The National Visa Center in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire has registered the winners of the
DV-98 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted
under the regulations of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act and makes available 55,000 permanent resident
visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration
to the United States. Almost 100,000 applicants have been registered
and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant
visa.
Since it is likely that some
of the first 55,000 persons registered will not pursue their
cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that
all DV-98 numbers will be used.
Applicants registered for the DV-98
program were selected at random from the approximately 4.7 million
qualified entries received during the one-month application
period which ran from February 3, 1997 through noon on March
5, 1997. An additional
1.3 million applications received inside the mail-in period
were disqualified for failing to properly follow directions
. [21% of applications submitted were disqualified]
.
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The visas have been apportioned among six
geographic regions with a maximum of 3,850 visas (7% of the
55,000 total) available to persons born in any single country.
During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide
proof of a high school education or its equivalent, or show
two years of work experience in an occupation that requires
at least two years of training or experience within the past
five years. Those selected will need to act on their immigrant
visa applications quickly. Applicants should follow the instructions
in their notification letter and must fully complete the information
requested.
Registrants living in the United
States who wish to apply for adjustment of their status must
contact the Immigration and Naturalization Service nearest to
their place of residence. Once the total 55,000 visa numbers
have been used, the program for fiscal year 1998 will end. Selected
applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 1998 will
derive no further benefit from their DV-98 registration. Similarly,
spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-98
principals are only entitled to derivative DV status until September
30, 1998. Only participants in the DV-98 program who were selected
for further processing have been notified. Those who have not
received notification should assume their names were not selected.The
application period for next year's DV-99 lottery will be October
24, 1997 to November 24, 1997.
The following is the statistical breakdown
by foreign state chargeability of those registered for the DV-98
program :
-
(ACCORDING TO THE U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE September 10, 1997)[Emphasis added]
