2007 press releases

Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery - 2009

The Embassy of the United States of America announces Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery 2009.

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. The Program makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.  Applicants for Diversity Visas are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing.   The 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 citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in 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.

Individuals wishing to participate in the program can find DV-2009 Information packages in English on the U.S. Department of State website at http://travel.state.gov/pdf/2009DVInstructions.pdf, and, starting October 1, 2007, in Russian, on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Belarus (http://belarusian.minsk.usembassy.gov/visa_services.html) in the ‘Visa Services’ menu, or pick them up from the Consular Section guards at the address: Minsk, 46 Starovilenskaya St. (entrance facing Kommunisticheskaya St.), from 9:00. to 12 a.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

THERE IS NO FEE TO ENTER THE ANNUAL DV PROGRAM.  THE U.S. GOVERNMENT EMPLOYS NO OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS OR PRIVATE MAIL SERVICES TO OPERATE THE DV PROGRAM.  ANY INTERMEDIARIES OR OTHERS WHO OFFER ASSISTANCE TO PREPARE DV CASEWORK FOR APPLICANTS DO SO WITHOUT THE AUTHORITY OR CONSENT OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT.  USE OF ANY OUTSIDE INTERMEDIARY OR ASSISTANCE TO PREPARE A DV ENTRY IS ENTIRELY AT THE APPLICANT'S DISCRETION.

A QUALIFIED ENTRY RECEIVED DIRECTLY FROM AN APPLICANT HAS AN EQUAL CHANCE OF BEING SELECTED BY THE COMPUTER AT THE KENTUCKY CONSULAR CENTER AS DOES AN ENTRY RECEIVED THROUGH A PAID INTERMEDIARY WHO COMPLETES THE ENTRY FOR THE APPLICANT.  THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE TO MAILING EARLY OR MAILING FROM ANY PARTICULAR PLACE.  EVERY ENTRY RECEIVED DURING THE MAIL-IN PERIOD WILL HAVE AN EQUAL RANDOM CHANCE OF BEING SELECTED WITHIN ITS REGION.  HOWEVER, RECEIPT OF MORE THAN ONE ENTRY PER PERSON WILL DISQUALIFY THE PERSON FROM REGISTRATION, REGARDLESS OF THE SOURCE OF THAT ENTRY.