1998 Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery; United States IMMIGRATION
The 1998 lottery has expired. Click |HERE|
to read about the 1999 visa lottery.
1998 Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery
Prepared by JEFFREY A. DEVORE, Attorney at Law, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
- The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program provides foreign nationals a way to
immigrate to the United States that does not require the sponsorship of a
family member or employer.
The program is commonly referred to as the "Green
Card Lottery" and is administered by the U.S. Department of State.
- The purpose
of this page is to advise you about the program in the event you or someone
you know would like to participate.
-
The lottery is designed to benefit natives of "low admission" countries from
which immigration was lower than 50,000 over the preceding five years.
The
Immigration and Naturalization Service determines which countries are "low
admission" and "high admission."
To be eligible to participate in the lottery,
an alien must not only be a native of a designated state, but must also have at
least a high school education or its equivalent, or have worked at least two
years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or
experience
- An alien is considered to be a native of the country in which he or she is
born.
Citizenship is not determinative.
However, an alien ineligible solely
due to country of birth who is the spouse of an otherwise eligible alien may
also register under the "cross-chargablilty" provisions of the program.
Additionally, an alien's spouse and dependent children under the age of 21 are
also included should the alien's application be selected.
Children under age
18 without a high school diploma or equivalent should not register as they are
precluded from obtaining an immigrant visa due to the educational requirements
- The Immigration and Naturalization Service has determined that the following
countries are "high admission" countries and its natives are therefore excluded
from participation in this year's program:
- Canada
- Colombia
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- India
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Philippines
-
Poland
- China (Mainland)
- Taiwan
- South Korea
- Vietnam
- United Kingdom
- While natives of the United Kingdom and its dependent territories are
ineligible, natives of Hong Kong and Northern Ireland are eligible to
participate.
Further, no country may receive more than seven percent (3,850)
of the available visas.
The registration period commences at Noon on Monday,
February 3, 1997 and closes at Noon, Wednesday, March 5, 1997.
Applications
submitted outside the registration window will be rejected.
Only one
application may be submitted by each applicant
-
Once all eligible applications have been registered, a computer will randomly
select approximately 100,000 persons (including registered aliens and their
dependent family members).
The Department of State has selected this number to
ensure that all available visas are issued as they cannot be "carried forward"
to the next fiscal year.
Issuance of visas under this program will begin on
October 1, 1997.
- IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS PROGRAM IS A LOTTERY AND MUST BE
CONSIDERED AS SUCH.
SIMPLY PUT, IT IS A LONGSHOT.
THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF
BEING SELECTED AND ULTIMATELY OBTAINING AN IMMIGRANT VISA
Prepared by: Jeffrey A. Devore, P.A.
1555 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard,
Suite 1501,
West Palm Beach, Florida 33401
Tel.: (561) 478-5353, Fax: (561) 478-2144 e-mail: jdevore@visabank.com
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