The Diversity Lottery is a Green Card program created by the United States Government. Under the current rules of this program, 55,000 Green Cards are made available on an annual basis through a lottery system. However, the Diversity Lottery is not open to all people in the world. Rather, it is only open to people who were born in countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Conversely, the program is not available to people who were born in countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years. If chosen as a winner, that applicant will also be eligible to bring his or her spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 to the United States.


Regarding the procedure, the US State Department holds the lottery every year through a computer-generated random lottery drawing of the qualified entries. Anyone who is selected under this lottery will be given the opportunity to apply for permanent residence. The most important thing to note here is that being chosen for the lottery does not guarantee receipt of the Green Card. That is, after being selected as a "winner" of the Lottery, the applicant must then submit an application to the appropriate department of US Government. If all documents are properly submitted, an interview is scheduled at a United States Embassy or Consulate (if living outside of the United States) or at a United States Citizen and Immigration Services office (if living inside the United States). At this interview, if all of the requirements of the Diversity Visa program are met, all proper documentation is presented, and there are no other significant issues preventing issuance of a visa, then and only then may a Diversity Visa applicant be granted the right to permanently live inside the United States.