Embassy of the United States

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE 2008 DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAM (DV-2008)

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The program provides a maximum of up to 55,000 Diversity Visas (DV) each fiscal year to be made available to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. A computer-generated random lottery drawing chooses selectees for diversity visas.

After the individuals have been selected at random from among all qualified entries through the State Department E-DV lottery computer program, they will NOT be notified by email. Those selected will be notified only by letter through the mail between May and July 2007 at the addresses listed on their E-DV entry. Only the randomly selected individuals will be notified. Persons not selected will NOT receive any notification. U.S. embassies and consulates will NOT be able to provide a list of those selected to continue the visa process.

The Department of State, Visa Services advises the public that only internet sites including the ".gov" indicator are official government websites. Many other non-governmental websites (e.g., using the suffixes ".com" or ".org" or ".net") provide legitimate and useful immigration and visa related information and services. Regardless of the content of non-governmental websites, the Department of State does not endorse, recommend or sponsor any information or material shown at these other websites.

Some websites may try to mislead customers and members of the public into thinking they are official websites and may contact you by email to lure you to their offers. These websites may attempt to require you to pay for services such as forms and information about immigration procedures, which are otherwise free on the Department of State Visa Services website, or overseas through the Embassy Consular Section websites. Additionally, these other websites may require you to pay for services you will not receive, often including diversity immigration application and visa fees in an effort to outright steal your money. Once you send money in one of these scams, you will never see it again. Also, you should be wary of sending any personal information that might be used for identity fraud/theft to these websites.

Follow this link to the Bureau of Consular Affairs website for further information about the Diversity Visa Program