Anyone who has ever thought about emigrating to the USA should know about the US Green Card. In this article, we will discuss what the Green Card is, how to obtain it and what are its advantages.
What is the Green Card?
Basically, the legendary Green Card is an identification document that gives you the status of “Permanent Residence” and provides the right for foreigners to live and work in the United States permanently similar to its citizens.
Officially the US Green Card is called the “Lawful Permanent Resident Card”. The nickname “Green Card” was given in the past because of its green color. Interesting that after 1964 the card was colored yellow, blue, and pink and the green color returned only in 2010, but the nickname has stayed since 1946.
Unlike Green Card holders, holders of a nonimmigrant visa are dependent on their job or the purpose of their stay in the USA. Having the Green Card, you get the opportunity to choose and change your workplace or to move everywhere in the USA without any limits just like US citizens. Plus Green Cardholders have the opportunity to apply for citizenship.
How long is the Green Card valid?
The Green Card is valid for life, but it needs to be renewed every 10 years like a passport or driver’s license.
There are some situations when you can lose your Permanent Residence status. A Green Card will be automatically annulled if the holder: Has left the USA for longer than 364 days in a row with no reason and approval; Becomes a US citizen; Commits a crime or breaks the immigration law.
How to get a Green Card?
There are some ways to get a Green Card:
- To find a job and get an invitation from the employer in the USA;
- If you have relatives in the US, you can get a Green Card via the family reunion program;
- By winning the Green Card Lottery
The first two ways may take years, and thus the easiest way to get a Green Card is to participate in the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery. All you need is a bit of luck and the full information about how to correctly fill in the lottery form which you can find in our F.A.Q: https://dvlottery.me/dv-lottery-questions. Also, we have created the emulator (test version) of the lottery application for you and you can try to fill in the whole year round https://dvlottery.me/ds-5501-edv-form.
The first thing that comes to mind if you ever thought about immigration to America is the Green Card Lottery. Here are some details about the DV Lottery. What is it and why? Who can participate and what are your chances of winning?
What is it?
The first Diversity Visa Lottery best known as Green Card Lottery was held in 1994. The lottery aims to diversify the immigrant population in the USA, by selecting applicants mostly from countries with low numbers of immigrants to the United States over the past five years.
Nowadays every year U.S. State Department issues around 55,000 visas and around 20 million people apply for the lottery each year. Despite such popularity, Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is generally one of the simplest ways to get a Green Card for people from different nations.
Chances of winning a Green Card are much higher than the chances of winning a million in a usual lottery. First of all, the chances of winning depend on your birth country. Here you can find out winning rates for the USA Green Card Lottery for each country: https://dvlottery.me/win-chances-green-card-lottery
How does it work?
The application for the Lottery is submitted online on the State Department’s website. The form is available every year from early October through early November. The exact dates change year by year, so you should follow the news to not miss your opportunity. The official website is https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/
Winners are randomly selected by the US Department of State. But the winning does not guarantee to get a permanent visa. Selection only gives you eligibility to apply for the visa. Winning is only the first step in your immigration way. The second one is filling out the DS-260 Form for the visa. Be careful when filling the DV Lottery form, because on the DS-260 form you have to provide the same information.
Who can participate in the Green Card Lottery?
Almost everybody can take a part in the Diversity Lottery. There are only two main requirements for participants: your birth country and education level. Also, you need to provide the correct photo. You don’t have to have any special skills or relatives and it doesn’t cost anything.
When will the results of DV Lottery-2024 be announced?
Acceptance of applications for the Green Card Lottery ended on November 10, 2020. When will you know if you are among the lucky ones and what should you do after winning? We will tell you in our post.
According to the information indicated on the official website of the DV Lottery https://dvprogram.state.gov/, the results will be known and published on May 8, 2021. The date is subject to change depending on external circumstances. For example, in 2020 due to coronavirus lockdown, the date of announcement of the results was postponed to June.
Please note that no victory or loss notifications will be sent out. You need to check the result manually. To do this, go to https://dvprogram.state.gov on the specified date and click the ‘Check status’ link.
Enter the confirmation number given to you after filling in the form. The winners will see the text: ‘you have been randomly selected for further processing in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program’. Congratulations!
Important: you can check the status of your number only on the official site of the lottery! Any emails claiming to tell you about winning the lottery are fake. Their purpose is to get a «fee» for «processing» Green Card Lottery or theft of personal data.
When can I move to the United States after winning DV Lottery?
Note that the DV program application is free and will always be free. Beware of fraud.
Winning a DV Lottery by itself does not give you a Green Card. To move to the U.S, you will need to go through an embassy interview and prove that you are not a threat to American society and that you can provide for yourself.
To be interviewed DV Lottery winners need to complete the so-called DS-260 Application Form. Learn how to do this in our article: https://dvlottery.me/blog/1700-ds-260_application_form.
The next step is to pass medical testing in an accredited center. This is to prove that you are not a carrier of dangerous infections as well as mental deviations. Learn more about a medical exam here: https://dvlottery.me/blog/1800-medical_for_green_card.
And finally, in this article, we tell you how to prepare for the interview: https://dvlottery.me/blog/1400-prepare_for_dv_lottery_interview.
We wish you good luck and to win!
