What is the visa lottery in the United States?
(2017) 2:02
(CNN) -
The US State Department announced on Saturday the winners of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program 2022, also known as the "
Green Card
Visa Lottery
."
The program benefits more than 55,000 people per year, allowing winners to apply for visas from countries with lower levels of immigration to the United States.
This year's program took on new meaning when President Joe Biden lifted restrictions imposed by former President Donald Trump.
In 2017, Trump took a series of actions aimed at preventing people from Muslim-majority countries from reaching the United States.
The one that finally came into force, Presidential Proclamation 9645, imposed different levels of restrictions on foreigners from eight countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia and Yemen.
See your odds of winning in the visa lottery according to your country of origin
On his first day as president, Biden issued a new presidential proclamation - "Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry into the United States" - that ended the restrictions under Presidential Proclamation 9645.
“In accordance with President Biden's proclamation, the Department of State will conduct a review to ensure that individuals whose immigrant visa applications were denied based on suspension and entry restriction imposed by PP 9645 or 9983 can have their applications reconsidered, ”says the department's Office of Consular Affairs, which handles visas, on its website.
According to State Department data, tens of thousands of immigrant visa applicants, including applicants for diversity visas, were denied visas in fiscal years 2017, 2018 and 2019 under Trump administration policy.
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Visa lottery participants can check the status of their application on the website of the Department's Office of Consular Affairs.
What is the Diversity Visa Program?
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program grants up to 55,000 people per year a visa for a
green card
, which grants permanent residence in the United States and is a path to citizenship.
Opponents of immigration complain that the program brings people to the United States to compete for jobs, and even immigration supporters acknowledge that the program does not tailor applicants to the needs of the United States.
Visas are awarded by random selection in selected countries to qualified individuals in order to promote immigration from countries with low levels of immigration to the United States.
How does it work?
People in countries that, according to a formula, have a low enough level of immigration to the US can apply for visas at certain times of the year.
Most lottery recipients live outside the US, but some are legally in the country on other visas.
According to the formula established by law, countries that have had more than 50,000 natives immigrated to the United States in the last five years are not eligible.
Visas are more distributed by region: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America (except Mexico), Oceania, South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.
The program is run by the State Department.
While people are randomly selected for visas, they still must meet the security and eligibility requirements that all immigrants must pass in order to obtain their visas.
Diversity recipients specifically must also have at least a high school or equivalent education and must have had at least two years of experience in a job that requires at least two years of training or experience within five years of the application date.
They must also be admissible to the US - the categories of inadmissibility for the US generally include connections to terrorism.
The process also includes an in-person interview.
"To immigrate, those selected for the diversity visa must be admissible to the United States," says a State Department information brochure for applicants.
“The DS-260, the Online Alien Registration and Immigrant Visa Application, electronically, and the consular agent, in person, will ask you questions about your eligibility to immigrate under United States law.
These questions include criminal and security-related topics.
How it began?
The program was established in a bill passed in 1990 known as the Immigration Law.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, then a New York Congressman, was one of 31 co-sponsors of the House version of the bill, spearheaded by then-Congressman Bruce Morrison, a Connecticut Democrat.
Schumer was credited with the concept of granting visas to countries with low admission rates to the US, which he developed into a separate bill that he sponsored and incorporated into the broader law.
Morrison also promoted the bill as a way to legalize Irish immigrants, according to a 1990 report in The New York Times and an analysis of the development of the NumbersUSA group program, which advocates for drastic cuts in immigration across the board.
The final bill was approved by the Senate with 89 votes in favor and 8 against, and by the House of Representatives, with 264-118.
CNN's Madeleine Stix, Jennifer Hansler and Muhammad Darwish contributed to this report. Tal Kopan also contributed to this report.
Green Card Visa Lottery