2023 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery Registration Now Available

The Department of State (DOS) announced that applicants may now register for the 2023 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery program. The registration period for DV-2023 opened on October 6, 2021 at 12:00PM EST (GMT -5) and will conclude on November 9, 2021 12:00PM EDT (GMT -4). To enter the Diversity Visa Lottery, individuals must submit their applications online during the registration period. We recommend eligible individuals to submit their registration as soon as possible. Individuals who submit more than one entry during the registration period will be disqualified.

The annual DV program makes 55,000 permanent residence visas available to persons meeting certain eligibility requirements based upon a computer-generated random drawing. Last year the program received 7,336,302 qualified entries for the available DV immigrant visas. To be eligible, the applicant must have either a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; or, two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform. Spouses and unmarried children under age 21 of successful entrants may also apply for visas to accompany or follow to join the principal applicant.

The winners will be distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, with no visas going to persons born in countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. over the period of the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than 7% of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.

For the DV-2023, persons born in the following countries are NOT eligible for the DV program due to the high volume of immigrants coming from those countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except for Northern Ireland) and its dependent categories, Venezuela and Vietnam.

We encourage persons who seek permanent residence in the United States, and who are not born in one of the above countries, and who meet the minimum eligibility requirements to register for the DV program. Even if the applicant is being sponsored by his or her employer for permanent residence, the DV program may provide a means of obtaining a green card more quickly in some cases.

Registrants can check the status of their applications starting on May 7, 2022. Selected applicants must be found eligible for, and obtain, their visa or adjust status by September 30, 2023.

Registration is free and easy, and must be done electronically through the DOS’ website. The process does not require the assistance of an attorney. (If the person is selected for a DV visa, filing fees will be required for the application process, and it may be helpful to engage the services of an attorney at that point).

For complete instructions on the registration process and the eligibility requirements, please visit the DOS' website.