The Department of State has announced the open registration date for the Diversity Visa Lottery for 2025. The Diversity Visa Lottery 2025 entry period will open on October 4, 2023. Entries are open for all eligible applicants in addition to selectees from a prior program year who were unable to obtain a visa.
Note
The 2025 Diversity Visa Program Lottery registration is open now! Read more in our latest blog post here.
What is the Diversity Visa Lottery?
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program offers a chance at obtaining a green card to individuals from countries with historically low immigration rates to the United States. In the fiscal year of 2025, the State Department plans to allocate 55,000 green cards to eligible foreign nationals. These lucky recipients will be chosen through a randomized computer drawing, often referred to as a lottery, among those who meet the program’s eligibility criteria.
There is no cost to register for the Diversity Visa program.
Who is Eligible for the DV Lottery?
The diversity visas are distributed among six geographic regions, and no single country can receive more than 7% of all available diversity visas in any one year.
To be eligible for the a DV, you must meet the following education or work experience requirements:
- Have a high school education or its equivalent
- Have 2 years of work experience within the past 5 years of in an occupation that requires at least 2 years of training and experience to perform
You also must be a citizen of any of the eligible DV countries listed here.
You may also qualify if your spouse or parent is a native of a country in the list linked above.
How to Apply for the 2025 Diversity Visa Lottery
When the registration period opens, you will submit your entry for the 2025 DV lottery on the official Electronic Diversity Visa Program website.
Information you will need to apply includes:
- Name, exactly as it appears on your passport
- Gender – male or female
- Date of birth
- City of birth
- Country of birth
- Country of eligibility for DV program
- Recent photographs of yourself, your spouse, and children
- Mailing address
- Current country of residence
- Phone number
- Email address
- Highest level of education
- Current marital status
- Number of children
After you submit your entry, it is very important to print out your confirmation page that has your unique confirmation number on it – this will be used to check your entry status later on.
Diversity Visa Lottery Selection Process
The DV program only issues approximately 55,000 diversity visas each fiscal year. Selection for these visas is randomly generated in a lottery-type process from the pool of submitted electronic entries during the open registration period for that specific fiscal year.
In order to determine whether or not you were selected for a DV for the fiscal year you submitted your entry for, you will go to the Electronic Diversity Visa Program website and check the status of your entry. Selection status is typically available around May in the following calendar year.
One thing to note is that selection in the DV lottery doesn’t automatically guarantee that you’ll receive a visa interview or subsequent visa. Being selected only grants you the eligibility to participate in the DV program and potentially apply for a visa.
Diversity Visa Lottery 2023 Update
The Department of State has announced that all available diversity visas for the 2023 program have been issued as of September 7, 2023. This means that if you were selected but did not receive a visa, you will have to try again to submit an entry into the program.
Key Dates for Diversity Visa Lottery 2025
- Open registration – October 4, 2023
- Registration close – not yet announced, but likely to be around November 7, 2023
- Entry status check available – estimated May 2024
For more information on the green card through the DV lottery program, see our complete guide on the process.
