Tips When Applying for USA Green Card Lottery

Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery, commonly known as the USA Green Card Lottery

You must provide all of the following information to complete your entry. Failure to accurately include
all the required information may make you ineligible for a DV.

1. Name – last/family name,first name,middle name – exactly asit appears on your passport, if you have a passport(for example, if your passport shows only your first and last/family name, please list your last/family name and then first name; do not include a middle name unless it is included on your passport. If your passport includes a first, middle and last/family name, please list them in the following order: last/family name, first name, middle name). If you have only one name, it must be entered in the last/family name field.

2. Gender – male or female.

3. Birth date – day, month, year.

4. City where you were born.

5. Country where you were born–Use the name of the country currently used for the place where you were born.

6. Country of eligibility for the DV program – Your country of eligibility will normally be the same as your country of birth. Your country of eligibility is not related to where you liveoryour nationality if it is different from your country of birth.

7. Entrant photograph(s) –Recentphotographs(taken within the lastsixmonths)
of yourself, your spouse,and all yourderivativechildren included on your
entry. See Submitting a Digital Photograph for compositional and technical
specifications. You do not need to include a photograph for a spouse or
child who is already a U.S. citizen or a Lawful Permanent Resident,butyou
will not be penalized if you do.
DV entry photographs must meet the same standards as U.S. visa photos.
You may be ineligible for a DV if the entry photographs for you and your
family members do not fully meet these specifications or have been
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manipulated in any way. Submitting the same photograph that was
submitted with a prior year’s entry will make you ineligible for a DV. See
Submitting a Digital Photograph (below) for more information.
8. Mailing Address – In Care Of
• Address Line 1
• Address Line 2 City/Town
• District/Country/Province/State Postal Code/Zip Code Country
9. Country where you live today.
10. Phone number (optional).
11. Emailaddress –An email address to which you have direct access and will
continue to have direct accessthroughMay ofthenext year. Ifyoucheckthe
Entrant Status Checkin Mayandlearn you have beenselected,you willlater
receive follow-upemailcommunication from the Department of Statewith
detailsifanimmigrant visa interviewbecomesavailable. Note: The
Department of State will never send you an email telling you that you
have been selected for the DV program. See theFrequently Asked
Questionsfor more information about the selection process.
12. Highest level of education you have achieved, as of today:
• Primary school only
• Some high school, no diploma
• High school diploma
• Vocational school
• Some university courses
• University degree
• Some graduate-level courses
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• Master’s degree
• Some doctoral-level courses
• Doctorate
See theFrequently Asked Questions for more information about educational
requirements.
13. Current marital status:
• Unmarried
• marriedand my spouse is NOT a U.S.citizen or U.S. LawfulPermanent
Resident (LPR)
• married and my spouse IS a U.S. citizen or U.S. LPR
• divorced
• widowed
• legally separated
Enterthe name, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth, and country of birth
of your spouse, and a photograph of your spouse meetingthe same
technical specifications as your photo.
Failure to list your eligible spouse or, listing someone who is not your
spouse, may make you ineligible as the DV principal applicant and your
spouse and children ineligible as DV derivative applicants. You must list
your spouse even if you currently are separated from them unless you are
legally separated. Legal separation is an arrangement when a couple
remain married but live apart, following a court order. If you and your
spouse are legally separated, your spouse will not be able to immigrate with
you through the DV program. You will not be penalized if you choose to
enter the name of a spouse from whom you are legally separated. If you are
not legally separated by a court order, you must include your spouse even if
you plan to be divorced before you apply for the Diversity Visa, or your
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spouse does not intend to immigrate.
If your spouse is a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident, do not list
them in your entry. A spouse who is already a U.S. citizen or LPRwill not
require or be issued avisa. Therefore,if you select “married and my spouse
IS a U.S. citizen or U.S. LPR” on your entry, you will not be prompted to
include further information on yourspouse. See the Frequently Asked
Questionsfor more information about family members.
14. Number of children – List thename, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth,
and country of birth for all living,unmarried children under 21 years of age,
regardlessof whether they are living with you or intend to accompany or
follow to join you,should you immigrate to the United States. Submit
individual photographs of each of your children usingthe same technical
specifications as your own photograph.
Be sure to include:
• all living natural children;
• all living children legally adopted by you; and,
• allliving stepchildren who are unmarried and under the age of 21 on the date of your
electronic entry, even if you are no longer legally married to the child’s parent, and
even if the child does not currently reside with you and/or will not immigrate with
you.
Married children and childrenwho are alreadyaged 21 or olderwhen you
submit your entryare not eligible for the DVprogram. However, the Child
Status Protection Act protects children from “aging out” in certain
circumstances: ifyou submit yourDV entry before your unmarried child
turns 21, and the child turns 21 before visa issuance,it is possible thatheor
she may be treated as though heorshe wereunder 21 for visaprocessing
purposes.
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A child who is already a U.S. citizen orLPRwhen you submit yourDVentrywill
not require or be issuedaDiversityVisa;you will not be penalized foreither
including oromitting such family members from your entry.
Failure to list all children who are eligible or listing someone who is not your
child may make you ineligible for a DV, in which case your spouse and
children will also be ineligible as Diversity Visa derivative applicants. See the
Frequently Asked Questions, for more information about family members.
See theFrequently Asked Questionsfor more information aboutcompleting
your Electronic Entry for the DV-2026Program.