bucknaway
November 28th, 2006, 06:56
I came across this on the internet. It may be of interest to some of you guys.
The U.S. Department of State has announced the initiation of the annual Diversity Visa (тАЬDVтАЭ) lottery for immigration. The congressionally mandated DV Lottery Program is administered yearly by the Department of State and provides for a class of immigrants known as "diversity immigrants." Under the relevant statutory provisions, a maximum of up to 55,000 DV visas are awarded each fiscal year to persons from countries with relatively low rates of immigration to the United States. Selected applicants may apply for their U.S. permanent residency based on the DV selection.
Applications for the 2008 DV lottery will be accepted between noon Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Wednesday, October 4, 2006 and noon Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5) Sunday, December 3, 2006. The electronic DV lottery entry form will be available at www.dvlottery.state.gov (http://www.dvlottery.state.gov) during the registration period. Please note that paper entries will not be accepted. In addition, the Department of State has indicated that it strongly encourages applicants to apply early, as heavy demand in the latter part of the registration period may result in website delays. No entries will be accepted after noon EST on December 3, 2006.
The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the eligibility requirements. The eligibility requirements include that candidates must have either:
a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; or
two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform. The Department of LaborтАЩs O*Net Online database is used to determine the parameters of qualifying work experience.
A computer-generated random lottery drawing chooses candidates for DV visas. The visas are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.
For DV-2008, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply (because they sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the previous five years):
BRAZIL, CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, PERU, POLAND, RUSSIA, SOUTH KOREA, UNITED KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and VIETNAM.
All other nationalities may apply, including persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan.
Please review the Department of State instructions for registration at www.state.gov (http://www.state.gov).
The U.S. Department of State has announced the initiation of the annual Diversity Visa (тАЬDVтАЭ) lottery for immigration. The congressionally mandated DV Lottery Program is administered yearly by the Department of State and provides for a class of immigrants known as "diversity immigrants." Under the relevant statutory provisions, a maximum of up to 55,000 DV visas are awarded each fiscal year to persons from countries with relatively low rates of immigration to the United States. Selected applicants may apply for their U.S. permanent residency based on the DV selection.
Applications for the 2008 DV lottery will be accepted between noon Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Wednesday, October 4, 2006 and noon Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5) Sunday, December 3, 2006. The electronic DV lottery entry form will be available at www.dvlottery.state.gov (http://www.dvlottery.state.gov) during the registration period. Please note that paper entries will not be accepted. In addition, the Department of State has indicated that it strongly encourages applicants to apply early, as heavy demand in the latter part of the registration period may result in website delays. No entries will be accepted after noon EST on December 3, 2006.
The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the eligibility requirements. The eligibility requirements include that candidates must have either:
a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; or
two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform. The Department of LaborтАЩs O*Net Online database is used to determine the parameters of qualifying work experience.
A computer-generated random lottery drawing chooses candidates for DV visas. The visas are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.
For DV-2008, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply (because they sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the previous five years):
BRAZIL, CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, PERU, POLAND, RUSSIA, SOUTH KOREA, UNITED KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and VIETNAM.
All other nationalities may apply, including persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan.
Please review the Department of State instructions for registration at www.state.gov (http://www.state.gov).