TRANSCRIPT OF THE PODCAST ON DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY
Hello, I'm Cliff Reed, a consular officer at the American Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. I'm doing this podcast concerning the Diversity Visa program, because we are now in the 2009 Diversity Visa enrollment season, and we want to make sure that you have access to correct information.
The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
The annual DV program makes diversity immigrant visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. A computer-generated random lottery drawing chooses selectees for diversity visas.
The diversity visas are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.
For DV-2009, natives of certain countries are not eligible to apply because they sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the previous five years. The complete list of such countries can be found on our website kyiv.usembassy.gov.
The DV-2009 lottery registration period will run from Wednesday noon, on October 3, 2007 until Sunday noon, December 2, 2007. The DV-2009 lottery will be conducted entirely electronically. The Department has established a dedicated website for the submission of E-DV entries, www.dvlottery.state.gov. Paper entries will not be accepted.
I would strongly encourage the DV applicants not to wait until the last week of the registration period to enter. In the past, system delays caused by extremely heavy demand in the final days of the registration period have resulted in the failure of some applicants to be able to register for the program. No entries will be accepted after noon on December 2, 2007.
People may prepare and submit their own entries, or have someone submit the entry for them. Only one entry may be submitted in the name of each individual, and the person entering the lottery remains responsible for insuring that the information is correct and complete. Online application is completely free. If you are selected, the total cost for issuance of the visa is $755.
If the entry is selected, the notification letter will be sent only to the mailing address provided on the entry. Therefore, please make sure that you, or anyone on your behalf, enter your own mailing address into the application form.
The Embassy is aware that there are businesses and individuals that try to take money from applicants or coerce them into fraudulent acts -- even such things as false marriages to get visas for third persons.
The U.S. Embassy warns the DV participants not to allow anyone to interfere in the Diversity Visa process. Remember: the Embassy never requires the use of an agency in completing your green card application. Also, it never costs any money to enter the Diversity Visa lottery.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Diversity Visa Lottery process and what effect agencies may have on your application, you can ask the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv in an anonymous email. Information is also available on our website at kyiv.usembassy.gov.