Diversity Immigrant Visa Program - The Green Card Lottery

The U.S. Department of State will kick off the annual Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (more commonly known as the "Visa Lottery") on October 4. Visa Lottery winners are eligible to legally live and work in the United States as permanent residents or "green card holders." Visa winners are picked worldwide at random by a computer generated program. Last year fifty-six Icelanders won the Visa Lottery.

Applications for the Visa Lottery program must be submitted online between October 4 and November 5: www.dvlottery.state.gov. There is no fee to submit an application, but Visa Lottery winners are required to pay a processing fee as part of the visa application process. Detailed instructions and other information on the Visa Lottery program can be found on the U.S. Department of State website: http://travel.state.gov.

There are 50,000 immigrant visas made available each year to natives of countries that have had recently low immigration to the United States.  Iceland is one of the qualifying countries. 

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) states that no diversity visas shall be provided for "high admission" countries - those countries from which there were more than 50,000 immigrants during the period of the previous five years.  Each year, the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) compiles the immigrant admission figures for the previous five years to identify the countries that must be excluded from the annual diversity lottery application period, resulting in the list of countries eligible for the program changing from one year to the next.

State Department officials encourage prospective applicants to “apply early” in the two-month registration period for the program that issues 50,000 permanent residency visas annually. 

If any member of the public, a winner or not, has questions pertaining to the DV program they are encouraged to contact KCC's public inquiry office. 

• KCC Public Inquiry E-mail
• KCC Public Inquiry Phone (606) 526-7500
• KCC Public Inquiry Fax:  (606) 526-7501