Immigrant Visas

Visa Lottery (Diversity Visa)

The congressionally-mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State.  Each year, 50,000 permanent resident visas are made available to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. Applicants for Diversity Visas are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing. The visas, however, are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.  To apply for a Diversity Visa you must submit your application electronically on the website. No fee is required for registration.  Winning applicants are notified by mail and not by email or other method.

The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. Applicants for Diversity Visas are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing. The visas, however, are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.  To apply for a Diversity Visa you must submit your application electronically on the . .  Winning applicants are notified by mail and by email or other method.

The application period for the 2009 Diversity Visa Program begins October 3, 2007 and will end December 2, 2007.

Additional information on the Diversity Visa Immigrant Program is available on the State Department Web site: 2009 Diversity Visa Lottery Instructions.

Warning against Diversity Visa Lottery scams 

The Diversity visa program (DV) lottery is handled by the Department of State. The registration period for the 2009 is open from October 3, 2007 to December 2, 2007. Selected DV lottery winners are contacted via letter by the Kentucky Consular Center KCC.

There are serveral websites falsely appearing as government sites. These sites seek to appear legitimate by using official indicators such as Department of State logos, American flags and well known names etc These sites often offer links to genuine United States Government web sites.  

Some visa scammers claim to be able to guarantee that applicants will win the diversity visa lottery, and most of these scams require prepayment for their services. All official U.S. government websites end in“.gov”. The Registration for the DV lottery is free on the Department of State web site www.dvlottery.state.gov .

For more information you can visit the following websites:
Federal Trade Commission warning on Diversity visa fraud http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt003.htm and the Department of state website: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1749.html 

If you have any question concerning the DV lottery please contact the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Algiers

Tel: 213-21-691255
Fax:213-21-691439
Consularalgiers@state.gov