The U.S. is once again giving away 55,000 green cards to foreigners.

According to an official announcement from the U.S. State Department, they will be officially open for permanent resident card applications from Wednesday, October 7th until Tuesday, November 10th. It’s been decided that 55,000 immigrants who register for the visa lottery will be granted permanent residence. Known formally as the Diversity Visa Program, the visa lottery is a very popular program where foreigners who lack sponsorship from U.S. citizens can obtain a permanent residence card.

This current visa lottery is going to be for the fiscal year of 2022. Any permanent residency attorney Los Angeles can help immigrants discover how to register for this program. To be eligible, you must register between the specified dates. Those lucky 55,000 that are chosen will be from countries that have low immigration rates into the United States. The U.S. State Department considers a five-year period when determining immigration rates.

A Peer Into The Past

Any knowledgeable green card lawyer Los Angeles will tell you that 55,000 may seem like a very big number. However, the odds of getting chosen aren’t so great. The visa lottery that was held for the fiscal year of 2021 received a total of 6,741,128 qualified applications. Most who received permanent residence were from Algeria, Russia, Iran, and Egypt.

As you learned above, these green cards are distributed to immigrants who currently reside in countries with low immigration rates into the United States. The U.S. State Department narrows down their list of acceptable countries into a list of six regions. All six of these regions show a historically low rate of immigration. Your legal immigration help Los Angeles should be able to reveal which countries are most likely to be awarded green cards.

Eligibility Requirements

To apply for the visa lottery, you have to meet some specific eligibility requirements. It can help to talk with a green card attorney Los Angeles to get legal help for permanent residency. The list of requirements is as follows:

• You must be born in a qualified country.
• You must have a high school diploma or equivalent education. Or, you need at least two years of work experience in a field that requires at least two years of training.

Your green card attorney Los Angeles can inform you that there are some specific countries that are not eligible for the visa lottery. These include Pakistan, Mexico, Nigeria, India, Honduras, Haiti, Guatemala, El Salvador, China, Canada, Brazil, Bangladesh, and Columbia. Your legal help for permanent residency can explain whether or not your home country makes you ineligible for the visa lottery.

It’s highly recommended by any green card lawyer Los Angeles to apply for the lottery visa as soon as possible. It’s very common for immigrants to wait until the last minute. This overloads the application system and can result in an inability to apply before the deadline. Your permanent residency attorney Los Angeles will reveal that the U.S. State Department doesn’t accept any late applications, regardless of whether you had digital problems with your application or not. Your legal immigration help Los Angeles specialist will reinforce the fact that you may only submit one entry per registry period. 

Contact our immigration lawyer in Los Angeles today.