US Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery gears up
Regional-USA, International, 8/27/1998

The United States has announced the guidelines for entering its 2000 Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery for 1998. The lottery will make available a total of 50,000 permanent residence visas, divided by region with no more than 3,500 visas being distributed to any individual country in a single year. More visas are allotted to regions with lower immigration.

The lottery will be open only to entries received between noon October 1, 1998 and noon October 31, 1998. All other entries will be disqualified. Applicants are limited to one entry each, which must be signed by the entrant, preferably in the entrant's native alphabet.

Registered applicants will be notified within about six months from the registration dates. There is no fee for submitting a registration request. Only those who are actually chosen and processed for visas will have to pay fees, as well as regular visa fees.

To enter, an applicant must be able to claim nativity in an eligible country, and either have a high school diploma or equivalent, or two years of work experience within the past five years at a job that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform.

Countries that are not eligible for this year's lottery are Canada, China (mainland and Taiwan, except Hong Kong S.A.R.), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

On a plain piece of paper, entrants should write out in the English alphabet:

Their full name, underlining the family name.

The date (date, month, year) and place (City/Town, District/County/Province, Country) of their birth, using the country's current name, as well as similar information for spouses and children.

Their native country, if different from place of birth.

Their full mailing address, which will be used for any communications. Inclusion of a telephone number is optional.

Their photograph, attached to the entry form with clear tape. Photos should be less than six months old if possible.

Their signature.

Entries must be mailed by regular or air mail in an envelope between 6 and 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) long and 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 inches (9 to 11 cm) wide. The upper left hand corner of the envelope must display the applicant's country of nativity, name and full return address. Applications are sent to the same address with zip codes varying by region. According to the US State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs, "Africa includes all countries on the African continent and adjacent islands; Asia extends from Israel to the northern Pacific islands, and includes Indonesia."

Applicants from Africa (Including Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, and Tunisia) should mail their entries to:

DV-2000 Program
National Visa Center
Portsmouth, NH 00213
U.S.A.

Applicants from Asia (Including Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen) should mail their entries to:

DV-2000 Program
National Visa Center
Portsmouth, NH 00210
U.S.A.

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