Press Release
2009 Diversity Visa Lottery

The U.S. Department of State has officially announced the start of the 2009 Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery.  This unique program offers an opportunity to receive an immigrant visa to the United States (Green Card) for natives of most counties, including Israel, who are selected through a world-wide lottery.   Registration will begin on October 3, 2007 and continue until December 2, 2007.  The entire lottery will be conducted electronically and applications must be submitted online at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov.  Additional information is also available on the Embassy’s website (http://israel.usembassy.gov).

To be eligible, an applicant must be native of one of the countries eligible (Israel is a participating country in the program, but Russia is not) and meet basic education or work requirements.  You must have either a high school education (defined as successful completion of twelve years of education comparable to a U.S. high school degree) or two years of work experience in the past five years in a specialty occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience.

We encourage interested individuals to thoroughly review the program requirements and process on the website.   There is no fee to enter the lottery and applications can be submitted either directly by the individual or by a designated agent following simple instructions.  The selection of winners is made at random.  No outside service can improve an applicant’s chances of being chosen or can guarantee an entry will win. Applicants may choose to use outside assistance but should avoid consultants or services that charge high fees and make unrealistic claims.  Applicants should be warned that some consultants or services have accepted large amounts of money and not followed proper procedures, which has led in the past to disqualification of otherwise legitimate lottery winners.

Please note that entries lacking the required information or photos for the applicant and all the dependents (spouse and children under 21 years of age, including natural as well as legally adopted children, even if they do not intend to immigrate with you) will be rejected by the registration website or disqualified during a later stage of processing.

We suggest applicants register early in the process, as applications will not be accepted after noon EST on December 2 under any circumstances.

Countries that send large numbers of immigrants to the United States are ineligible to participate in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.  These countries include: Brazil, Canada, China (mainland born),Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Korea, the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.