Immigrants seeking full citizenship in the United States have to go through a rigorous process. One of the steps for naturalization is acquiring a green card. A green card allows an immigrant to live and work in the United States permanently. There are several routes to acquiring a green card.
Many people receive their green cards through marriage or family immigration. Alternatively, immigrants can get a green card through work or school eligibility. One option that many immigrants have is the green card lottery or Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Program.
The DV lottery helps up to 55,000 immigrants receive green cards. Entering the DV lottery is free. However, there are some steps immigrants must take to enter the program. Here is what you should know:
What do you have to do to enter the green card lottery?
There are two requirements that immigrants must meet to enter the green card lottery. The first is that the DV lottery is limited to residents in countries with low immigrant rates. For example, Brazil and Canada residents were not eligible for the DV lottery in 2023, but many others were.
The second is that eligible immigrants must have a high school education or equivalent. This can be substituted with qualified work experience.
Statistics of getting a green card through the lottery
An eligible immigrant can apply to the green card lottery, but a green card is not guaranteed. Only 55,000 people can receive a green card through the lottery, and there were almost 10 million people applying for the lottery in 2023. What this means is that around one in 172 applicants were able to get a green card.
This should not deter you from applying for the green card lottery. You can also improve your chances of getting a green card by learning about your immigration options.
