Green Card Lottery requirements

To be eligible to enter the Green Card Lottery, you must meet the following requirements.

I. Applicant must be a native of an eligible country

In most cases this means the country in which the applicant was born. However, there are two other ways a person may be able to qualify. First, if a person was born in a country whose natives are ineligible but his/her spouse was born in a country whose natives are eligible, such person can claim the spouse's country of birth provided both the applicant and spouse are issued visas and enter the U.S. simultaneously. Second, if a person was born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but neither of his/her parents was born there or resided there at the time of his/her birth, such person may claim nativity in one of the parents country of birth if it is a country whose natives qualify for the DV-2006 program.

If you were born in an ineligible country, you may still qualify if:

• Your spouse (legally married husband or wife) was born in an eligible country
• One or both of your parents was born in a eligible country.

If you were born in one of the following countries, you CANNOT participate at Green Card Lottery

• Europe: Great Britain.
• Asia: China (mainland), India, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam.
• America: Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico.

II. Applicant must meet either the education or training requirement of the DV program

Education or Training: An applicant must have EITHER a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; (This will rule out most applicants under the age of 18), 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 U.S. Department of Labor O*Net Online database or the Consular Affairs website will provide information which will be used to determine qualifying work experience.

III. Must submit a complete, accurate electronic application within the specified timeline