There are many ways to get a green card and the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery program is one of those. The program was established under the 1990 Immigration Act and is conducted every year. This program was mainly designed to help natives from certain countries to immigrate to the US. 55,000 immigrant visas are separately allotted for this program and are issued every year to people who come from countries whose immigration percentage to the US is very less. Specifically, if more than 50,000 persons under the family and employment based visa classification came to the US from a particular country during the last five years, that country cannot participate in the current year’s DV lottery program.
Fraudulent Emails and Letters:
The Department of State (DOS) is the sole authority that conducts and takes care of the entire green card lottery program. Of late, there are many individuals/organizations who send fraudulent emails to the applicants informing them they have won the DV lottery. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has recently sent strong warning signals to immigrants to beware of such scammers. The Department of State, Office of Visa Services, has cautioned the public of a sudden surge in the number of such fraudulent emails and letters sent to DV lottery applicants. Individuals/organizations who send such fraudulent emails and letters pose themselves to be the US government and their motive is to extract money from the applicants. Applicants are advised to be familiar with information about DV scams issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The State Department has made it mandatory that all DV-2012 applicants track the status of their case online. No applicant will get any notification letter about the results from the government. The status of their case can be checked at the Department of State website www.dvlottery.state.gov from July 1, 2010, until June 30, 2011.
Applicants are advised to refer to the additional fraud warning information and the frequently asked questions (FAQs) about fraud protection. For the DV 2011 lottery program, for which persons applied in 2009, the US Department of State will notify winners only by mail. The Department Of State takes the responsibility of sending the letter. If you do not receive a letter or the website does not recognize you as a winner, it simply means that you are not selected.
