Guinea-Bissau
Kenya	Lesotho
Liberia	Libya
Madagascar	Malawi
Mali	Mauritania
Mauritius	Morocco
Mozambique	Namibia
Niger	Nigeria
Rwanda	Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal	Seychelles
Sierra Leone	Somalia
South Africa	Sudan
Swaziland	Tanzania
Togo	Tunisia
Uganda	Zambia
Zimbabwe

LIST OF COUNTRIES BY REGION WHOSE NATIVES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR DV-2008

ASIA

Afghanistan	Bahrain
Bangladesh	Bhutan
Brunei	Burma
Cambodia	East Timor
Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region	Indonesia
Iran	Iraq
Israel	Japan
Jordan	Kuwait
Laos	Lebanon
Malaysia	Maldives
Mongolia	Nepal
North Korea	Oman
Qatar	Saudi Arabia
Singapore	Sri Lanka
Syria	Taiwan
Thailand	United Arab Emirates
Yemen

Natives of the following Asian countries are not eligible for this year's diversity program:
China [mainland-born], India, Pakistan, South Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam. The Hong Kong S.A.R and Taiwan do qualify and are listed above. Macau S.A.R. also qualifies and is listed below.

LIST OF COUNTRIES BY REGION WHOSE NATIVES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR DV-2008

EUROPE

Albania	Andorra
Armenia	Austria
Azerbaijan	Belarus
Belgium	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria	Croatia
Cyprus	Czech Republic
Denmark (including components and dependent areas overseas)	Estonia
Finland	France (including components and dependent areas overseas)
Georgia	Germany
Greece	Hungary
Iceland	Ireland
Italy	Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan	Latvia
Liechtenstein	Lithuania
Luxembourg	Macau Special Administrative Region
Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic	Malta
Moldova	Monaco
Montenegro
Netherlands (including components and dependent areas overseas)
Northern Ireland	Norway
Portugal (including components and dependent areas overseas)	Romania
San Marino	Serbia
Slovakia	Slovenia
Spain	Sweden
Switzerland	Tajikistan
Turkey	Turkmenistan
Ukraine	Uzbekistan
Vatican City

Natives of the following European countries are not eligible for this year's diversity program: Great Britain, Poland and Russia. Great Britain (United Kingdom) includes the following dependent areas: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St. Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands. Note that for purposes of the diversity program only, Northern Ireland is treated separately; Northern Ireland does qualify and is listed among the qualifying areas.

LIST OF COUNTRIES BY REGION WHOSE NATIVES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR DV-2008

NORTH AMERICA

The Bahamas

In North America, natives of Canada and Mexico are not eligible for this year's diversity program.

OCEANIA

Australia (including components and dependent areas overseas)	Palau
Fiji	Papua New Guinea
Kiribati	Solomon Islands
Marshall Islands	Tonga
Micronesia, Federated States of	Tuvalu
Nauru	Vanuatu
New Zealand (including components and dependent areas overseas)	Samoa

SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN

Antigua and Barbuda	Argentina
Barbados	Belize
Bolivia	Chile
Costa Rica	Cuba
Dominica	Ecuador
Grenada	Guatemala
Guyana	Honduras
Nicaragua	Panama
Paraguay	Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname	Trinidad and Tobago
Uruguay	Venezuela

Countries in this region whose natives are not elgible for this year's diversity program:

Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, and Peru.

Diversity Visa Lottery 2007 (DV-2007) result

The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2007 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 82,000 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first 50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2007 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2007.

Applicants registered for the DV-2007 program were selected at random from over 5.5 million qualified entries received during the 60-day application period that ran from 12:00 AM on October 5, 2005, until midnight, December 4, 2005. The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country. During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent, or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years. Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly. Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.

Registrants living legally in the United States who wish to apply for adjustment of their status must contact the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services for information on the requirements and procedures. Once the total 50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2007 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2007 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2007 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2007 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2007.
Only participants in the DV-2007 program who were selected for further processing have been notified. Those who have not received notification were not selected. They may try for the upcoming DV-2008 lottery if they wish.