Do you qualify to enter the American DV-2020 Diversity Visa Green Card Lottery ?

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Enrollment into the DV-2020 Diversity Visa Lottery program is open to all individuals world-wide, however, there are two entry requirements that you must meet before you can enter the USA DV-Lottery:

1. To enter the Diversity Visa Lottery you must be a native of a qualifying country

To enter the DV-2020 Diversity Visa Green Card Lottery you must be native of a country with a low immigration rate to the USA to qualify for the USA Diversity Visa Lottery. People born in countries with high U.S. immigration are excluded from this Diversity Visa Lottery. Please see the list below of countries whose natives are currently excluded from the USA Diversity Lottery. Please note that eligibility is determined only by the country of your birth, not based on country of citizenship or current residence. This is the most common misperception. The only change this year is that people born in Guatemala are now eligible to enter the DV-2020 green card lottery.

Natives of the following countries are excluded from entering the DV-2020 Diversity Visa Lottery program this year:

  • Bangladesh
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • China (mainland only)
  • Colombia
  • Dominican Republic
  • Ecuador
  • El Salvador
  • Haiti
  • India
  • Jamaica
  • Mexico
  • Nigeria
  • Pakistan
  • Peru
  • Philippines
  • South Korea
  • United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland)
  • Vietnam

Note that United Kingdom includes the following dependent areas: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St. Helena, and Turks and Caicos Islands. Northern Ireland does qualify.

Persons born in the Gaza Strip are chargeable to Egypt for the USA Diversity Visa Lottery this year.
Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are also eligible to enter the DV-2020 Lottery.

Natives from all other countries may register for this years DV-Lottery, the USA DV-2020 Diversity Visa Lottery.

If you were born in one of the non-qualifying DV-Lottery countries you may still qualify

You may still be able to participate in the USA Diversity Visa Lottery based on the country of birth of your parents or spouse if you were born in a non-qualifying country:


For example, if you were born in a country whose natives are ineligible to enter the green card lottery, but your spouse was born in a country whose natives are eligible to enter the green card lottery, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth as your country of eligibility. I.e. you may claimchargeability to the country where your derivative spouse was born, provided that both you and your spouse are on the selected green card lottery application, but you will not be issued a diversity visa green card unless

  • your spouse is also eligible for and issued a diversity visa green card,
  • and both of you must enter the United States together with the diversity visa green cards.

Example: If you were born in Canada, whose natives are ineligible to enter the green card lottery, but your spouse was born in Spain, whose natives are eligible to enter the green card lottery, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth (Spain) as your country of eligibility as long as you include your spouse on your green card lottery application.

In a similar manner, a minor dependent child can be “charged” to a parent’s country of birth.

Finally, if you were born in a country not eligible to participate in this year’s diversity visa green card program, you can be “charged” to the country of birth of either of your parents as long as neither parent was a resident of your country of birth at the time of your birth. For example your parents might have lived temporarily in the ineligible country because of their jobs. In general, people are not considered residents of a country in which they were not born or legally naturalized if they are only visiting the country, studying in the country temporarily, or stationed in the country for business or professional reasons on behalf of a company or government.

If you claim alternate chargeability, you must indicate such information on the Diversity Lottery entry form that you must complete after you have registered succesfully, under country of Eligibility. Please be aware that listing an incorrect country of eligibility or chargeability (i.e. one to which you cannot establish a valid claim) may disqualify your entry.

2. Education or Work experience that qualifies for the American DV-2020 Lottery

To enter the USA DV-2020 Diversity Visa Lottery you must comply with one of the following two requirements (Option 1 or Option 2 below) to qualify:

OPTION 1:

To qualify for the DV-2020 Diversity Visa Lottery you must have completed a U.S. high school education or a foreign equivalent of U.S. high school education “High School education or its equivalent” means the successful completion of a twelve year course of elementary and secondary education in the U.S. or successful completion in another country of a formal course of elementary and secondary education comparable to complete a 12 year education in the U.S. Passage of a high school equivalency examination is not sufficient. It is permissible to have completed one’s education in less than twelve years or greater than twelve years if the course of study completed is equivalent to a U.S. high school education; or

OPTION 2:

  To qualify for the USA DV-2020 Diversity Visa lottery you must have worked in one of the following occupations for at least two years within the last five years:


Proof that you satisfy these requirements should NOT be submitted when entering the DV-2020 Lottery but will be requested by a consular officer after your name has been selected and you formally apply for your permanent residence (Green Card) visa. Individuals who do not match these basic requirements should not apply in this program. You need to provide proof of education, work experience and native country only if you are selected. For this reason we do not request this information in the application form for the DV-2020 Green Card Lottery.

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