Visa lottery officially called the Diversity Immigration Visa program offers 55, 000 green cards to the natives of certain eligible countries which show low rates of migration to the US. The USCIS has prepared a list of countries which are eligible for the program. The list excludes Brazil , Canada, Mainland China, India, Jamaica, Haiti, El Salvador, Ecuador, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Russia, Guatemala, Colombia, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland), and Vietnam.

Apart from the native of the applicant, the visa lottery demands certain basic educational qualifications and work experience.

The visa lottery for the fiscal year 2009 was open from 3rd October 2007 to 2nd December 2007. All the entries have to be sent within the stipulated date. The entries have to be filed electronically without fail. Paper entries are not accepted. Incomplete entries are out rightly rejected. The applications can be filed at the official site of the state government’ diversity visa lottery. If your application has been accepted, you will get a confirmation on the display showcasing your name, date of birth, country of chargeability, and a date/time stamp.

Though they ask for your date of birth, yet there is no age limit for the visa lottery. Either you can file the application by yourself or you may go for a private service do it for you at an average cost of $50 to $70. An attorney will charge more for the same.

The selected applicants are notified by mail (not e mail) between May and July 2008. The selection of the applicants’ takes place purely through a computer generated random drawing that is carried on at the Kentucky Consular Center. The applicants will receive the appointment letters for the interviews at least 4 or 6 weeks before.

The interview would be scheduled from October 2008 at the respective consular offices overseas. The issuance of the visas will begin from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009. The deadline for the issuance of the visa lottery is the mid night of September 30, 2009. The visa lottery for the fiscal year closes once the limit of 55,000 green card lottery is reached.

There are several complaints of fraudulent sites which pose as government affiliated institutions and loot the people. The FTC or Federal Trade Commission says that the best way to immunize yourself against such scams is to understand how the State Department’ lottery works.