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(CNN) - Many speak of the visa lottery as the way to obtain the so-called “green cards”, which grant permanent residence in the United States and are a path to citizenship. The official name of the visa lottery is “Immigrant Visa Program for Diversity”. These visas are for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants,” who belong to countries with historically low immigration rates to the United States. By fiscal year 2021, 55,000 visas of this type will be available and the process has no cost, according to the State Department.
MIRA: Businessmen in the US: We don't have workers because they entered the visa lottery
If you belong to one of these countries, do not waste your time: more than 50,000 people from these countries have emigrated to the United States in recent years and therefore cannot participate: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China - those born in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan can participate— Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and their dependent territories — with the exception of Northern Ireland— .
These are the countries that can participate in Latin America and North America: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Grenada, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay , Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. Here you can see the complete list of countries that can participate.
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If you are not from these countries, you can participate if your spouse was born in one of them or in a very special case: when you were born in that country that is not eligible, but your parents were not born in that country or resided legally in it, You can claim as country of birth the country in which one of your parents was born that is on the list of eligible countries. Example: Pedro (fictional character) was born in Colombia, but his parents were born in Argentina and did not reside legally in Colombia. Thus, Pedro could participate on behalf of the Argentine nationality of his parents.
To present yourself to the lottery, you must have completed at least “secondary education or its equivalent, defined as the successful completion of 12 years,” says the official document, or have two years of “work experience in the last five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience. ”
If you meet all of these requirements, you must go to dvlottery.state.gov between noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 and noon Eastern Time on Tuesday, November 5, 2019. Use an updated browser on your computer.
MIRA: How does the visa lottery work in the United States?
“Do not wait until the last week of the registration period to enter, because a high demand can cause delays on the website […] The law allows only one entry per person during each registration period. The State Department uses sophisticated technology to detect multiple entries. People with more than one entry will be disqualified, ”says the official document.
If you want to know more about the process, this is the official document of the process in English.
Visa Lottery