The Congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered annually by the Department of State. Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of “diversity immigrants,” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.
For fiscal year 2016, 50,000 diversity visas (DVs) will be available. There is no cost to register for the DV program.
Applicants who are selected in the lottery (“selectees”) must meet simple, but strict, eligibility through a randomized and no single country
may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.
For DV-2016, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply, natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years:
Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam.
There are no changes in eligibility this year. Good luck to all applicants.